Bilt Rewards Adds Japan Airlines Mileage Bank As Transfer Partner

Bilt Rewards is the loyalty program of the no annual fee Bilt Mastercard® (review), which is quite lucrative. This is a proper transferable points currency, allowing 1:1 transfers to a variety of partners. Bilt Rewards has just announced its newest transfer partner, and it’s one that’s pretty exciting, if you ask me.

Transfer Bilt Rewards points to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank

As of May 13, 2025, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank has been added as a 1:1 transfer partner of Bilt Rewards, making it the program’s 21st transfer partner.

Points transfers will take place within 10 minutes of when they’re requested. There’s one caveat to be aware of — Japan Airlines Mileage Bank typically requires accounts to be 60 days old in order to be able to redeem miles. Bilt has secured the ability for Bilt members to be able to redeem their miles within seven days of transferring, if the account is not 60 days old. So if you plan to make a transfer in the future, there’s merit to enrolling in the program ASAP.

Bilt is the first 1:1 transfer partner of Japan Airlines Mileage Bank in North America. You’ve gotta give Bilt credit for the number of exclusive transfer partners it has, or at least, the number of transfer partners that are otherwise exclusive to only one other program.

Is transferring Bilt points to Japan Airlines worth it?

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is a useful, niche frequent flyer program. I’ll work on a more detailed post about the value of the program. I haven’t historically written much about it, given how hard these rewards have been to come by.

When it comes to actually redeeming for travel on Japan Airlines, I’d say the program is sort of valuable:

• Japan Airlines releases the same award space to its own members as it does to partner program members, so that doesn’t provide much of an advantage
• Redemption rates through Japan Airlines Mileage Bank may be a little lower than through partner programs, but given how hard it is to accrue the points, that’s not necessarily the reason you’d want to redeem through the program
• One advantage of Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is that you get access to award space 360 days out, right when the schedule opens, which is ideal in terms of accessing first and business class awards, especially given that the airline consistently opens award seats when the schedule opens

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank also has lucrative redemption rates on other airlines, including oneworld partners, and select non-oneworld partners, like Air France, Emirates, etc. For example, below is the distance based business class award chart.

There’s also a oneworld award chart, if you’re traveling on two or more oneworld airlines, with the benefit of multiple stopovers being allowed.

One thing to keep in mind is that Japan Airlines Mileage Bank has restrictions on who you can redeem for. You can only redeem miles for family members, who you are related to by marriage or blood. So if you’re going to participate in Mileage Bank, you’ll definitely want to read up on some of the technicalities before making a transfer, as this isn’t as straightforward as some other programs.

So yeah, I’d say there’s quite a bit of value to be had, potentially. The challenge is that you’ll have to build up a sizable portion of Bilt points to extract a lot of value here, since it’s not like you can transfer points from programs like Amex, Chase, Citi, etc.

Bottom line

Bilt Rewards has added Japan Airlines Mileage Bank as its newest transfer partner, and points transfer at a 1:1 ratio. This is a unique transfer partner for the program, and there’s potentially quite a bit of value to be had, if you’re willing to put in the effort.

I’d say that Mileage Bank almost offers more value for travel on partner airlines than for travel on Japan Airlines, aside from the ability to book at the 360 day window, when availability first opens.

What do you make of this Bilt Rewards adding Japan Airlines Mileage Bank as a partner?