Bilt Rewards announced a significant enhancement to its rewards program by adding Japan Airlines’ JAL Mileage Bank as its newest transfer partner.
Heads up, Bilt members: beginning May 13, 2025, you can transfer your points to JAL Mileage Bank at a favorable 1:1 ratio, with most transfers zipping through in about 10 minutes.
This partnership is a pretty big deal for Bilt members, mainly because you can’t currently transfer points to Japan Airlines from any other major transferable currency program.
Before this, your best bet for getting points to JAL Mileage Bank was through Marriott Bonvoy, and that was at a less attractive 3:1 ratio.
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A unique addition to Bilt’s transfer partner lineup
The addition of Japan Airlines really strengthens Bilt’s hand in the competitive transferable points market. Bilt built its reputation by letting you earn points on rent payments, primarily through its no-annual-fee Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card.
With the card, you’ll earn 1 point per dollar on rent (up to 100,000 points annually) without transaction fees, as long as you make at least five transactions per statement period.
If not, you’ll still get a flat 250 points when you pay rent through the Bilt app or website with your card. When choosing a credit card, make sure it offers rewards that align with your lifestyle — whether that’s travel, groceries, or in Bilt’s case, rent.
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Special exception for new JAL Mileage Bank members
JAL Mileage Bank usually stops new members from booking awards during their first 60 days. Good news, though: Bilt secured a special exception for its members.
After transferring points, Bilt members only need to wait up to seven days before redeeming miles, even if that 60-day clock hasn’t fully run out for their new JAL account.
Still, if this sounds good to you, it’s smart to create a JAL Mileage Bank account right away to get that 60-day countdown started, even if you don’t have immediate travel plans.
Valuable redemption opportunities with JAL
This new partnership unlocks several attractive ways to use your points, including flights on Japan Airlines itself, its Oneworld alliance partners, and even non-alliance partners like Emirates.
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Direct flights between the U.S. and Tokyo
Japan Airlines, known for its exceptional service quality, operates flights from multiple U.S. cities to Tokyo, think Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego. JAL offers first-class cabins on select aircraft, plus business, premium economy, and economy options.
Here’s a key advantage: JAL’s award pricing for flights between Tokyo and North America starts at the same price regardless of your departure city.
That makes it equally appealing whether you’re flying from the East Coast or West Coast.
Act before price increases in June 2025
Heads up: JAL has announced award price increases effective June 10, 2025. While most changes are modest, first-class redemptions will see a significant jump:
- Economy: Increasing from 25,000 to 27,000 miles
- Premium economy: Rising from 32,500 to 40,000 miles
- Business class: Changing from 50,000 to 55,000 miles
- First class: Jumping substantially from 70,000 to 110,000 miles
You’ll want to transfer your Bilt points by June 1, 2025 to snag award seats at current prices. This gives you a buffer for that potential seven-day waiting period before you can book.
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Partner flight redemptions offer exceptional value
As a Oneworld alliance member, JAL lets you book awards on partner airlines, including familiar names like Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas. You can also access non-alliance partners such as Air France, Emirates, Korean Air, and LATAM.
For these partner awards, JAL uses a distance-based chart. This can mean tremendous value, especially for long-haul flights. For instance, a round-trip Emirates business-class flight from New York to Dubai could be yours for 110,000 miles.
The value proposition gets even better for really long itineraries because the miles needed don’t just double with the distance. For example, Oneworld partner first-class flights up to 10,000 miles cost 110,000 miles. But fly up to 20,000 miles, and it’s 170,000 mile, that’s just 55% more miles for double the distance.
Build complex itineraries with multiple stopovers
One of JAL Mileage Bank’s standout perks? It’s a generous stopover allowance. For awards on Oneworld partners, you can include up to seven stopovers per reservation. Non-alliance partner awards allow up to three.
This means you can craft some seriously complex multi-city trips that would cost a fortune in cash.
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Potential limitations to consider
Before you jump in and transfer points, keep these potential downsides in mind:
- JAL’s website can be tricky to use because of its outdated design.
- You can’t change award tickets for JAL’s own flights, and forget about upgrades on award bookings. If your plans change, you’ll have to cancel the ticket (paying a fee of around $22), get your miles back, and then rebook. However, partner awards are more flexible, allowing flight number and date changes.
- JAL is pretty strict about who you can book award travel for. It’s limited to blood relatives or those related by marriage, all within two degrees of kinship. Think grandparents, parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, and their spouses, plus your spouse’s immediate family.
Transfer strategically, not speculatively
Even with all these exciting redemption possibilities, it’s smart to avoid transferring your Bilt points to JAL Mileage Bank on a whim.
Wait until you have a specific trip in mind. Why? Because speculative transfers lock up your points and rob you of flexibility – and flexibility is a key perk of transferable currencies.
This is especially true because Bilt also partners with Alaska Airlines, another Oneworld member dishing out some valuable redemption options. Remember, once your points land in your JAL account, there’s no sending them back to Bilt to then pass on to Alaska if a better deal pops up.
So, while this new partnership certainly boosts Bilt Rewards’ appeal by unlocking unique Japan Airlines redemptions, make sure you’re ready to book before you transfer those hard-earned points.
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