Rakuten's cash back for getting approved for the $0-annual-fee Bank of America Travel Rewards card is $350, up from $125, and the card still pays 25,000 points after $1,000 in 90 days. That is $615 back on $1,000 of spend. What the $350 can become as Amex or Bilt points, what one Virgin Atlantic business-class seat really costs, and the terms that decide whether you get paid.
Rakuten is paying $350 cash back for getting approved for the Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card. The normal Rakuten payout on this card is $125, and the card itself pays 25,000 points after $1,000 of purchases in the first 90 days, with no annual fee. Put those two together and $1,000 of spending you were going to do anyway comes back as $600 and change. That is the headline. The part worth reading is what the $350 can become if you do not take it as cash.
Rakuten's half. We first saw this offer in the Rakuten mobile app, and it also appears on Rakuten's website under the credit-card offers page. If your website view shows a different number, open the app; that is where we saw the $350. The store page reads "$350 Cash Back, was $125," and it is a fixed amount, not "up to." The terms, complete and verbatim: "Cash Back provided by Rakuten, not Bank of America. Cash Back only available for new, approved Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card customers who keep the account open for a minimum of 3 months after approval. Only one cash back bonus per Rakuten member account. Applying for a new credit card may impact your credit score. U.S. residents only."
Three things in there decide whether you get paid: you must be approved, you must be new to this card, and you must keep it open at least three months. On timing, the offer page says only that "Cash Back will be automatically added to your Rakuten account within a few months," so plan for the payout to land on a later quarterly date, not the next one.
Bank of America's half. From the card's own page: "25,000 online bonus points if you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of your account opening." BofA prices those points at a fixed 1 cent each when you use them to erase travel and dining charges, so the bonus is worth $250 of flights, hotels or restaurant bills. Also verbatim: "Earn unlimited 1.5 points for every $1 you spend on everyday purchases and no expiration on points as long as your account remains open," and "no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees."
| Layer | What it pays | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Rakuten approval bonus | $350 cash | Rakuten |
| Welcome bonus | 25,000 points, worth $250 against travel or dining charges | Bank of America |
| Everyday earn on the $1,000 | 1,500 points, $15 | Bank of America |
| Total | $615 back on $1,000, $0 annual fee |
Two cautions the table cannot show. This is a credit card application, so it is a hard inquiry and a new account; if you are working toward a mortgage, that matters more than $350. And the $1,000 has to be real spending inside 90 days. Do not buy things to hit it.
Bank of America points are simple, and simple is the point. There are no transfer partners and no award charts. You pay for the travel with the card, then use points to erase the charge at a fixed 1 cent each. BofA's list of what counts: "flights, hotel stays, vacation rentals, baggage fees, and also at restaurants – including takeout." So the 25,000 points erase $250 of charges from any airline, any hotel, any Airbnb-style rental, or a restaurant bill, with no blackout dates because you booked it as a normal paying customer.
The way to squeeze the most out of that: book the travel you already want on the card, at the cash price you already found, and erase it. Do not hunt for "award availability." That is the thing this card frees you from.
Rakuten lets you take cash back as something other than cash, and this is where $350 stops being $350.
Amex Membership Rewards, with a warning. Rakuten's FAQ: "10% Cash Back = 10X points," so $350 would be 35,000 Membership Rewards points, transferred "every three months" once you have at least 501 confirmed points. But Rakuten's own Membership Rewards program terms carry this line: "Promotions or other offers with certain U.S. credit card issuers through Rakuten, other than American Express, will not be available to you if you elect to receive American Express Membership Rewards points instead of Cash Back." Rakuten does not name which issuers. So do not switch your payout to Amex points before you apply for this card; the offer may not be there for you at all. Take it as cash or as Bilt Points, and switch later if you want future shopping paid in Amex points.
Bilt Points. Rakuten lists its payout methods as "PayPal, Bilt Points, or check." Rakuten's Bilt FAQ sends confirmed cash back to Bilt "every three months," and Bilt's help page sets the rate: "Blue members: 50 points per $1 in Rakuten cash-back" and "Silver, Gold, and Platinum members: 100 points per $1 in cash-back." At Silver, Gold or Platinum, $350 would be 35,000 Bilt Points.
The honest gap. Neither Rakuten nor Bilt publishes a sentence that says a credit-card approval bonus converts to points the way shopping cash back does. Both say "purchases, bonuses and other rewards" are sent as points, and Rakuten's own terms call this payout a "cash back bonus," so the wording fits. But it is not stated in words, and we are not going to pretend it is. If the points route is the reason you are doing this, ask Rakuten support before you apply, in writing.
This is the part people mean when they say the payout is worth far more than $350. Bilt's September 1 Rent Day ran a Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus, from Bilt's own terms: Blue 25%, Silver 35%, Gold 45%, Platinum 75%, Platinum Plus 100%, with "the price for the buy up is $200 of Bilt Cash" to move up one tier, capped at 150,000 points. On a 75% bonus, 35,000 Bilt Points become 61,250 Virgin Points.
Now the number that matters. Virgin prices its own reward seats dynamically, but it publishes a ceiling for Saver seats. One-way Upper Class from New York to London: 47,500 points in standard season, 57,500 in peak. From the West Coast: 67,500 and 77,500. So 61,250 Virgin Points buys one Upper Class Saver seat from New York in either season, with points left over, and it does not buy two. Virgin's own deals page has shown round-trip Upper Class from New York at 70,000 points plus about $1,900 in taxes and carrier charges per person, and its terms say those charges "will be advised at the time of booking." A business-class seat across the Atlantic for a $350 cash-back bonus plus roughly $950 each way in surcharges is a genuinely good result. Two seats is a different amount of points.
The bonus that made that possible has ended; Bilt has run Virgin bonuses more than once this year, and the quarterly Rakuten payout gives you time to aim at the next one.
From Rakuten's own store pages this week:
Rates change without notice. The store page at the moment you click through is the only number that counts.
Rakuten's referral pays new members $50 after $50 of qualifying spend within 90 days, and a card approval is a qualifying event on its own. Our link, and Rakuten pays us the same $50 when you join through it: rewardsguru.club/go/rakuten. Set your payout method before anything confirms; switching later only affects what has not been paid yet.
Rakuten offer terms read from rakuten.com on September 3 and 4, 2026 and from the Rakuten app on September 3. Bank of America terms from bankofamerica.com on September 4. Bilt and Virgin Atlantic figures from their own help and terms pages the same day. We are not affiliated with Bank of America and earn nothing if you apply.