Southwest is giving 50,000 points again

[firstwdw]

Just was on Southwest's site and they are offering the 50,000 rapid rewards point credit card deal AGAIN!!!!

 

[bjscheel]

Got our 50,000 posted on DH's card, now he's charging fuel on my card, so we should have our second 50,000 by mid-March when that statement closes.

I wish I had done this a little differently though. After we each signed up for a card, I applied for a business card for DH. It was declined for having too many Chase cards. If I had planned better, I think I would have applied for DH and for the business card, and not for mine- then the rewards could have been combined.

With any luck though, I'll be able to use up almost all of the points on one card- this might mean booking our 4 one-way tix to San Diego plus 1 one-way ticket back, then the other 3 coming back on the other rewards account. Then I'll cancel one card and keep the one that still has points left.

At least I hope I'll have points left- prices have crept up a little since I first started checking them. And I'm not booking until at least mid-March for a June trip. Hope I get a deal! I'm nervous booking with points for the first time- I'll probably be back here for advice!

 

[elgerber]

Got our 50,000 posted on DH's card, now he's charging fuel on my card, so we should have our second 50,000 by mid-March when that statement closes.

I wish I had done this a little differently though. After we each signed up for a card, I applied for a business card for DH. It was declined for having too many Chase cards. If I had planned better, I think I would have applied for DH and for the business card, and not for mine- then the rewards could have been combined.

With any luck though, I'll be able to use up almost all of the points on one card- this might mean booking our 4 one-way tix to San Diego plus 1 one-way ticket back, then the other 3 coming back on the other rewards account. Then I'll cancel one card and keep the one that still has points left.

At least I hope I'll have points left- prices have crept up a little since I first started checking them. And I'm not booking until at least mid-March for a June trip. Hope I get a deal! I'm nervous booking with points for the first time- I'll probably be back here for advice!

Is there any reason you can't use your dh points to book as many as possible now, in case the points go up? and then book the rest with yours when you get them?

 

[bjscheel]

Is there any reason you can't use your dh points to book as many as possible now, in case the points go up? and then book the rest with yours when you get them?

I could and I have thought about it. But, I wanted to do them at the same time in order to find the two dates that have the best price for the length of time we want. Our dates can be flexible according to flight prices.

I also haven't decided on dates because I want to go early as possible in June, but I don't know when school will get out yet. (Having another snow day today, and next week school will close a day or two or three for the state basketball tournament...) I figure by the time my points hit in mid-March we will have a good idea when the last day of school is.

Finally, I have to figure out if we're flying from Omaha or Des Moines. Des Moines has a bit better prices, is closer, and is easy to navigate, but there is just one flight per day and the times stink! If we go to Omaha, my SIL can drive our van back to her place and we'll save on parking.

So yeah, lots of things to consider

And I understand that if I book with points, and find better prices later, I can just get my excess points credited back- that's one reason to book now, if I just could decide on my dates.

 

[kelcoppens]

Can you apply for a second card? Or is it safer to apply under my husband's name and SS #?

 

[bjscheel]

Can you apply for a second card? Or is it safer to apply under my husband's name and SS #?

Are you saying you already have a SW Rewards cc in your name and you want another one? If so, I think you'll need to do it in your husband's name. Or if you have a business, apply for the business card.

 

[cjnix29]

Ok, so excited...just realized I can book SW out of GRR even before it actually becomes a SW airport! Which means no change fees, no baggage fees, and I don't have to convert my rewards! Have to figure out if I can apply for the business card!!

 

[refinnej]

We did this offer in September 2012 when it was around. 4 cards later (2 apiece, 1 personal and 1 business), the four of us have flown to California, will fly to WDW, and two other trips this year on the companion pass. 4 for the price of 2 is so worth it. Plus we are using miles only and paying a small fee on taxes.

We also have a Starwood card that had bonus miles on it so we are staying at the Swan on points.

I gave my DH such a hard time about all the cards, but this was so worth it. The money we needed to spend we would have anyway between day care, summer camp and stupid Costco runs anyway. Just changed what card we used.

 

[rcepek]

New to this...so is it better to do 1 card or 2? Looking at end of Sept through beginning of Oct for 4 but SW dates not out yet? How do I calculate how many points we'll need & what is better option? how many seats will 50k points get us & what is the difference between wanna get away seats and normal seats?

 

[elgerber]

New to this...so is it better to do 1 card or 2? Looking at end of Sept through beginning of Oct for 4 but SW dates not out yet? How do I calculate how many points we'll need & what is better option? how many seats will 50k points get us & what is the difference between wanna get away seats and normal seats?

My thought would always be two individual cards is better than one, so you can have double points. If you have points left, then you will just have to plan another trip

 

[bjscheel]

New to this...so is it better to do 1 card or 2? Looking at end of Sept through beginning of Oct for 4 but SW dates not out yet? How do I calculate how many points we'll need & what is better option? how many seats will 50k points get us & what is the difference between wanna get away seats and normal seats?

Wanna get away seats are way cheaper than regular. For instance, for our days and destinations, the WGA seats are about 8000 points and the regular are about 48,000 points.

Try looking at some closer dates for your destination and that might give you an idea of how many points you'll need. They will vary of course. We are doing Des Moines or Omaha to San Diego, and then Santa Ana to DM or Omaha, in June. When I first started looking, it was about 8000 points each way. At the moment they range from 7400 to 10000 or so. May tickets are cheaper, so summer is probably higher cost. Let's say I average 9000 points each ticket. We'll have about 52,000 points on each card. I can buy 5 one-way tickets with the rewards on one card, and 3 one-way tickets with the other rewards account. We'll have 7000 points left on one and 25,000 left on the other.

I'll cancel the card with only 7000 points, and concentrate on building up points on the other so we can save on at least part of our flights to Florida next year.

 

[2littleprincesses]

How many times a year does this promotion come out? Or is it just once a year? Thanks!

 

[rszdtrvl]

Just checked my account, and my points posted!! YAY!!

Now we just need to get our p's and q's in order so DH and I can book our VEGAS trip for July!

 

[mm1971]

Just checked my account, and my points posted!! YAY!!

Now we just need to get our p's and q's in order so DH and I can book our VEGAS trip for July!

Waiting for our new bonus points to post. Already booked flights for August with the older ones. Good luck in Vegas.

 

[sethschroeder]

Hmmm. Wonder if we can get the card, book the free flights, then cancel the card? What's the fine print on this?

Fine print is that your credit score takes a hit for stuff like that.

 

[JDUCKY]

Fine print is that your credit score takes a hit for stuff like that.

Not necessarily. It still counts as a potential hit against average age of accounts but that depends upon how many accounts a person has and what their age is. May not be a hit at all.

Also, might see a temporary increase if the overall credit utilization drops due to the new higher total credit line the new card adds. But that would go away once the card was canceled. It will then remain on a credit report for ten years as a closed account.

 

[elaine amj]

Look up some blogs on credit card churning. We churn and DH has excellent credit. We even refinanced our mortgage in a year where we churnes abnumber of cards...with no problems at all.

Right now we're churning a little less because Dh had a fraud alert. So all applications require a follow up call.

 

[DisneyDreamer0610]

Sorry what is cc churning? I got the sw cc offer for 50,000 points but the fine print says I have to purchase like 1,000-5,000$$$ before points are awarded within the first 3 months and u can't do a balance transfer to get the point it HAS to be all new purchases ... Sorry a little dumb w money and credit cards but very interested! Thanks for explaining!

 

[ICF]

Fine print is that your credit score takes a hit for stuff like that.

that would fall under, much ado about nothing....

 

[elaine amj]

CC churning means applying for multiple credit cards for their bonuses, cancel them and then start over again. We started churning a few years ago and are still pretty new about it. We don't do it systematically like the big guys, but we probably apply for about 6-8 credit cards a year. Typically the bonus has to be worth $200 or more for us to apply. Anything under that is not worth "wasting" an application. As recommended by the experts. We keep the cards at least 11months before cancelling. most of our cards have annual fees that are waived the first year so we cancel before the first year is up.

I prioritize hotel nights and flights. This year southwest is saving us a bundle.

I am watchful for things like minimum spend. There's a card I want now but it has a $10K minimum spend and I can't meet that. I just applied for the chase ink bold with a $5k min spend. I have been putting that off because that's a bit too much for me. But then I decided to buy 10 day no expiring passes for all of us and that will be abt $2700. Then I only have $2300 to spend in the next 3 months, and I should be able to manage that. I also applied for a 3rd Southwest CC and that one has a $2k min spend. I'm still trying to juggle that one...but I think I will just use Amazon payments for that (google it to find out how to use it).

It does take time and effort to juggle but its worth it to us. 2 families I'm close to...I have spent some time explaining what we do, but its too much work for them so neither have done it. This year, we have about 10-12 hotel nights, 14 round trip flights, and other odds and ends. So it has worked out beautifully for us. Ppl ask how we can afford to travel so much. Well, this is the only way.