Our Bilt Plan + Trip/Credit Score Updates!

We share how we’re reshaping our points and miles strategy after Hyatt devaluations, including new card moves and the reality of planning family travel when award space disappears. We also walk through our Italy and Switzerland pivot, plus a credit score rebound that lets us apply for new cards with confidence. 
• choosing the Bilt Palladium for the signup bonus and transfer partners 
• why we skip mortgage payments through Bilt for now 
• using Bilt cash to activate the 3x accelerator on planned spend 
• targeting Japan Airlines miles and watching hard expiration rules 
• adding Capital One Savor for uncapped 3x groceries 
• pending Wells Fargo Autograph Journey verification and what we’re sending 
• navigating Chase 5/24 and our plan to earn more Chase points via a business card 
• booking Hyatt stays before devaluation while keeping options open 
• dropping Lake Como due to missing standard award space for two rooms 
• deciding between Florence costs and a Switzerland-heavy itinerary 
• planning Rome with hotel openings still uncertain and building a backup 
• timing credit card applications after utilization drops and scores rebound above 800 
If you listened to last week's episode where I had our very first guest on, I would love feedback if you haven't already sent it. Find me on Instagram at travel party5, and we will catch you on the next episode. 

Transcript

Quick Updates And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In today's episode, we've got a few new credit cards. We opened a trip update and a credit score update. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

And I'm Dwayne.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family, but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

So welcome to our podcast where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Hello, friends.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Thanks for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Welcome back to Travel Party 5 Podcast. We don't have a super strict outline for today. I just had a couple of things that I wanted to talk about because I think it might be helpful. So one of those things is the built card that I just got, along with a couple of other cards that I recently applied for. And then I also don't think that I've shared this on the podcast yet. But with all of the Hyatt devaluations, I was really scrambling to try to book everything for all of our trips for the next like 13 months or so. And I was really struggling with our Italy and Switzerland trip. And maybe I did share a little bit about it, but um I'm just gonna give a few updates on that as well. Because I think as someone who likes to plan and have everything like planned out, things are still very much up in the air.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

And I mean, it looks completely different now, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

The trip, yeah. Like, yes, wildly different than how I wanted it to be. Um, which is fine. Um, I think it'll still be good. So we'll we'll talk about all of those things. Um, did you have anything you wanted to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Well, this is just one of those, you know, 85% of those episodes where I don't need to be here and I will provide no value to this. Uh that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

People message me all the time on Instagram and say here I am. They say that they appreciate your humor. I'm right here. So are you hearing the words coming out of my mouth? They think you're funny.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Oh thank you.

Why We Opened The Bilt Card

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Um, okay, so first and foremost, I applied for the built card. I'm not gonna give a whole rundown of all the built cards and the whatever, all the nuances of all of them, because we did an episode like that when they first announced it. However, I did decide to get the built card and I did want to talk through my plans for it because I know it's like confusing, but I have some people who I really trust who are like, this is actually a really good card, and I am listening to them. And um yeah, so okay, so the built built has three cards: the built blue, the built obsidian, and the built palladium. The one that I got is the palladium, which is the $495 annual fee card. And I got that one because it's the only one that has a signup bonus. So 50,000 points, uh, built points as a signup bonus. Once you spend $4,000 on the card. Here are my plans for this card. Keep in mind this used to be a card that people could use to pay their rent and earn points. And we never had rent, at least not in the last, I don't know, what, like nine, 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

So long time.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

We didn't have the card and we still we still don't have rent. But now you supposedly can pay your mortgage with it. However, the way that the mortgage payments work is it is you don't pay it with the card. So you do an ACH transaction from your bank account, and built essentially just facilitates that transaction and then gives you points on it, but you only get points on it if you like pay a fee, or sorry, that's not correct. You earn the points, but to get the points, you also pay like a transaction fee. And so we will not be using this to pay our mortgage at this point. I just think it's not worth it. Um, the other thing is after Bill rolled out the card initially, like the 2.0 version of the card, there was so much like I don't know what the word is, but people didn't like it. Okay. There was a lot of negativity. And so, like a day after their rollout, they basically came out with a second option for you for

Bilt Cash Options And The 3x Accelerator

SPEAKER_00 5:02

having the card. So when you have the card, you can choose every statement period between two different options. The first option is to um earn 4% back in built cash on everyday spend. And this is for all the built cards, when you select the flexible built cash option as your rewards like choice. And so essentially you would earn $50 of built cash for every 25,000 points you earn towards elite status. Okay. The other option is called like the housing only rewards. And so essentially you earn 1.25. If you choose that option for that statement period, you would earn 1.25x on your rent or mortgage payment. I'm not 100% sure how the fees work for that part because I didn't choose that part. So I chose the 4% built cash. Here is my plan for this card. If you are thinking of getting the card, I don't care about the mortgage. I'm not gonna do any of that unless I'm earning so much built cash that I don't know what to do with it. And then I will likely attempt to pay the mortgage and use some of that built cash to offset the fee. But the way that I am looking at this card is a 3x earning card that can transfer to both Japan Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Hyatt. Which one will we use? I don't know yet. I have a few thoughts. Let's talk about how I'm arriving at the 3X because it's really a 2x earning card. But then you can use your built cash to basically activate an accelerator, which will earn 3x on your next $5,000. And you can do that up to five times a year. And so I will be doing that five times this year. So five times five thousand dollars in spend each is $25,000 in spend, and that will earn me $55,000 built points, which again can go to Alaska, Japan Airlines, or Hyatt. On top of that, I will keep my racketon transfer ratio as one to one, and I will continue to send all my racketon cash back to built in the form of built points. So that is my plan for the rest of this year. So between the sign-up bonus and the 75,000 points that I'll earn from those accelerators, that puts me at 125,000 points. I have no idea how much built cash I will earn based on that, because I haven't done the math. But every I think most beginnings of the month, built has a transfer bonus. And another way that you can utilize built cash is to buy up to the next status level so that you can accelerate that transfer. So it might be like, you know, a one-to-one transfer to Japan Airlines, for example, and you could accelerate that to the next status level, which could give you um, like let's say it's a 25% transfer bonus, and then you want to bump up to the next level, so it could give you another 25%. So basically a 150% transfer bonus. That's just an example, but they just did one to Japan Airlines a couple months ago. And had I had the card, I would have likely sent all of my built points there because it was a 200 or it was 100% transfer bonus. So basically, if you transferred 10,000 miles, you got 20,000 Japan Airline miles. However, we didn't have that many built points at the time, so it really wouldn't have made much difference at that point. But now I have like 120,000 or so, and I'm gonna earn another 125,000 this year, give or take. So I'm excited about that. We absolutely could use the Alaska points, we could transfer them to JAL because we are going to go back to Japan in fall of 2027. That is the plan as of now. And so the booking window for that is gonna open in the next four to six months, depending on whether we're talking hotels or airlines. And so now is the time that I need to be thinking about how we're gonna get there, what points, currencies, do we need, and making sure that we have enough. And if we don't have enough, coming up with a strategy to earn those points in the next three to four months, so that I have them waiting in my account to book something come September or October.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Do they expire?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Which ones built?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yes, or if you transfer them to Japan.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

They do actually. Well, if I transfer them to Japan Airlines, they do expire. They have a hard 36-month expiration window.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Oh, that's a long time, though.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

It is a long time. But I mean, I also could see that being a detriment because you know, if it if a trip gets canceled, you know, I don't know, it could be annoying. But yeah, it's it's still a decent amount of time, but there's no

Our Japan Points Strategy And Expiration

SPEAKER_00 10:20

way to extend their expiration date or anything like that, like there are with other programs. So Hyatt, I don't believe the points ever expire, but and maybe these points would go to Hyatt because um we don't have any more chase points. I sent them all to Hyatt and I use them all to book hotels in Italy. We'll talk about that here in a moment. It made me a little nauseous, a lot nauseous, actually. But okay, so that's my plan for the built card. My plan is use the built cash to buy up to uh the point, the 3X points accelerator. I'm gonna do that five times throughout the rest of this year. And I did it actually when I started working on the sub, the signup bonus. So I you get $400 built cash automatically when you sign up for the palladium card. So it was already in my account. And so I activated the I used the I think it was $200 to activate the 3X. So not only am I meeting the signup bonus, but I'm also activating this accelerator at the same time. So I've stacked them basically. And so that's great, and I'm gonna do it again once I've spent $5,000. The other card that I opened recently is a Capital One card, and it is not the venture business or whatever that everyone is getting. I got the Capital One saver card, which is a no annual fee card. They gave it to me with no sign-up bonus, but I took it because it's 3x uncapped on grocery spend, and that is important to me at this time. We are, again, this is part of my plan for Japan. Uh, Capital One also transfers to Japan Airlines. And so I am racking up the Capital One miles and I'm racking up the built miles in the hopes of getting us enough. Because I want to fly us business class both ways.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

It will be super nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

It will be super nice. We're probably gonna have to fly on a different plane, at least one

New Cards And The 5/24 Plan

SPEAKER_00 12:22

of the ways. There's one more card that I applied for that I don't have an answer on yet and potentially may not get. I don't know. Um, but I applied for the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card because they have a 60,000-point signup bonus and they transfer one to two to choice hotels. And for summer, our summer trip next year, I want to go to Norway and Denmark, and there are no Hyattes. Dwayne was even looking up Hyatt's the other day, and he's like, Why can't I find any? And I'm like, Because there aren't any up there. So it's kind of crazy because we actually have no plans to stay at any Hyattes for the beginning half of next year, other than one weekend trip we booked to Costa Rica before the devaluation. So that feels weird to me with having Hyatt status. We'll have to fit in something. Oh, and my Wells Fargo application went pending, and I just got a letter in the mail yesterday asking me for identity verification documents, except they gave me an email or a fax to send these documents to, but they didn't say what documents to send. So I'm gonna send my driver's license and I'm just gonna hope that I that's good enough because I don't really know what they're looking for. I read the letter twice. It in nowhere, nowhere in there does it specify what documents to send. Just weird. Isn't that weird? It just says where to send them. So I'm gonna do it, but we'll see. I don't know. I don't have high hopes for that one, but these cards took me well over 524. They're all personal cards, and I feel okay about that because I have a good amount of chase cards, and my strategy for the next six months is actually to get Dwayne under 524, which should happen here in the next few weeks. And I'm gonna apply him for a Chase business card. I am anticipating that he will not get approved and that we will have to call reconsideration, but you only have one Chase business card. That's it. So I feel like calling reconsideration is gonna be pretty easy because they're gonna be like, oh, you only have one. Sure. This is my plan. This is also my plan to get more chase points because I have sent them all to Hyatt and we have almost none left. I have a lot of Amex points though. You do have a lot of Amex points, yes. Correct.

Hyatt Devaluation Pressure And Booking Rush

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Let's talk about the Italy-Switzerland trip because I got to the point where I had to ask you to like listen to my options because I couldn't, I was like going just back and forth in circles in my brain, trying to find a way to make all these puzzle pieces fit, and I I was so overwhelmed. And there was a time limit, there was a time constraint because I needed to get everything booked before the Hyatt devaluation. So here's what we ended up doing. I booked some Hyattes using chase points, obviously. And I don't know if we're going to stay in them or not, but I felt okay transferring uh all my chase points to Hyatt because I know that eventually they will get used and they will not expire and they will not go to waste. So and I don't really use chase points for anything else because we have so many Amex points, so there really was no opportunity cost for me. I pretty much use all those points for Hyatt, so I felt okay about that. But the way things stand originally the plan was do you want to tell them the plan?

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Um, yeah, if I remember it, we were gonna do four nights in Switzerland.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

And then from Switzerland go to Florence, Lake Como. Lake Cuomo. Um, and try and see George Clooney. Um, and then from there we would go to Florence. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

And from Florence to Rome.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah. Where we would fly out, where we're still flying out of.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yes, we have to make it to Rome because our flights out are from Rome. So that's non-negotiable. But the in the middle part is where I was struggling. So we will start in Switzerland and we will end in Rome. However, the nights that I needed in Lake Como were not available for standard room availability. I wanted to stay at the Grand Hotel Victoria, which is a Hilton. And I was gonna use free night certificates, but I also could use points. But either way, there was not standard uh award availability on the dates that we needed it. And I have had alerts set for months, and they are just not uh nothing is popping. And it's hard because we need two rooms there. So it's like I need the availability to open times two, which is an even slimmer chance. So we've essentially discarded Lake Como at this point. So then our choices were okay, we can either go directly from uh Switzerland to Florence, which I think is what we will end up doing, and just skip late Como altogether, or we were Which is like a six-hour train ride, right? To Florence. Yeah, yeah. Maybe even seven because you got to change trains a couple times from where we will be in Switzerland. So our options as as it stands now are we will either stay in Switzerland longer. So instead of four nights, we'll do six or seven and then go to Florence and then to Rome, or we will just do

Switzerland Versus Florence And Lake Como

SPEAKER_00 18:20

two different areas of Switzerland and then go directly to Rome. The reason being I love Florence, I've been there twice. I really want Duane and the kids to be able to go there as well. However, the time that we will be there is apparently the one of the most expensive times to visit Florence and Italy because the weather is great. It's end of September, beginning of October. All of the hotels are astronomical. I looked at FHR, I looked at the hotel collection, I looked at a lot of options because we have a lot of hotel credits that we could use. And even utilizing all the credits, I mean, these rooms are over a thousand dollars a night per room, and we need two. So and and to be clear, like they're not the prices are not like that, even at other peak times of the year. Like I had a friend who was there over the holidays and paid significantly less than what it's looking like for the week that we would be there. So I'm not sure if there's something else going on that week, but the prices are so high that I'm like, I think we just need to skip it. Like, I literally cannot make this work. I tried, I have some Marriott 50K certificates. I tried looking at those. I was like, well, what if we did an IHG and I bought the points? Nope, there's only one, first of all. Second of all, no, it was astronomical. So I think we just have to skip Florence this go-around and make it more of a Switzerland-focused trip to Italy another time. I mean, we'll still visit Rome and we'll be in Rome for a few days, so we'll still see, you know, Rome. But I think we just need to have an Italy-focused trip in the next couple of years. What do you I agree?

SPEAKER_02 20:14

I mean, yeah. I was just saying don't stress yourself out, even though it was too late for that. But you know, I'm fine with Switzerland.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah. Well, and someone um messaged me on Instagram, was so helpful with Switzerland. And she said, cancel Italy and spend your entire time in Switzerland and you will not regret it. Yep. And so that has also been living in the back of my head. And I've never been to Switzerland, but I have been to Italy twice. And so I actually feel pretty good about extending our time in Switzerland and just ending with a few days in Rome.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

And not to mention our Airbnb, super fancy.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

It's it looks, it's very nice, yeah. Um, so what we would do in Switzerland is a split stay basically because the uh the Airbnb is expensive and I currently have four nights booked, and I'd I'd really like to just keep it at four nights because of the cost. So I have us booked at a Hilton for the other three nights using points. So I feel like that'll be a good mix of spending a little bit of cash out of pocket. We'll be staying in Vengen, which is a car-free village, and I'm excited for that. And then we'll be doing a few nights in Grindelwald, I think. And that's where the Hilton is that we'll be staying at. I do have Il Tornebuoni booked in Florence using Hyatt points. I only have one room booked currently, and I don't really have a good plan for the second room unless prices drop significantly. So it's likely that I will cancel that, but I wanted to get it booked before the Hyatt devaluation, just in case. So and I'm pretty sure I had to book actually, no, I did. I had to book two. Nights at a standard rate and use a suite upgrade award. But the third night I had to just book directly into a suite because there was no standard room award available. So I mean that was a big chunk of points there too. And then in Rome, oh yeah, the other piece in Rome, there's three Hyattes and two of them

Rome Hotel Uncertainty And Backup Plans

SPEAKER_00 22:22

are not open yet. So there's only one that's open. The other two, which look nicer, are neither one is open, and they've they've both been supposed to open for like a year, and they keep pushing it back and pushing it back and pushing it back. So one of the one of the hotels that we have booked, we have two rooms booked into a suite for one of the rooms and a standard room for the other. The hotel may not even open by the time that we go. As of now, they're accepting reservations, I think, starting September 1st. And our reservation is for the end of September, beginning of October. So there is a chance that like I need to book a backup for that. And I haven't done that part yet. I probably will use FHR to book a backup, is my plan.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

It is what it is. I mean, hopefully it opens up.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

I know it's just like the I'm almost like, I feel like maybe the universe is telling us that we just need to stay in Switzerland the whole time. But I really want the kids to see like the Coliseum. Our boys are at a good age where I feel like they'll, you know, get something out of it. The gladiators, all that. So I think we'll keep we'll keep the realm piece, but I'm I'm not mad about spending longer in Switzerland. I just I mostly wanted to share this because I like to have everything planned out and I don't like things to be up in the air. And things are very much still up in the air, and I'm just learning to be okay with it. And like it's gonna work out, and I'm just keeping these things, you know. I've basically double booked us so that we have options and choices, especially given the Hyatt devaluation. I feel like that was, I mean, you just have to, right? Because people are like, oh, some of the Hyattes I booked went down in price. None of the Hyattes I booked went down in price because they're all fancy AF. So I guess it depends how you like to travel.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Bougie or not.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

I prefer bougie.

Credit Score Rebound Above 800

SPEAKER_00 24:21

The last thing I wanted to chat about is my credit score update. I shared this on Instagram last week, but finally all of my statements that were open with a high utilization and high balance have all closed with a zero dollar balance. And my credit score has successfully rebounded to above 800. And I felt great about that. And I did wait for that to happen before I applied for the credit cards I applied for. So the built card, the capital one, and the Wells Fargo. You know what? I think I just realized it's Grindelvauld because all the W's are Vs. So it's not Grindelwald, it's Grindelvauld. So if you heard that before and you died a little inside, I apologize. I'm learning. Vengen and Grindelwald. It's gonna be fun to try to explain the pronunciation to our six-year-old who just learned how to read. Anything else to add? Any jokes for the people? No, I always have jokes, but what was the one that you told the kids the other day about the teacher?

SPEAKER_02 25:26

The private tutor one, but it's not that funny.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

They laughed. If you made it this far, hopefully these updates were helpful. And um, that's all we've got for you today.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yeah, short and sweet today.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Oh, one question or

Feedback Request And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_00 25:44

one thing though. If you listened to last week's episode where I had our very first guest on, I would love feedback if you haven't already sent it. I am just trying to understand like, is it worth it to put the time into bringing guests on the podcast? Because it definitely does take additional time and effort for me, not only with like the scheduling and the coordinating and the preparing, but also the editing. So let me know if you liked it and if you would like more guests. I really would like this to become more of a family travel podcast versus strictly points and miles. Not that we would get away from points and miles in any way, but I just think like family travel is a little more broad, and um, I'll still share all my points and miles shenanigans, but I do think that getting a focus on where other families are visiting because we're just we're just one family. We can only go so many places in a year. I do think that that is the way to go. So would love your feedback on that. Find me on Instagram at travel party5, and we will catch you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Thanks for tuning in. Bye. Have a good one.