Southwest Rapid Rewards and Visa

[disney junky]

I am considering the SW Visa for free air fare. I see there is a $59 annual fee, but I seem to be unable to decipher the rest of the program. I have a Disney Visa, get $1 for every $100 spent...not so good a deal unless I'm at WDW. The best I figure, you get a free round trip air fare for every 16 one way trips within 24 months. Is this correct?

Then, if I charge $19,200, I get a free reward, but is this a round trip or something else? How are these combined?

My dd is moving to Orlando to finish college, a process which will probably take 24 months. I think I can probably charge her tuition and costs and rack up some pretty good numbers before paying that balance off each month, but I just don't have the confidence that I understand the whole rewards process. Obviously there will be much more travel between PA and FL, but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger. I haven't paid an annual fee forever, and I have a few things charged directly to my VISA which I would have to change.

Anyone who has this program, please offer advice, suggestions, etc. I might actually charge $15,000 in a year besides the tuition, more or less. Ideas?

 

[spatenfloot]

You get 1 reward credit for every $1200 spent.
16 reward credits=1 round trip ticket award
You can get bonus credits for various things like using car rental partners, etc.

 

[theblondebee]

I got one for myself and my DH. You only have to use it once to get the initial credits so I will be cancelling mine but keeping DSs for all of our SW purchases. The interest rate is high so we will only be using it for SW and paying off every month. When you use it for SW, I believe you get double rewards. With the credits we already had, we each already have a free round trip ticket,

 

[mareed]

I had the Southwest Visa for years but switched about a year ago to the Choice Priviledges Visa through Bank of America. It offers SW credits (in addition to other rewards options) and has no annual fee. The exchange rate isn't quite as good as the SW Visa, but it's much more flexible. You get 1 SW credit for $1250 spent instead of $1200 w/ Southwest Visa. But, you can apply the credit to any Southwest Rapid Rewards account, which is great for topping off different members of my family in order to get an award ticket. With SW Visa, it could only go to the Rapid Reward account that was set up for the Visa.

Basically, with no annual fee, and the flexibility of using the credits for different SW Rapid Rewards accounts, the Choice Priviledges Visa was a much better deal for us. I believe you can sign up at http://www.bankofamerica.com/credit...090RAFR00400800121979EN000&requestTimeout=120.