Southwest Airline Rapid Reward??

[log]

Has anyone joined this to take advantage of the discount to SeaWorld?

Any other 'ties' that come with membership?

Did you remain a member?

Can you cancel at anytime?

Pros and cons?

 

[MissSwish]

The RR program does not cost a thing! It's like an airline mileage club, that helps you earn free trips. They also offer discounts with partner affiliates.

I have not used the Seaworld discount, but have earned points using Alamo and Hertz rental cars. No hassles, no annoying mailings or telephone calls.

DH and I will be using our two free RT air tickets at the end of April. We earned these tickets by being frequent fliers.

I vote go for it!

 

[mrsboz]

We just joined to take advantage of the Seaworld discount. I say why not join it doesn't cost anything.

 

[mikesmom]

Rapid Rewards is the BEST!! You earn points (airline miles) every time you use it - not just when you fly. Our strategy is to use it for everything - I literally do not carry money. Groceries, office supplies, bookstore, college tuition - everything. Only buying things I normally would pay outright or write a check for. You'd be amazed how fast it adds up. Then we are scrupulous to pay it off at the end of every month. If you start paying interest, it eats all the benefits. Anyway, Rapid Rewards earns a round trip ticket every 16000 points (unlike other air miles programs that are usually 25000 to 30000 points). DH also has a card and Southwest aggregates the points under one number. In addition, we get points when one of us actually does have to fly on business and we book Southwest.

To cut to the chase, we have not paid for a flight to WDW in over 5 years. That covers myself ,DH, DS and occasionally other family members. Rapid Rewards is awesome!!!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by mikesmom
Rapid Rewards is the BEST!! You earn points (airline miles) every time you use it - not just when you fly. Our strategy is to use it for everything - I literally do not carry money. Groceries, office supplies, bookstore, college tuition - everything. Only buying things I normally would pay outright or write a check for. You'd be amazed how fast it adds up. Then we are scrupulous to pay it off at the end of every month. If you start paying interest, it eats all the benefits. Anyway, Rapid Rewards earns a round trip ticket every 16000 points (unlike other air miles programs that are usually 25000 to 30000 points). DH also has a card and Southwest aggregates the points under one number. In addition, we get points when one of us actually does have to fly on business and we book Southwest.

To cut to the chase, we have not paid for a flight to WDW in over 5 years. That covers myself ,DH, DS and occasionally other family members. Rapid Rewards is awesome!!!

How do you use your rapid rewards card to buy groceries, etc?
Are you talking about a linked credit card, or the card you use when you fly to accrue airline miles?

 

[log]

Is the Rapid Reward membership a credit card that you apply for? Or is it just a membership (like to a club)?

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by log
Is the Rapid Reward membership a credit card that you apply for? Or is it just a membership (like to a club)?

Rapid Rewards is a frequent flier program. http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/

 

[mark & sandra]

Hey Gail I think mikesmom means the southwest credit card that is issued by southwest. Every dollar spent is automatically posted onto your rapid reward account. Each time you reach your goal of 16000 pts. you receive a free roundtrip ticket. I use it for every thing. If you are going to write a check for it, use the card instead. Be creative, car payment, mortgage, food shopping, as long as you don't plan on leaving a balance at the end of the month, why not use the card and pay it off completely each month? You can even go 1 further. My account date closes on the 14th of each month, so any purchases after the 14th don't show up until the next months bill with the full grace period to pay it off.

mikesmom- we haven't paid for a plane ticket in 4 years either! This year we even got a 1 year free companion pass! It's a great system. I'm just waiting for someone to mess this good thing up like they always seem to.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Thanks Mark & Sandra,
It appears that mikesmom is talking about something different than the Rapid Rewards Program. I believe she was speaking of the Rapid Rewards Visa Signature Card which is a whole different ball game.
It is also a great program.

 

[log]

So, am I understanding this correctly:

I can join either the RR Visa or the frequent flyer to get SeaWorld discount?

We're not really frequent flyers, so that doesn't really interest me. So, if it were just the frequent flyer pgm then I would be prone to not stay a member...is that OK????

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by log
So, am I understanding this correctly:

I can join either the RR Visa or the frequent flyer to get SeaWorld discount?

We're not really frequent flyers, so that doesn't really interest me. So, if it were just the frequent flyer pgm then I would be prone to not stay a member...is that OK????

I don't know what the bennies are for the Visa card, I would imagine they are on SWA's website. I do know that the Rapid Rewards (ff) does give you a 20% on SeaWorld tickets. I would imagine you could join and quit later, it costs nothing, why bother to quit?

 

[gene2geno]

A few people have commented that you only need 16,000 points to earn a free flight. However, when I went to the Southwest airlines website to learn more about the credit card I understood it to read that I would earn one credit for every $1,200 dollars spent, or every 1,200 points earned. If I am understanding it correctly I would have to earn 19,200 points (1,200 points X 16 credits) to earn a free flight. This is still a lot better than the 25,000 points needed at other airlines but not quite as good as only having to earn 16,000 points.

 

[gw_lit]

Even if you never fly Southwest, you can still join Rapid Rewards and enjoy the benefits of the membership. Its simply a frequent flier club, just like American Airlines AAdvantage, or Delta SkyMiles, United Mileage Plus, Northwest WorldPerks, USAir Dividend Miles, Continental OnePass, etc.

Right now Rapid Rewards members get discounts at SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Space Center Houston, Hertz and others. Promotions and discounts change from time to time but many times you can get discounts with Southwest's other rental car partners (Alamo, Budget and Dollar) and their hotel partners (Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, LaQuinta, and Choice Hotels).

Theoretically, you could earn a free ticket on Southwest in a year without even stepping foot on one of their planes, and without using their Visa card, by doing business with their partners above and others listed on Southwest's website. I don't think that you could get the SeaWorld discount with just the Southwest Visa card, I think you need to belong to Rapid Rewards. (I'm sure they assume that if you have a Southwest Visa card, you're going to be a member of Rapid Rewards anyway since you want to earn the points for your credit card purchases.)

 

[mikesmom]

Gene:
Excuse me, you are correct. They recently made the change to having $1200 get a point. It used to be a one-to-one. But also right, it's still a good deal!

Gail:
I am kind of confusing the VISA card with the Rapid Rewards program. You can have Rapid Rewards without the credit card. But there is the Rapid Rewards credit card which sends the points to the RR number.

Mark and Sandra- we've been getting that Companion Pass for about 5 years! I couldn't believe it the first time either. Doesn't make sense to me that they would let a Companion fly for free even if the primary flyer was using a free ticket. It's like having doubling the value of the free tickets they send.!