Bilt Saves The Day

14 Apr 2024   money travel

A few months ago, I booked round-trip Frontier Airlines flights at the airport to avoid convenience fees. (Yes, convenience fees, even though the process was more inconvenient for everyone involved.)

This past weekend, I took those flights. Here’s how each leg of the trip went:

1. SFO to DEN: Delayed by an hour due to a late-arriving aircraft
2. DEN to MCO: Canceled due to weather–more on that in a bit
3. MCO to DFW: On time
4. DFW to SFO: Delayed by an hour due to traffic control, taxied for an hour upon arrival

You get what you pay for, I suppose.

Regarding the second leg of the trip: weather was bad in Orlando, so it wasn’t surprising that the flight was canceled. What was surprising, however, was just how bad Frontier Airlines customer support was:

• They canceled the flight at the last minute by sending an email with a broken link
• The representatives at the gate literally just walked away from the counter
• The official customer service kiosk was woefully understaffed (see below)

In short, Frontier Airlines stranded me in Denver with no easy way to rebook. In a panic, I searched for other airlines that might get me to Orlando in time for an event I was supposed to attend in the evening. United Airlines was the only option; they had a one-way flight for roughly $500. I winced thinking I’d need to eat that cost.

In a moment of clarity, I remembered that Bilt Rewards’ travel partners include United Airlines. I checked the price of the flight in miles: 15,000. I checked my Bilt Rewards balance: 40,000. As quickly as I could (because I was racing other people who were also looking for alternative flights), I submitted a request to transfer 15,000 points to United. Moments later, the points were in my account and I was able to snag one of the last seats on that flight, and with mere minutes to spare before the “one hour before departure” booking cutoff.

There are other interesting details to this story, like the fact that I ended up taking an earlier United flight than the one that I booked, but the moral of the story is that Bilt saved my butt. I’m really happy that I had the points on hand and that the transfer succeeded within minutes.

Mostly for my own memory, here are all of the ways I got lucky:

• United Airlines had available flights that could get me to my destination on time
• The cost of paying with cash was high enough to scare off other people
• The cost of paying with points was low enough that it made sense for me
• The points transfer happened quickly enough that I didn’t miss the one-hour cutoff
• The app wasn’t taking my credit card for the $5 booking fee; Apple Pay worked fine though
• There were no seats available online, so I was assigned an exit row seat at the gate
• I randomly decided to try to board an earlier United flight
  • I succeeded in changing flights (same exact exit row seat, actually) and the flight I was originally supposed to take was canceled minutes after I switched

There’s also a lesson in preparation somewhere in here:

• I just-so-happened to have Bilt Rewards points available
• I just-so-happened to have the apps downloaded and ready to use
• I had multiple devices to use (phone on 5G > laptop on airport WiFi)
• I had multiple ways to pay for the flight (cash and points)
• I had multiple ways to pay for the fee (credit card and Apple pay)

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