2 free roundtrip tickets

[DizDragonfly]

Posted this in the Transportation Forum too, but thought I should post it here as well ...

Ok, here's my experience ...

I received our cards (one for DH and one for myself), activated and made purchases on 2/5. We called about a week later and moved up our closing date, our bills closed a few days later, but no Awards triggered. I was waiting to see if they would trigger on our closing date (3/13). However, when I checked our RR Accounts this morning they were there (11 days before the next billing date). I'm not sure of the exact date that the Awards were deposited in my account (because the site has been down for several days), but my expiration date on the awards was 2/29/2012. Yeah, the 29th. Next year is leap year. So, 2/28 or 3/1??? !

We received two Awards each. Each award is listed as a "coupon" on their site and each "coupon" number has an "a" and a "b". So, for example, you get coupons 123456A, 123456B, 234567A and 234567B. Clear as mud? You can use an "a" or "b" to book a one way fare or use the whole coupon to book a RT flight.

I was having trouble booking on their site. Their site is having trouble today. The patient SW rep I spoke to said it's been up and down all day. They are having as much trouble as we are.

There's a good chance that the trouble I was initially having was of my own making however. I did not know that you have to book EACH award INDIVIDUALLY. So, even though I had two awards in each account, I had to book them all one at a time. The SW rep went ahead and did it all for me, since I was on the phone with her. She was having problems with the system the whole time and we were on the phone for 66 minutes (including my initial wait time of around 10 minutes).

Here is how you now have to check for your old credits and awards:

• Go to Southwest.com and log in using the boxes on the right.
• Once you are logged in, scroll down the page a bit and look at the column on the very right hand side (under where you logged in).
• You'll see "Credit Status", a "?" icon and the words "What happened to my credits?" Click that.
• You should see your credits on this page.
• If you have Awards available, IIRC, there should be a link under the credits information to view your Awards.

I wish I was more sure of that last step, I was only there for a moment and since I've now booked, I don't see the link anymore. But, I'm fairly certain that's correct.

Price today for the four of us to fly to Orlando was $1647.20. We paid $120 in annual fees to open 2 SW Visa cards. We paid $30 in 9/11 fees to book the tickets. I'll probably pay the $80 for the early bird check in because we have FOUR different confirmation #s, because each Award has to be booked separately. So, that's $230 for the four of us to fly and we won't have to worry about getting online 24 hours ahead of our flights (with four different confirmation #s) to get our boarding passes. Savings of $1417.20!!!

So, I still can't tell you if your "rewards" post after 3/1, if they will for sure be the restricted "Awards" or if they'll be points. My best guess is still "Awards" because that's what the offer stated.

What I can say is that I got two AWARDS per card. Awards are good for 2 RT or 4 one way fares. My awards took a little more than 4 weeks to show up in my Rapid Rewards account. They do _not_ show up at all in my Chase account online, although they might after my next bill processes in a couple of weeks.

Not sure how much this will help anyone, but at least it's a little bit of info. Good luck all!

 

[Marionnette]

My statement closed on 2/27 (Sunday). It was finally available on 3/3 (Thursday). The points were in my RR account this morning.

BUT...no bonus credits, just the 39 points I got for buying gas.

I'm guessing that it's going to take the full 6-8 weeks following the first purchase in order to get those 2 free flights credited to my account? That would be disappointing. I got the free dining PIN for April-June and having those free flights could be just the thing to tip me in the direction of taking a quick trip to Orlando.

Has anyone who applied in February gotten their bonus flights yet?

 

[123Mark]

Update:
Applied and approved for the CC on 2/25
Received CC in the mail on 3/3 (6 days later)
Made first and only purchase on the card on 3/4
Called and moved up my billing date from the 9th to the 1st of the month
Spoke with three Chase Reps, 2 free RT's should post within 6 - 8 weeks, after the first purchase I made.
(Two said 38,400 points would be posted, one said it would post as coupons as mentioned ina prior post)
Either way, so far so good.

 

[leahjade]

Don't understand why some people are getting the free flights immediately yet others have to wait 6-8 weeks. They don't seem very organized!

 

[jessrose18]

Regarding the new SW Visa choices, I see that with the SW RR Plus Visa has an annual fee of $69 and you only get 3000 anniversary points which is worth $50 at most (automatically lose $19 every year). The new SW PREMIER Visa has an annual fee of $99 but that is offset by the anniversary points of 6000 which is worth $100, and you get 30,000 bonus points (=$500) with your first purchase.

can anyone get the premier card?

 

[platamama]

I'd guess it would depend on whatever factors Chase deems important. A year or two ago Chase wouldn't approve me for a SW Visa (despite having excellent credit) because I already had "too many" other CCs issued by them.

 

[Marionnette]

I just got the emails from SWA that my promotional rewards had been deposited in my account. I logged into MySouthwest.com and they were credited as 4 one-way certificates (not points!!!) AND NO BLACKOUT DATE! The awards expire one year from today.

To recap: I applied on Feb. 9 and got immediate approval. The card arrived on 2/16 and I made my first purchase the next day. My billing cycle closed on 2/27 and the statement was generated on 3/2. Just a little over one month from application until I got my awards.

So, I got just what SWA and Chase promised: 2 RT tickets, not the points that we thought might get awarded to those whose statements were generated after RR 2.0 went into effect. I was surprised to see that there are no blackout dates.

Now, somebody please talk me out of booking a trip to Florida!

 

[leahjade]

Anyone able to book these certificates online? I'm on now with my numbers and there is nowhere to click on a flight? Do you have to call to book the free flights?

 

[kato0627]

Anxious to hear how you made out booking. My DH had the same problem last night.

 

[mh1973]

Is this offer still good for 2 RT tickets per card? Where do I find the deal at?

 

[Frannie115]

Made our booking last night for two free flights with no problems

Got the dates (early June) and times we wanted. She did say there were only 4 promotion seats left on one of the flights and we took two of those.

I could not book them online. May be I just didn't know how . Also, we needed two other seats and to get the lowest fare (web only), I had to book those myself online. The agent did not have access to those fares.

Disney, here we come!

 

[dvcfamily41801]

Anyone able to book these certificates online? I'm on now with my numbers and there is nowhere to click on a flight? Do you have to call to book the free flights?

I have the same thing! I was going to call when I got into work this morning.

 

[mh1973]

I see that they've changed the bonus to 20,000 points... does anyone know approximately what that would equal out to in terms of redeeming for a flight? In other words, approximately (I know how it varies depending on the actual cost of the flight) how many points does it take to redeem a flight? I meant to apply before today to get the two free flights, but never did get around to it. Now not sure if this is worth it?

Looks like this is the new offer Can't believe I missed the 2 free RT ticket offer : ( So if I get a card and my husband gets one, that's 40,000 points. So for 4 tickets at $133 each way that would be 63,840 points. So how much would I have to pay out of pocket for the 23,840 point difference? Anyone know? Or if I did the premier card and got 60,000 points (1 card for me and 1 for my husband), that would leave me short about 3840 points, what would I pay out of pocket?

 

[Marionnette]

Looks like this is the new offer Can't believe I missed the 2 free RT ticket offer : ( So if I get a card and my husband gets one, that's 40,000 points. So for 4 tickets at $133 each way that would be 63,840 points. So how much would I have to pay out of pocket for the 23,840 point difference? Anyone know? Or if I did the premier card and got 60,000 points (1 card for me and 1 for my husband), that would leave me short about 3840 points, what would I pay out of pocket?

Don't be too upset that you missed out on the 2 free RT tickets. RR members are having a very difficult time booking their free flights. You can't do it online at all. Plus, those awards expire in one year and cannot be extended even by paying a fee.

OTOH, the points don't expire as long as you keep earning points and adding to your total. And they can be used to purchase any seat on any flight.

You can purchase additional points if you need them. You need to buy them in bulk with a minimum purchase of 2K points. Here's a link on SWA where you can buy them.
https://www.southwest.com/account/rapidrewards/purchase-points

 

[mh1973]

Don't be too upset that you missed out on the 2 free RT tickets. RR members are having a very difficult time booking their free flights. You can't do it online at all. Plus, those awards expire in one year and cannot be extended even by paying a fee.

OTOH, the points don't expire as long as you keep earning points and adding to your total. And they can be used to purchase any seat on any flight.

You can purchase additional points if you need them. You need to buy them in bulk with a minimum purchase of 2K points. Here's a link on SWA where you can buy them.
https://www.southwest.com/account/rapidrewards/purchase-points

So does this mean if I apply for the premier card and use points I may not get the flights I want?

 

[Marionnette]

So does this mean if I apply for the premier card and use points I may not get the flights I want?

No. It means the exact opposite. The points can be used for airfare on ANY flight with open seats. You will pay for your tickets on a points-per-dollar basis. Wanna Get Away fares are 60 pts/$, Anytime fares are 100 pts./$ and Business Select fares are 120 pts./$. So if you have enough points in your account, you can get any flight as long as it's not sold out.

The RR 1.0 Award tickets are only good for seats that have been set aside for award purposes. If all the award seats on a flight have already been taken, then you cannot use an award for that flight.

So imagine that the current price for 2 RT Wanna Get Away tickets to MCO is $500. You would need 30,000 pts to book it. If you missed out on the $500 fare and only Anytime fares are left at a cost of $600 for the two tickets, it would cost you 60,000 pts. But you would still be able to book the flight if you have enough pts. If you have 2 RR 1.0 awards and want those same flights, you would only be able to book them if there are any award seats still available. You can't add $$ or points to get on that plane with your award ticket.

 

[mh1973]

No. It means the exact opposite. The points can be used for airfare on ANY flight with open seats. You will pay for your tickets on a points-per-dollar basis. Wanna Get Away fares are 60 pts/$, Anytime fares are 100 pts./$ and Business Select fares are 120 pts./$. So if you have enough points in your account, you can get any flight as long as it's not sold out.

The RR 1.0 Award tickets are only good for seats that have been set aside for award purposes. If all the award seats on a flight have already been taken, then you cannot use an award for that flight.

So imagine that the current price for 2 RT Wanna Get Away tickets to MCO is $500. You would need 30,000 pts to book it. If you missed out on the $500 fare and only Anytime fares are left at a cost of $600 for the two tickets, it would cost you 60,000 pts. But you would still be able to book the flight if you have enough pts. If you have 2 RR 1.0 awards and want those same flights, you would only be able to book them if there are any award seats still available. You can't add $$ or points to get on that plane with your award ticket.

So this new offer may be even better?

 

[Marionnette]

So this new offer may be even better?

It completely depends on how you use your awards. For someone who can be flexible with their dates and the time of day that they travel, the old offer is still better because it guarantees you two free flights and only cost the $59 annual fee. For someone who has specific dates and preferred times for travel, being able to use your points to get exactly what you want is better, even if if means that the 30K pts that cost you a $99 annual fee does not give you enough points to pay for 2 RT tickets.

FWIW, most frequent fliers are not impressed with the new RR program.

 

[Frannie115]

Don't be too upset that you missed out on the 2 free RT tickets. RR members are having a very difficult time booking their free flights. You can't do it online at all. [/url]

I had no problem booking the two free flights. True that I had to do it over the phone and it took a little longer but we were able to get the flights we wanted. We knew we were travelling in June and this was a great deal for us. So worked out well

 

[Leshaface]

Marionnette - you seem to have a lot of knowledge about this..the two roundtrip tickets...are they good anywhere in the US including Hawaii and Alaska?