Anyone here use southwest points / card ?

[Road Guy]

I saw where you get 60,000 points for signing up for their SW card? Anyone here use them for accruing airline points and such?  If so just curious how are they with using the actual points for flights?

Both the wife and I were thinking of signing up for cards to give us 60,000 points each?  It looks like that would get us a free flight each somewhere long distance.

We would probably put 30K a year easy on the card as we use that for most of our "cash" purchases through the month. (no balance carried)

Based out of Denver the best options for us are usually either Southwest, Frontier (not happening) and United?  Delta is usually several hundred dollars more per flight.

 

[tj_PE]

I love southwest! I would suggest doing this, and transferring your points into one account, and you'll be eligible for the SW companion pass (requires 110k points) , which would be valid until the end of 2018... and you'll have 120k points to spend - which is essentially 240 since you can buy a flight with points and then use the companion pass *plus fees ofc* for S.O. I'm not sure what the costs for transferring points is - from what I can tell, it's $10 per 1k points, so you would be looking at 600 dollars to transfer..

Your other option is to have one of you sign up for (2) SW cards.

The personal and the business both have the 60k bonus right now (till end of month i think? 6/29ish so you'll have to act quickly) 

Sorry for all the blabbing, I've been getting into travel hacking with credit card points. I am just a beginner though. Information I have learned so far is from 10x travel. Here's a link to the article on the SW companion pass and how to achieve it. If you find the information valuable and have no other loyalties, you could use their affiliate link to apply

http://10xtravel.com/ultimate-guide-to-the-southwest-companion-pass/

 

[mudpuppy]

I play a lot of points games, but I don't fly with southwest very much so I don't accumulate their points.  From everything everything I've seen they're one of the most flexible for redeeming points for flights.  60,000 points would be worth around $900, so that's a pretty good deal.  And yeah you and the wife could both get cards and double-up.  You have to spend $2k in the first 3 months of having the card to get the bonus points, so you might want to plan around that.  Also the card has a $69 annual fee, so keep that in mind.

Southwest has a Companion Pass, that if you earn a certain number of points in a year, you can bring a companion with you on any flight for free.  Not real familiar with how this works with the credit card, but it sounds like if you open a business credit card and a personal one, you'd earn the companion pass for a year:

From https://thepointsguy.com/2017/06/southwest-60k-limited-time-offers/

Generally speaking, you can open one personal and one business card every 90 days. (Keep in mind, however, these Southwest cards fall under Chase’s 5/24 rule.) If you sign up for one of these personal card offers with an increased 60,000-point sign-up bonus, you’ll fall 50,000 points short of Companion Pass qualification. You could also then consider signing up for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card, which comes with a 60,000-point sign-up bonus after you spend $3,000 in the first three months. After you’ve met both sign-up bonus spend requirements, you’ll have reached the 110,000 benchmark and earned the Companion Pass.

 

[mudpuppy]

Heh, theJulie beat me to it by 2 minutes!

 

[Road Guy]

thanks!  The companion would be better for us in 3 years but I am sure we could make it work (high school kids don't throw parties anymore when mom and dad are out of town do they?)

Do you have it currently?  Just curious if there was a lot of nickel and dime charges and such?

We currently use a US Bank CC which gives us 1% cash back, so its sort of the same (return) but if it helps me avoid being in the B boarding group! I think I read it gives you "priority boarding"

That's my only beef with southwest is that stupid corral boarding nonsense..

 

[Road Guy]

I didn't see MP's reply before I posted the above.

I am feeding 3 teenagers so an extra $3G's in 90 days is nothing!

I think we are going to pull the trigger, this is mainly because the wife saw they now fly to Belize..lols

 

[tj_PE]

thanks!  The companion would be better for us in 3 years but I am sure we could make it work (high school kids don't throw parties anymore when mom and dad are out of town do they?)

Do you have it currently?  Just curious if there was a lot of nickel and dime charges and such?

We currently use a US Bank CC which gives us 1% cash back, so its sort of the same (return) but if it helps me avoid being in the B boarding group! I think I read it gives you "priority boarding"

That's my only beef with southwest is that stupid corral boarding nonsense..

I don't have it yet, as I'm waiting to have a solid use for the companion pass to make it worth my while, otherwise I'm getting other chase cards for now. 

I have read that some people alternate .. so you could do the 2 cards and have companion pass through end of 2018. then wife could do the same in dec 2018 (finishing minimum spend after Jan 1 2019) to have the CP through end of 2020!

Also, many people that do lots of travel hacking use these cards. 

However, I will say that if you are spending 30k on cards and don't have an issue opening some more cards (like aren't applying for a home loan in the next few years etc) then you could maximize your rewards for travel and lodging even if you do it in a smart way. I would highly recommend reading up on the 10x travel and points guy sites. I can give you a bit of info from my start (i started last month) and where i'm going! people are traveling business class/ first class and taking 30k dollar vacations for a couple hundred bucks. tons of potential if you're smart with credit. 

 

[tj_PE]

note - unless you want to spend the  600 to transfer points, i would open both cards in one persons name (in case that got buried with all the info)

 

[ptatohed]

I am very big into rewards cards but I usually go for the cash back rewards, not so much the airline miles rewards.  I have about 6-8 cards with varying cash back %s in varying categories at varying times.  I keep a little cheat sheet in my wallet so I know which card to use for what category purchase (and this changes quarterly with my rotating category cards).  But it is worth it.  I use a credit card for as many things as possible and I always get 2% to 5% off.   

 

[knight1fox3]

@mudpuppy, @thejulie_PE, I just got an email from my Delta rewards program that I can get 60k bonus miles but need $3k in qualifying purchases.  <_<

 

[snickerd3]

@mudpuppy, @thejulie_PE, I just got an email from my Delta rewards program that I can get 60k bonus miles but need $3k in qualifying purchases.  <_<

give me 2 months...$3k isn't that hard to do.  What is considered qualifying purchases though.  

 

[tj_PE]

@mudpuppy, @thejulie_PE, I just got an email from my Delta rewards program that I can get 60k bonus miles but need $3k in qualifying purchases.  <_<

bonus miles with a new cc signup? yeah, the minimum spend is standard for the bonuses. I'm not sure that is the most lucrative offer out there. you usually have 90 days to spend the 3k. I tend to have right about that for my normal spending. 

I'm just signing up for good cards with good benefits that satisfy my needed spending (I used 4 cards to pay for my roof haha) so it's not a burden feeling like i'm spending money that i wouldn't normally spend. 

 

[mudpuppy]

@mudpuppy, @thejulie_PE, I just got an email from my Delta rewards program that I can get 60k bonus miles but need $3k in qualifying purchases.  <_<

60k miles is a pretty good offer.  The normal sign up bonus for the gold card is around 30-40k.  They also have an offer on the delta platinum card right now for 70k miles.  These are worth a minimum of $700.

Things to keep in mind, the Gold card has an annual fee of  $95 and the Platinum card is $195.  With both, you get one free checked bag on every flight.  With the platinum card you get a buy-one-ticket-get-one-free certificate every year.  If you use that certificate every year, it more than pays for the annual fee.

If you're seriously interested in flying with Delta, this is an offer that doesn't come around that often, so it's a good time to sign up.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

Why don't they just call them points?  You obviously cannot fly 60,000 miles for signing up for a new card.

 

[mudpuppy]

Southwest actually does call them points.  The other airlines called them miles because you used to earn one for every mile you flew.  However, within the last two years many airlines have changed to give them to you based on the cost of your ticket rather than distance flown, so miles really is a misnomer now.

 

[engineergurl]

I have the United Card, it sounds like a similar program, when I signed up it was about 60k of points, upgrades for rental cars, lounge passes (I get so many per year I think)...  I think if you know how to use the system, then you can take advantage of it for any card/airline.