Southwest credit card

[hegsag]

Does anyone have experience with the Southwest credit card? Is it worth it? I currently have an Marriott rewards visa that I love but was thinking of getting the southwest credit card to help with the cost of flights for a family of 4.

 

[JessM]

Right now they are doing the 50K bonus points for signing up which I personally think is a great deal! I'll be able to get 3 flights out of my bonus sign up points.

I like that when you book with points you can cancel at any time and the points go right back in your account, super convenient!

You do have to pay a yearly fee, my card is $99 but you get $99 dollars worth of points (6,000) as a yearly bonus so really its a wash if you are going to be flying every year.

I love that SW you can use the points on any flight at any time. The # of points required to book corresponds with how much the fare is. Seems like a great and fair system to me!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I luv the SWA cc. This morning I just book a r/t to wdw for this April and used 16,0000 of my 50,000 I got from the last promo they had.

If you shop online besure to log into your RR acct and do your shopping. You can often times earn bonus miles.

Last month I bought a snowblower from Home depot. The bonus was 2 point per dollar spent. Because I used the SWA CC I earn another 1 point per dollar spent making that 3 point per dollar.

The are lots of stores all with different bonus miles promo. Ebags is currently offering 12 points per dollar so if you in the market for new luggage

 

[herb102211]

We got the Southwest CC when they were giving the 50k bonus miles ( you do have to spend $2000 in the first 3 months in order to receive the points though). It worked out because we got the equivalent of about $1100 in free flights with the points.

 

[HaleyB]

If you are credit worthy you can open a personal 50k bonus card and a buisness 50k bonus card, combine points in one swa rewards account and spend another $6000 past the $2000 + $2000 needed to get the bonus points, for a total of 110,000 points.

This gives you the free companion pass, which is good the year it is earned plus the entire next year. You can use the companion pass with reward flights (you still get to use the 110,000 points) and change your designated companion three times.

Best travel reward deal I know of.

 

[hegsag]

With the points earned, can I use those points to purchase tickets for my kids too or is it just for myself? We only fly a couple of times a year but it would be worth it if I could purchase airfare for the whole family using points. However, if it was just for me then it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

With the points earned, can I use those points to purchase tickets for my kids too or is it just for myself? We only fly a couple of times a year but it would be worth it if I could purchase airfare for the whole family using points. However, if it was just for me then it wouldn't be worth it.

You can use the points for your kid. I just purchased tickets yesterday for me and hubby and used points from his acct to fund both of the tickets.
You can also use the points to rent a car or a hotel stay.

 

[HaleyB]

Yes, you can book anyone and it is really easy to do as well.

I'm holding my breath and hoping they don't change the current program. Next year my youngest will be driving and it will be 1000% easier for my DH and I to take off for short trips. The companion pass will be a deal and a half for us.

And FYI, anyone can get an AmEx business card. You don't need to have a business, or a tax ID or anything like that. Just good credit.

My plan. Cancel current AmEx cards in Oct, Apply for 50,000 point bonus cards in November, wait to use card until Jan 1st to make sure points show up in 2015. Buy $4000 worth of Disney gift cards, $6000 worth of grocery store gift cards and have a companion pass by Feb 2015 valid through Dec 2016!

I do not use credit cards for, you know, credit. I always pay off in full. I may need to carry a balance for a few months with this plan (AmEx will offer an "upgrade" to allow you to carry a balance or you can just ask for it), but I figure a few $100 even in finance charges is a pretty low price for a companion pass.

 

[conniehar90]

I have the SW card and love it. DH just did the companion pass thing this year so we are loving that. We don't fly super often but will be making an extra trip this year just because we have the pass.

I prefer the SW card because it makes me feel good earning the point for free flights. Sure, I could use another card and earn something else, but I like earning the free flights.

 

[VLee]

We have the Companion Pass now for the third straight year. And almost 400,000 built up on the account--that is after still using our points for at least 8 to 9 free flights throughout the last year and a car rental of 6 days.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Right now they are doing the 50K bonus points for signing up which I personally think is a great deal! I'll be able to get 3 flights out of my bonus sign up points.

I like that when you book with points you can cancel at any time and the points go right back in your account, super convenient!

You do have to pay a yearly fee, my card is $99 but you get $99 dollars worth of points (6,000) as a yearly bonus so really its a wash if you are going to be flying every year.

I love that SW you can use the points on any flight at any time. The # of points required to book corresponds with how much the fare is. Seems like a great and fair system to me!

There is also a card with a lower fee, $69. It earns 1 pt per $ and you don't get as many bonus points at your anniversary though.
I've had mine for years and the fee was $59 back then so I'm locked into that. I can't remember the last time we had to pay for seats for all 4 of us. We put everything on the SWA card except our mortgage & truck payment and earn a one way seat to FL approx. every other month.
It's great. I agree with pp about shopping through the RR Shopping Mall. I only wish Amazon was a participating store but still there are many to choose from.
Also for being a SWA Visa cardholder, I was sent a bonus offer for switching to a different supplier for gas & electric, Energy Plus I think it's called. It was around 12.5k for switching electric then another 3k to switch gas. Must keep with these suppliers for at least 3 months in order to get the bonus pts which I did. (Really, you could cancel them any time but then not get the bonus pts.) Then each month I get so many points according to how much my gas & electric costs.
Our bill still comes from our original G/E company, PSE&G but when it lists the electric & gas price according to our usage, it details how much it would have cost if we had stayed with PSE&G. The gas is much more expensive with Energy Plus but the electric is waaay cheaper.
So I just dropped them for the gas portion only.

Still it was a free ticket just for trying them.

 

[hegsag]

Thanks for all the info. I just got approved for the SW credit card with the 50,000 points after spending x amount over the first two months. I currently have a Marriott rewards visa card that I have been using and have approx. 38,000 points. If I were to transfer them over to SW points (assuming I can), can those points be used to accumulate points for CP?

 

[crazymomof4]

If you are credit worthy you can open a personal 50k bonus card and a buisness 50k bonus card, combine points in one swa rewards account and spend another $6000 past the $2000 + $2000 needed to get the bonus points, for a total of 110,000 points.

This gives you the free companion pass, which is good the year it is earned plus the entire next year. You can use the companion pass with reward flights (you still get to use the 110,000 points) and change your designated companion three times.
.

What is it that earns you a "companion pass"? Over 100K points? I am a new SW cardholder (about a month). I also got the Chase Sapphire Preferred and transferred 47K points over to SW rewards so all told, I'll have over 100K points very soon.