You can now earn United Airlines and Cathay Pacific miles just by paying your rent

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• Bilt allows you to make monthly rent payments for no fees while earning points that can be transferred to airlines and hotels
• Bilt has just added United Airlines and Cathay Pacific as transfer partners.
• You can now transfer Bilt Rewards to 11 different partners, including American Airlines, Hyatt, and Air Canada Aeroplan.
• Read Insider's guide to the best rewards credit cards.

Bilt Rewards is an altogether unique concept in the points and miles earning world. With the Bilt Mastercard®-annual-fee Bilt Mastercard®, you can pay rent fee-free and earn transferable points for what is likely your largest expense — rent.

Read more: You can now earn points for paying rent — without any fees — with the Bilt Rewards program and credit card

That's a big deal, because paying rent with a credit card normally incurs a fee of between 2% and 3%, effectively negating any rewards your credit card would earn for the purchase.

Bilt Rewards points transfer to many useful airline and hotel partners, such as Hyatt, American Airlines, and Air Canada Aeroplan. Now, Bilt has made two valuable additions to its list of transfer partners: United Airlines and Cathay Pacific.

Here's why this update makes the Bilt Rewards program even more compelling.

Bilt adds United MileagePlus and Cathay Pacific Asia miles as transfer partners

Bilt Rewards is becoming more distinguished with age. It doesn't have the most transfer partners of any flexible rewards currency — programs like Capital One miles and Amex Membership Rewards points have notably more options — but Bilt's catalog of partners may be the most potent. You can now transfer your points to:

• American Airlines
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France/KLM (called Flying Blue)
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (coming mid-April 2022)
• Emirates
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Hyatt
• IHG
• Turkish Airlines
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic (Virgin Points)

That's a well-rounded list. Between partners like Hyatt, American Airlines, United Airlines, and Aeroplan, Bilt Rewards now possesses many of our favorite partners offered by other transferable points programs.

The one downside to Bilt's rewards structure is that you'll only earn 1 point per dollar toward rent, capped at $50,000 in rent payments per year. Hopefully, you're not spending more than that on rent anyway, but it's still good to know.

Let's take a quick look at the value these new airline loyalty programs add for Bilt users.

Read more: Bilt Mastercard review

What are United Airlines miles good for?

Per Insider's valuations, United Airlines miles are worth an average of 1.3 cents each toward travel. In other words, if you choose to transfer your Bilt Rewards to United Airlines, you'll effectively receive a 1.3% return for your rent spending.

However, it's possible to get much more value from your miles, depending on how you use them. With a bit of strategy, it's possible to get many thousands of dollars in value from the points you accrue each year with the Bilt Mastercard®. For example, you can:

• Fly to Peru in business class for 38,500 United miles one-way. These flights cost between $650 and $1,500, giving you a value of 1.7+ cents per mile.
• Fly to Europe in Lufthansa's famed first-class seat for 121,000 United Airlines miles one-way. This flight costs $12,000, giving you a value of 9.9 cents per mile.
• Book domestic coach flights for as little as 6,000 miles one-way. These flights often cost $150, meaning you'll get a value of 2.5+ cents per mile.
•  Fly to Europe in United Airlines' fancy Polaris business class seats for 60,000 miles one-way. The same seats retail for $2,200+, giving you a value of 3.6 cents per mile.

Read more: How to maximize United Airlines miles

What are Cathay Pacific miles good for?

Cathay Pacific is the flagship carrier of Hong Kong. It's an airline less frequented than United Airlines for US travelers — and many may not be familiar with its rewards currency, Asia Miles. Admittedly, it's not as useful for most of us, but there are some decent sweet spots for niche routes:

• Fly American Airlines from East Coast cities (such as New York and Chicago) to Europe in business class for 50,000 Asia Miles one-way. These flights can cost $2,300, giving you a value of 4.6 cents each.
• Book Qatar Qsuite (perhaps the best business class seat in the sky) from East Coast cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia to Doha for 75,000 Asia Miles one-way. These seats routinely sell for $9,300+, giving you a value of 12.4 cents per mile.
• Fly from New York to London (via Hong Kong) in first/business class on Cathay Pacific for 125,000 miles. This itinerary is more for luxury travel junkies who are willing to take an inconvenient route just to enjoy premium airline seats. This prices for around $14,000, giving you a value of 11.2 cents each.

Read more: What it's like to fly first class on Cathay Pacific

Bottom line

Bilt Rewards is a great way to earn miles and points for a massive monthly purchase that doesn't otherwise earn rewards.

And Bilt keeps getting better. It's now added two new transfer partners — United Airlines and Cathay Pacific — bringing Bilt's transfer partner grand total to 11.