Censored on 'Frequent Miler': The Value of the Bilt Palladium Card Versus the AMEX Platinum Card
- andychalk
- 16 hours ago
- 2 min read
by Andrew Chalk
The advent of Bilt 2.0 upended the Frequent Miler first year valuation method. It valued the Bilt Palladium card at $505, a frankly poor valuation for a card that has an annual fee of $495. Just a cursory valuation showed that the card was worth several times this amount. As the calculations below show, no matter what personal valuations you put on the benefits, that valuation is hopelessly wrong.
I orignally exposed their errors in "Using Frequent Miler’s Valuation Method, The Bilt Palladium Card Is The Most Valuable Card They Have Ever Seen, Even With Zero Housing Spend".
When I did so I expected that they would be grateful. Instead, they censored the article below when I published it, in a shorter form, on their blog as a comment. They want to hide their errors from their readers. Likely partly out of arrogance, partly out of a lack of respect for their readers and for the truth.
However, you can now compare their calculations with the truth for yourself.
I recalculated the value of the cards using the Frequent Miler First Year Valuation Method. This looks at each card perk and attempts to value each one based on its nominal value, and the fact that it is not pure, unrestricted cash.
For example, here is that technique applied to the AMEX Platinum Card.
AMEX Platinum Value
Item | Nominal Value | Deflator | Deflated Value |
Startup Bonus (175,000 m) | $2,712.50 | 100% | $2,712.50 |
Airline Incrementals | $200.00 | 70% | $140.00 |
Resy Credit | $400.00 | 85% | $340.00 |
Uber Credit | $200.00 | 50% | $100.00 |
Uber One Credit | $120.00 | 40% | $48.00 |
Saks Credit | $50.00 | 50% | $25.00 |
Fhr Credit | $600.00 | 50% | $300.00 |
Digital Entertainment Credit | $300.00 | 50% | $150.00 |
Lululemon | $300.00 | 50% | $150.00 |
Cost Of Spend ($12k) | -$192.00 | -$192.00 | |
Annual Fee | -$895.00 | -$895.00 | |
Fudge Factor | -$273.50 | ||
Total | $2,605.00 |
Note: Our valuation of the perks sums to $273 too much (10%), relative to the valuation published in Frequent Miler. We have called the correction a ‘fudge factor’. If you can see the source of the difference, please post it in the comments.
Note: You can adjust the ‘deflator’ column to reflect the value of each perk to you.
Using the same technique for Bilt, accounting for spend creating Bilt’s innovative internal currency, Bilt cash, we obtain.
Bilt Palladium Value
Reward | Nominal Value | Deflator | Deflated Value |
Welcome Bonus (50,000 Miles * 1.55c/100) | $775.00 | 1 | $775.00 |
Accelerator (25,000 Miles * 1.55c/100) | $387.50 | 1 | $387.50 |
Bilt Cash Milestone Award | $50.00 | 1 | $50.00 |
$0.00 | |||
Travel And Transportation | $0.00 | ||
Travel Credit (Hotel Credit) $400 /Yr | $400.00 | 0.88 | $352.00 |
Hotel Credit $1,200/Yr | $1,200.00 | 0.75 | $900.00 |
Lift $120/Yr. | $120.00 | 0.8 | $96.00 |
Parking $60/Yr | $60.00 | 0.88 | $52.80 |
$0.00 | |||
Health And Wellness | $0.00 | ||
Fitness Classes $480/Yr | $480.00 | 0.8 | $384.00 |
Walgreens $120/Yr | $120.00 | 0.8 | $96.00 |
$0.00 | |||
Dining | $0.00 | ||
Grubhub $120/Yr | $120.00 | 0.8 | $96.00 |
Gopuff $60/Yr | $60.00 | 0.8 | $48.00 |
Gopuff Fam $100/Yr | $100.00 | 0.8 | $80.00 |
Dining $300/Yr | $300.00 | 0.88 | $264.00 |
$0.00 | |||
Cost Of Spend | $62.00 | 1 | $62.00 |
Annual Fee | -$495.00 | 1 | -$495.00 |
Total | $3,148.30 |
Note the valuation is considerably higher than that of the AMEX Platinum Card, making Bilt the new king of travel rewards cards. Feel free to vary the deflators to more accurately match your own spend. I don't think you will find Frequent Miler's valuation of $505 remotely close.
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