Friday: Bilt Disappoints, Coverd Gives Bilt a Challenge for Most Complicated Program, Wyndham Disappoints, Random Numerology, and Capital One Spark Cash

1. On July 1, Bilt will have a transfer bonus to Hilton Honors between 75% and 175% based on status, with the bonus on a maximum of 100,000 points. They’ll also have increased gift card redemptions between 25% and 100%, also based on status. Both might sound good on paper, but neither is a great value in practice.
   
   Side note: When 🙄 won’t do, there’s this.
   
2. Coverd is a weird Visa consumer credit card that secured $7.8 million in funds by big names in venture capital. Some details:
   
   – Earn rate varies hourly (!)
   – There are varying 3-minute (!) “surge windows” for even bigger earning
   – Earn rate depends on transaction size, with 4 bands (!)
   – Boosted earn rates are limited to one transaction, until that category’s rates change (!)
   – Your monthly earn limit is based on last month’s spend
   – You can’t earn more than your points cap, which is variable
   – The value of points isn’t published, but seems to be 0.5 cents per point
   
   The best part? And I’m not making this up, their press talking points include the sentence: “traditional credit card rewards have become outdated with complicated points systems … Coverd aims to change that with a transparent rewards model“. Nice. (Thanks to David)
   
3. Wyndham is devaluing redemptions for new bookings on September 15. Awards will have four price bands: 5,000, 15,000, 30,000, or 45,000 points nightly. RIP Scandinavia I guess, and it’s time to think seriously about whether or not you still want to hold a Wyndham credit card.
   
4. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Mastercard has an 80,000 mile sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in three months, and the $99 annual fee is waived for the first year.
   
   This offer comes from an in-flight promotion and requires a six digit promo code. A random code like 000000 works (yes, technically 000000 could be a random number).
   
5. The Capital One Spark Cash card has an increased sign-up bonus of $1,000 after $10,000 spend in three months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year.
   
   This “business” card will report to your personal credit report, and miles can transfer from this card to Venture X cards.
   
6. Kroger fuel points can now be redeemed for groceries at a flat one cents per point in $10 increments, but only $10 per day so call it a slog at best.

Have a nice weekend, friends!

The Coverd office motto.