Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 39 seconds

Good morning from Pittsburgh, PA! While I daydream about my next flight, here are some tips to help you book yours:

• ✈️ Up to 100% transfer bonus to Virgin (tomorrow only)

• 🍽️ Rove launches a new app, dining platform, and more

• 🧁 What if cravings aren’t your fault?

✈️ Up to 100% transfer bonus to Virgin (tomorrow only)

Bilt Rewards is out with another mediocre Rent Day promo… But for the right person with the right Bilt balance and the right redemption, it could be extremely valuable.

Tomorrow only (September 1), you can get a 25-100% transfer bonus from Bilt Rewards to Virgin Atlantic.

The transfer bonus amount is tiered based on your level of Bilt status, which includes members with no status.

Here’s the breakdown:

That means that you can all get a 25% bonus to Virgin tomorrow. Bilt Platinum members can also use $200 of Bilt Cash to get a one-time boost to a 100% transfer bonus tomorrow.

Oh, and you can only transfer up to 150,000 points total. That part probably doesn’t apply to most people, but worth keeping in mind.

But the reason I’m not super excited is that we see very frequent transfer bonuses from ALL banks to Virgin ranging from 30-40%, usually valid for weeks or over a month.

I’d also argue that transferring Bilt Points with no bonus to partners like Atmos Rewards, JAL, or Hyatt is more valuable than transferring to Virgin with a 25% or 50% bonus.

All that being said, Virgin is still an awesome program with some solid redemption opportunities.

How to use Virgin miles for good value

The obvious use of Virgin miles is for Virgin itself, which flies between the U.S. and U.K. for as few as 6,000 miles in economy, 10,500 in premium economy, or 29,000 miles in business class:

Shaving even 25% off of those prices is great… but shaving 100% off for top-tier Bilt elites is an absolute no-brainer.

But Virgin is also a good program for partner airlines like Delta.

Last week in my article about flying to Italy for Thanksgiving, I told you about a redemption I found from Seattle to Amsterdam (on Delta) for 30,000 Virgin miles.

That’s just 24,000 Bilt points with a 25% bonus, or as few as 15,000 points with the full 100% one.

Here are some other quick-hit use cases for Virgin miles:

• Flying KLM and Air France on short hops around Europe

• Flying around Asia on airlines like Garuda, China Airlines, Korean Air, and more

• Flying around Africa on Kenya Airways

The bottom line

Virgin miles are great and transfer bonuses are great. But this one is leaving me a little underwhelmed.

Still, it’s another reason you should consider getting a Bilt card and racking up some points.

When a more appealing transfer bonus comes around, you’ll be happy you did. 😉

🍽️ Rove launches a new app, dining platform, and more

Rove just announced some big news: they’ve officially got an app now. Plus, they just added some new features to the overall program.

The headline is Rove Dining, which lets you earn Rove miles at restaurants just for paying with a linked card.

First, the app

Rove is on iOS now, with a public beta for Android.

There’s not a ton to say other than that it’s basically normal Rove but a little more convenient.

Rove Dining is the real news

You can now link credit cards to your Rove account, eat at a participating restaurant, pay with that card like you normally would, and earn a crap load of Rove Miles.

That's the whole thing… it’s straightforward, but potentially very rewarding since it stacks with your existing credit card points.

For example, there are tons of restaurants in New York City that earn up to 12x Rove Miles.

If you link this card to Rove (which earns 4x MR points at restaurants worldwide up to $50,000 per calendar year), a $100 dinner could earn you 1,200 Rove Miles and 400 MR points on the same meal.

If you do this on a regular basis (at home, traveling, expensive meals, cheap meals), those points can really add up.

What else is new

• Tens of thousands of new hotels, higher earning rates, and Loyalty Eligible rates at roughly 99% of eligible chain properties

• Cleaner hotel bookings with more accurate room configurations

• Gift cards where the miles post instantly, which is perfect for topping off an award redemption

• Chrome and Safari extensions with thousands more stores, so you don't have to start your shopping on Rove's site

The bottom line

It’s nice to see Rove upping their game again. There’s nothing ground-breaking here, but I’ll definitely be leveraging that dining program while I’m here in the U.S.!

Oh… And if you don't have a Rove account, you'll get 1,000 Rove miles instantly for signing up through our link. 🤝

That’s all for today, amigos! Take care, go earn lots of points, and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.

Ciao,

40.4406° N, 79.9959° W

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.