I kind of rolled my eyes when TAP Portugal was announced as the Rent Day transfer bonus for Bilt. I knew TAP charges a ton of miles for their business class and sometimes their economy flights too. Not exciting on the surface.
But this is a 100% transfer bonus. That's where things can get interesting.
I'm Gold status right now and I'm actually thinking about buying up to Platinum status with $150 Bilt Cash just for this bonus.
How the Bilt Transfer Bonus Scales by Status
The transfer bonus is scaled based on what Bilt status you have and the transfer bonus is for June 1, 2026 only.
Two Things Make This Deal Work
There are two parts to making any award redemption worth it. The redemption rate has to be reasonable, and the award availability has to actually be there.
I live on the West Coast, and getting from the West Coast over to Europe is not easy. If you live in New York or on the East Coast or in the Midwest, it's a little easier. There are a lot more frequent flights. Out here, it's much further, and we don't have a ton of options, especially a ton of good options for good deals. So that's where I find value in this. If you're on the East Coast you might not feel the same way. But this is what I'm finding.
The Math: 15,000 Bilt Points to Lisbon in Economy and Business
You can find economy flights from the US over to Lisbon for 29,000 TAP Portugal miles, or business class for 145,000 TAP Portugal miles. On its own, that doesn't sound like a good deal.
Stack the 100% transfer bonus on top of that and you essentially cut those redemption rates in half.
15,000 Bilt points to cross the Atlantic in economy beats Flying Blue promo rewards. It beats a lot of other redemption options to get over there. Not many airlines can offer that, even with a transfer bonus on the table. And the taxes and fees come in at $30.60 from the West Coast over to Lisbon. You can find this from Chicago, New York, Miami, or Orlando too.
The Bilt Card Powering This Strategy
Bilt Palladium Card1
Business Class to Europe for 73,000 Points
Now for business class. 145,000 TAP Portugal miles is what you need. Transfer 73,000 Bilt points with the 100% transfer bonus and you have more than enough TAP miles to book that business class flight.
73,000 Bilt points in business class to fly to Europe is a solid deal. Air Canada charges between 60,000 to 90,000 Aeroplan points. United charges somewhere in the 60,000 to 80,000 range. So 73,000 Bilt points is right in line with those programs, and that 100% transfer bonus is what gets you there.
Current Transfer Bonuses to TAP Portugal
Award Availability Is Actually There
This is not hard to book either. I was just poking around random dates in April, which is when I'm considering going (it's when it starts to get warmer and nicer outside), and you can easily find award availability into April and May too. In some cases, you can find three seats or more.
So 290,000 TAP miles divided by two is 145,000 TAP miles per person, and with that 100% transfer bonus you can really find a good deal. Multiple business class seats, award availability on multiple dates. Not a needle in a haystack type of thing.
That's where I find a lot of value in this, especially flying from the West Coast over to Europe nonstop.
Don't Want to Go to Portugal? Add Another European City
Say you don't want to go to Portugal. You can add on a connection. Instead of Lisbon, you can go to Athens, and in some cases the economy redemption stays the same. The business class redemption stays the same too. Same rate, same amount of miles.
Some of these layovers are kind of long, but you can take that long layover and go check out Lisbon for a couple hours, then come back and fly over to Athens. Award availability isn't difficult to find. You do have to pay a little bit more in taxes and fees, but they don't charge you more in points.
The Thing Most People Don't Realize About TAP Award Space
A lot of people don't realize this, but the award availability that shows up on TAP Portugal doesn't show up on any other Star Alliance partner. So you can't find it on Air Canada. United might have the economy ticket, but they might be charging you 40,000 to 50,000 miles for that same exact flight. For business class, they often don't even see the award availability.
That's the unique thing about this. Booking through TAP Portugal and using TAP Portugal miles opens up more award availability. Combined with the 100% transfer bonus, you can really get a high value redemption out of this.
My Take
A lot of people on Reddit are going to complain that this transfer bonus isn't exciting. There's always room to maximize. If this fits your situation and you find it useful, redeem your points that way. You get to travel the way that you want to and redeem points in the way that you find value.
This is not the Japan Airlines Bilt transfer bonus from a couple months ago. But for West Coast travelers in particular, I think this is still pretty solid.
If you have Platinum status, take a hard look. If you have Gold like me, do the math on whether buying up to Platinum makes sense for the redemption you're planning. And if you're sitting at Blue or Silver, the bonus alone probably isn't worth chasing.
Bottom Line
15,000 Bilt points and $30.60 to fly economy from the US to Lisbon. 73,000 Bilt points to fly business class. Award availability is actually there, including multiple seats on the same date. That's a deal worth using if it fits where you want to go.
Watch the full video above for the walkthrough, and if you're not sure how Bilt 2.0 actually earns points on your rent or mortgage, check out my full breakdown next.
