What American Express Should Steal From Bilt (And What It Absolutely Shouldn’t)

Let’s be honest — American Express is supposed to be the premium card experience. The gold standard. The grown-up in the room. So why does my Bilt card feel more exciting to pull out of my wallet than my Amex cards these days?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I put together a full YouTube video walking through the exact things I think Amex needs to copy from Bilt to get back to being the card you want to reach for. Here’s the breakdown.

An “Amex Day” Could Change Everything

Bilt absolutely nails what I call the “first of the month feeling.” Every Rent Day, they wrap a promo around a central theme — a movie tie-in, a special experience, a limited-time multiplier boost. If you have the Bilt Obsidian card and normally earn 3x on dining, on Rent Day that becomes 6x. It’s exciting, it’s predictable, and it genuinely makes you think about your Bilt card first.

Imagine if Amex did something similar — a monthly “Amex Day” where maybe one Friday a month, the Gold card jumps from 4x to 6x on dining, or the Platinum gets a 1.5x multiplier on everything for 48 hours. That’s the kind of thing that would make me actually mark my calendar and plan purchases around it.

Bilt also runs one-day transfer bonuses — they’ve done them recently with Wyndham and IHG — and those are electric for points people. A monthly Amex transfer bonus day to, say, Delta or Marriott Bonvoy would have my notifications turned on immediately.

Weekly Surprise Multipliers = Top of Wallet Status

Here’s the thing about Bilt’s weekly rotating multipliers: they’re not even massive. Last week I got 250 bonus Bilt points for making any travel purchase over $50. That’s hardly a windfall. But you know what I did? I opened the app, saw the offer, and made sure to use my Bilt card for that travel purchase instead of one of my other cards.

This week, my Bilt Obsidian card has a 5x bonus multiplier on gas — on top of the base 1x, so 6x total on gas. I filled up my car and my wife’s car with the Bilt card. I normally use my Hilton Surpass or Citi Strata Premier for gas, but not this week. Bilt had my attention.

That’s the real magic here. The cost to Bilt is minimal, but the reward is huge: I’m in the app constantly, I’m thinking about the card constantly, and it stays top of wallet. If Amex rolled out weekly category surprises inside the Amex app — even small ones — it would completely change how often people reach for their Amex cards.

Give Us Our Points. Now.

This one genuinely frustrates me, and I say that as someone with 11 Amex cards. When I make a dining purchase on my Gold card today, I might not see those 4x points for nearly two months — wait for the statement to close, then wait to make a payment. If you have Pay Over Time disabled on a charge card, you have to pay the full balance before the points even post.

Meanwhile, Capital One rewards post basically the moment a charge hits. My Robinhood Gold card shows points immediately after a purchase. And with Bilt, while it does take a couple of days to officially post, I can access and use all 20,000+ Bilt points I’ve earned right now — without making a single payment yet.

If Amex moved to near-instant points posting, it would genuinely change behavior. Imagine being able to check your Amex app after a dinner out and see those points sitting there, ready to go toward your next booking. That kind of instant gratification keeps people engaged and spending.

The Travel Concierge Amex Already Has the Pieces For

Bilt just launched an AI concierge inside their app, and the concept is brilliant even if the execution is still a work in progress. I tested it by asking it to help me plan a trip to DC — it walked me through flights, hotels near where I wanted to stay, and even dinner reservations, all in one conversation.

Here’s the thing: Amex already owns the building blocks to do this better. They own Resy, one of the largest restaurant reservation platforms in the world. They have the Amex Travel portal. They have a deep partnership with Get Your Guide for experiences. The pieces are right there.

Imagine opening the Amex Travel app, booking your flight and hotel, then getting prompted: “Want me to find you a Resy restaurant near your hotel for Saturday night?” And then: “Here are some private tours and experiences nearby through Get Your Guide.” That’s it. That’s the concierge experience that used to make the Platinum card feel worth every penny. The foundation exists — Amex just needs to actually build it.

Fix the Points Portal Value

One more thing: if you’re redeeming Amex points directly through the travel portal for hotels, you’re often only getting 1 cent per point (and sometimes less). Bilt gives you 1.25 cents per point on hotels and flights through their portal. Capital One and Chase both offer at least 1 cent per point, which has basically become the industry standard.

Amex staying behind the curve here is costing them redemptions. People are choosing other portals — or other cards entirely — because the math just doesn’t work in Amex’s favor. Bumping that portal value to at least 1 cent per point across the board would go a long way.

Two Things Amex Should NEVER Copy From Bilt

For all the things Bilt is doing right, there are two areas where Amex has a clear advantage — and I’d be devastated if they gave them up.

Customer service. Bilt’s customer service reputation has historically been rough. People have had to escalate to company leadership just to get issues resolved. Amex’s customer service, on the other hand, has long been one of the best in the business. Please, Amex — do not replace your team with a chatbot. That white-glove service is a major reason people justify those annual fees.

Don’t make us pay more for the same multipliers. When Bilt launched the new Bilt Obsidian card at $95/year, it essentially replaced the features of the original free card — you now pay for what you used to get for free. I really hope Amex never pulls a similar move, like keeping the Gold card’s 4x dining rate but charging an extra $50 to “unlock” it. The multipliers are the whole value prop. Don’t put them behind an extra paywall.

Amex has the brand, the infrastructure, and the partnerships to absolutely dominate. They just need to make their cards fun again. A little competition from Bilt might be exactly the kick they need.

What do you think Amex should steal from Bilt — and what should they leave alone? Drop it in the comments, I’d love to hear your take!