Bilt, a company best known (according to me) for inadvertently advertising how to abuse their program just weeks after sending a “you’re shutdown” email followed by a “j/k j/k” email to a bunch of cardholders, added Japan Airlines Milage Bank as a 1:1 transfer partner yesterday
The landing page for the linking your Bilt and JAL accounts includes the language:
“If your JAL Mileage Bank account is less than 60 days old, there will be up to a 7 day hold before you can use JAL miles to book travel.”
It turns out that Bilt is inadvertently teaching us another lesson, which is that unseasoned accounts can often cause you to be unable to use your miles until your account is old enough or until you jump through hoops like:
- Verifying your credit card at the airport before you can check-in
- Requiring you to book a ticket for yourself before booking for a group
- Waiting days for verification of the first incoming transfer of miles
- Convincing someone to unlock your account after a second incoming transfer
Having older accounts with some activity mitigates these problems, so when you do your churning spring cleaning, consider seasoning mileage accounts that you may use in the future.
Happy Wednesday!
Seasoning on Southwest hits different.