How quickly do SWA Rapid Rewards points show up?

[jana616]

I posted this in the SW thread, but worried it might not get seen. Sorry for posting again!

I'm hoping someone with more SWA experience than me can help answer this question PLEASE! We are hoping to see the 50,000 points we got for signing up for the SWA credit card in our RR account tomorrow, but I think we will still be about 25 points (yes, seriously, 25 points) short of what we need to buy 3 of our 4 roundtrip tickets for our June trip. I don't really want to buy 2,000 points when we are short so few, and we also need to buy one ticket with cash anyway. So, my question is, how quickly do RR points from purchasing a ticket (the points anyone with a RR account would get, NOT the points from using the cc) show up? Is it instantaneous? I was hoping I could buy the cash ticket first, and then the new points from that would be in our account to buy the other 3 with points. That seems too easy, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. What I really don't want is to pay cash for the first ticket and then find out that we still don't have enough points, but now I'm stuck anyway since I have the first ticket.

In a related question, has anyone ever had luck calling and asking them to just give you the extra points when you are so close? I did that once with our Chase Freedom card, so I wondered. I thought we had made plenty of purchases to get the points we needed, but we have 2 purchases from yesterday that still aren't showing, and the cycle ends tomorrow, and it's the weekend...

 

[living20057]

In my experience the rewards get updated monthly based after your credit card billing cycle closes. You can check it on your Chase account. When I got my SW card, after I made my first purchase the points were given.

 

[HayGan]

Keep in mind that the points from the purchase(s) you made with the card will also be posted with the 50,000 points. So, if you spent more than $25 in your first billing cycle then you should be ok (I don't think that points were credited for the annual fee so I don't think you can count that but I might be wrong!)

 

[jana616]

Thanks for the replies! We need 50,400 points in order to buy 3 of our 4 roundtrip tickets. Based on the purchases showing on our statement now when I call, we are going to be $25 short, unless the purchases from yesterday somehow show up by tonight. So it looks like we will be 25 points short. I understand that the RR points I would get from using my SW credit card to buy the extra ticket won't show up until the following billing cycle, but I was hoping and praying that perhaps as soon as I bought that ticket, the RR points for getting a ticket (that anyone with a RR account, regardless of how they pay, would get) would be credited immediately, putting me over what I need. For instance, when I search my departure leg, the cash price says "earn 840 points!"...how quickly would those be deposited?

 

[Bowen9475]

The points you earn from buying one ticket won't be deposited until after you take that flight.

 

[mossy1]

My statement just closed on the 15th and the points were there yesterday on the 16th. So they all post a day after the statement closes. If you only need that many points sometimes there are offers for like 250 with email sign up ect. However if I remember correctly they may take a few weeks to post. Good luck!!

 

[pooch]

The points you earn from buying one ticket won't be deposited until after you take that flight.

the points you earn for purchasing a flight do not show up until the flight is completed.

 

[DebbieB]

I posted this in the SW thread, but worried it might not get seen. Sorry for posting again!

I'm hoping someone with more SWA experience than me can help answer this question PLEASE! We are hoping to see the 50,000 points we got for signing up for the SWA credit card in our RR account tomorrow, but I think we will still be about 25 points (yes, seriously, 25 points) short of what we need to buy 3 of our 4 roundtrip tickets for our June trip. I don't really want to buy 2,000 points when we are short so few, and we also need to buy one ticket with cash anyway. So, my question is, how quickly do RR points from purchasing a ticket (the points anyone with a RR account would get, NOT the points from using the cc) show up? Is it instantaneous? I was hoping I could buy the cash ticket first, and then the new points from that would be in our account to buy the other 3 with points. That seems too easy, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. What I really don't want is to pay cash for the first ticket and then find out that we still don't have enough points, but now I'm stuck anyway since I have the first ticket.

In a related question, has anyone ever had luck calling and asking them to just give you the extra points when you are so close? I did that once with our Chase Freedom card, so I wondered. I thought we had made plenty of purchases to get the points we needed, but we have 2 purchases from yesterday that still aren't showing, and the cycle ends tomorrow, and it's the weekend...

I got the 50,000 point deal last summer, they were deposited right after my first bill was issued.

Since the number of points that you need varies based on the cost of the flight, you really will not know how many points you need until you actually go in to purchase the tickets.

 

[kolodiej]

my points have always been pretty quick, they definately dont get deposited til after flight but i dont think you need to wait for the monthly update

 

[jana616]

I got the 50,000 point deal last summer, they were deposited right after my first bill was issued.

Since the number of points that you need varies based on the cost of the flight, you really will not know how many points you need until you actually go in to purchase the tickets.

I am expecting the 50,000 points to be deposited tomorrow and was hoping to purchase our tickets then as well. As of today I need 50,400 points.