November 6, 2025
Maximize Your Rewards: Convert Rakuten Cash Back into Bilt Points
Jess
Online shoppers, rejoice! You can now turn your Rakuten cash-back rewards into Bilt points. This new option comes just in time for Black Friday, too.
The best part? You don’t need to hold a Bilt Card to take advantage of this partnership.
How to Earn Bilt Points with Rakuten
Without a Bilt card, earning status isn’t very easy.
If you have Silver, Gold, or Platinum status with Bilt, continuing to earn Rakuten cash back in the form of Bilt points is likely a no-brainer given the number of excellent Bilt transfer partners.
Bilt Transfer Partners
Airlines (all 1:1 transfer ratio)
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air France/KLM
- Atmos Rewards (Alaska Airlines & Hawaiian Airlines)
- Avianca
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- Qatar Airways
- Southwest Airlines
- TAP
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
- Virgin Red/Virgin Atlantic
Hotels
- Accor (3:2)
- Hilton (1:1)
- Hyatt (1:1)
- IHG (1:1)
- Marriott (1:1)
In fact, the only partners that American Express has that Bilt doesn’t are Aeromexico, ANA, Choice Privileges, Delta, JetBlue, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines. Of course, we are massive Hyatt loyalists, so the ability to transfer cash back from Rakuten to Bilt and then out to Hyatt is a huge win for us (even if it’s only for six months).
Don’t Have a Rakuten Account?
What are you waiting for? From now until December 31, 2025, you can join, spend $50 within 90 days, and get $50 back by using our link! That’s 5,000 Bilt points that you could then transfer to a partner like Hyatt. 😉
What are your thoughts on the Rakuten x Bilt partnership? Will you be switching over the way you earn cash back?
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Thanks for the explanation! Do you know if we’ll actually be able to switch back to MR? I’ve heard if you switch to cash you can’t go back to MR. It’s giving me pause about changing to Bilt. Thanks!
On Reddit from Rakuten:
When earning American Express Membership RewardsPoints, Rakuten accounts are connected to American Express Membership Rewards accounts directly and not to a specific Amex card. As long as they have one eligible credit card active, no action will need to be taken on their part to continue to earn MR Points through Rakuten (AKA Update payment settings, etc.)
Also, you are allowed to toggle from earning MR Points to Cash Back and vice versa as many times as you like. We no longer have any built-in limitations stopping you from updating your payment settings to one type any number of times anymore.
I am trying to link my Rakuten account through my Bilt app and I don’t see anywhere an option to link Rakuten, just to link credit cards. Any help is appreciated.
It should be under the “Rewards” > “Everyday rewards” tab in the Bilt app. If you don’t see it there I would try updating your app then see if it’s there. You could also try this link: https://www.biltrewards.com/p/rakuten