Bilt Rewards is apologizing for an erroneous and alarming email sent to some (but not all) members Wednesday afternoon that their accounts had been abruptly closed and their points would be liquidated.
In an email addressed to individual members sent early Wednesday afternoon with the subject line “Bilt Rewards Account Status,” the company that rewards renters for their monthly payments said it was terminating accounts for “sustained misconduct and wrongdoing.”
“We have reason to believe that behavior on your account demonstrates an intent to engage in sustained misconduct and wrongdoing in connection to the program,” the email stated. “This letter serves as formal notice of the closure of your Bilt Rewards Membership and, effective immediately, the forfeiture of any remaining Bilt points.”
Roughly 20 minutes later, the same users received a follow-up email to disregard the earlier alert. The apology? Just 250 Bilt Rewards points. Those bonus points have already been deposited into affected users' accounts.
It's unclear exactly how widespread the issue was – and whether it extended only to *Bilt Mastercard* or other members, too.
Bilt representative Richard Kerr declined to put a number on how many members received the startling email, saying only it went to a “small subsection of our membership.” The company faulted a “bad email filter” for the issue.
But Reddit groups and other forums immediately lit up with panicked travelers who received that email Wednesday afternoon, including some who tried to salvage their points by immediately sending their entire balance to a Bilt transfer partner like Hyatt or redeeming them toward a statement credit.
Kerr said anyone who redeemed points as a result of Wednesday's snafu can submit a customer support ticket to have the transfer or redemption reversed.
That's a tricky and often incredibly time-consuming process, as transferring points is typically a one-way street: Once you send them from a bank currency like Bilt to a partner program, you can't get them back. Exceptions are rare.
But one such exception cropped up late last year, after Air France and KLM decided not to honor some too-good-to-be-true business class awards to Europe for as low as 1,500 miles each way. Even after the airlines' Flying Blue program announced it would help travelers who transferred points get them back, it took a month or more for those reversals to process – and some are still waiting.
Only time will tell how long it takes Bilt's customer service team to move points back to the affected member's accounts, but history shows it's won't be a quick process. Hopefully, it's done before next big Bilt Rent Day transfer bonus.
This is a developing news story, check back for updates.
