Southwest Visa cardholders: Is there a catch?

[MaleficentRN]

I got an email offer from Southwest Visa for their card, 50000 RR points after first use. I can get 3 r/t Wannagetaway tickets to Orlando with that! Even after the $99 annual fee, you can't beat it! If I charge, say $10, pay it off and never use the card again, I'll get these points? Am I wrong?

 

[donnyj]

We have the a southwest visa, and its great. Recently I received a similar offer, i remember there being a break down in how they gave you 50,000 points. I think 25,000 points were if you transferred a balance from another credit card.

 

[Lucille1963]

I just booked our flights using the 30,000 point offer from a few months ago. It was enough to fly 3 of us from Chicago to Orange County, CA and our oop cost was $7 in fees. Our return flight was $750, so even with the $99 annual fee, we came out way ahead!

 

[Mickdeb]

OP, yes you will get the 50,000 points after first use of the card. It will post about 6 weeks after, but could be sooner....check your statement online, they may post on/after your closing date. You can also earn up to an additional 10,000 points (1point/dollar) in balance transfers, though there is a 3% transfer fee.


Nicole, when you booked your flights with points, do you get one reservation for all members of your party, same as if you were booking using cash. I was reading on the transportation board, people saying that they had a confirmation number for each person in their party and it was a pain to check in online and get boarding numbers together. Now that may have been using the old RR system, I couldn't tell from the discussion.
Thanks,

 

[BSil]

No catches with the southwest card. I got the 30K point offer. Made my first charge, and a payment online the next day. I had points in my rapid rewards account within 48hours and used them to book a few round trips to disney. Be advised, you do get charged the $99 fee right away, which seems obvious, but some folks might think you get charged the next year or something.

 

[BSil]

No catches with the southwest card. I got the 30K point offer. Made my first charge, and a payment online the next day. I had points in my rapid rewards account within 48hours and used them to book a few round trips to disney. The tickets that the points didn't cover went on the card, and I got double points on those purchases. Be advised, you do get charged the $99 fee right away, which seems obvious, but some folks might think you get charged the next year or something.

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

OP, yes you will get the 50,000 points after first use of the card. It will post about 6 weeks after, but could be sooner....check your statement online, they may post on/after your closing date. You can also earn up to an additional 10,000 points (1point/dollar) in balance transfers, though there is a 3% transfer fee.


Nicole, when you booked your flights with points, do you get one reservation for all members of your party, same as if you were booking using cash. I was reading on the transportation board, people saying that they had a confirmation number for each person in their party and it was a pain to check in online and get boarding numbers together. Now that may have been using the old RR system, I couldn't tell from the discussion.
Thanks,

I got in a few months ago with the 20,000 points and $69 annual fee. My points showed up right after the first charge and posted to my RR account when the statement cut. I have found this is the better reward card for racking up points rather than my Discover or Disney Visa so I have been using it for everything and paying off every month. I'm racking up points fairly quickly!

I did book a trip and indeed we had 5 separate confirmation numbers. Since my kids are under 12 I had to attach my confirmation # to their booking. When it was time to check in I had 5 windows open with the different confirmation # in and ready to go. Right at 24 hours I hit the button on each window and we got A passes all together. On the flight home I used the Early Bird and again we were all together so I am wondering if having my # attached to the kids helped with that? Either way very small price to pay for such cheap tickets!

 

[MaleficentRN]

Thanks everyone. This could work out great for me!

 

[TnTWalter]

I am dying to get my points for a san francisco wedding I have to go to....hoping it will post sooner than later...right now 50k will just about cover 2 round trip but in a month...who knows. so need it...

of course...within days I was offered a continental for 50k and annual fee waived...so tempted!!!

 

[tkitty]

I got this offer as well as my DH and I really want to just go for it but I've been worried that I would have trouble getting 4 get-away-today tickets together. Taking the grandkids to WDW next year and if my DH thinks that there is any chance of not sitting together, he would be upset. Grandkids will be 5 and 10.
I am willing to pay extra to choose seats. I was thinking I should call and ask a few questions. It sounds like a good deal.
How much $ worth of tickets will 30,000pts get you?

 

[mommy2mygirls]

For anyone worried about getting seats together, at least with small children, they have family boarding between sections A and B. We just flew Southwest to DLR last week and with 7 of us, easily got seats together. I don't remember what the age cut off is for family boarding, but I have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 2 year old and they never questioned us or my parents who went with us.

I also have a question - are you allowed to get two cards with the 50,000 RR points in the same household? I'm seriously considering having both my DH and I open accounts. We are planning a trip to WDW in June and at the current price, tickets for the 5 of us would be $400 RT a piece. If we could both get the RR points, that would knock out 4 of the tickets, so we'd only have to pay $400 plus the $99 annual fee on each card - $600 sounds WAY better than $2000! And if the fares drop before then, we might be able to cover all five tickets for the $198 in annual fees - awesome! I can't find anywhere where it states if you can only have one card per household though.

 

[brymolmom]

To answer a few questions posted:

We got the offer back when it was 2 free r/t flights per new card. BOTH dh and I applied and received one and we used all 4 flight 'vouchers' for our WDW trip next month.

We DO have 4 DIFFERENT RESERVATIONS!!!! That is kind of a bummer. Not sure if it is always this way or just the agent I worked with. On the flight there - I'm not too worried, we will have 3 different computers setup to go right at 24 hours. For the flight home I was a bit worried, so I spent the money to get the EBCI for dd7 and myself. I figure if the two of us get on board and take an aisle and window seat then the middle seat will very likely remain empty until ds9 can make it on at his own boarding number. And then DH will be out there still to be with him so he's not alone after dd and I board. I think it'll work out.

I do recommend for any new Southwest fliers that if sitting as a family is CRITICAL to you trip plans - go ahead and spend the extra $ to get the EBCI both ways. If you have children over the age of 4 you cannot board at the family boarding time and there IS a chance that you will not sit together. This is very unlikely as long as you checking RIGHT at the 24 hour mark.

The only 'catch' for us using our free vouchers was that we had to be a bit flexible with our desired flights. I wanted direct and in order to get it - had to get there a day later and leave 2 days later than my original plan. However if I had been flexible for any available flight I could have gone on my original days.

It was a GREAT deal for us. The annual fee was only $59 times two since we both got one - add in the booking fees and EBCI and we're somewhere around $150 for 4 r/t flights from BUF to MCO!!

 

[brymolmom]

I got this offer as well as my DH and I really want to just go for it but I've been worried that I would have trouble getting 4 get-away-today tickets together. Taking the grandkids to WDW next year and if my DH thinks that there is any chance of not sitting together, he would be upset. Grandkids will be 5 and 10.
I am willing to pay extra to choose seats. I was thinking I should call and ask a few questions. It sounds like a good deal.
How much $ worth of tickets will 30,000pts get you?

FYI - YOu cannot choose seats on SW...Not even for an extra fee. What you CAN do is pay a fee for Early Bird Check In. For SW everyone on board gets a boarding pass loading number (A1,A2,A3...A60,B1,B2...C1,C2) and you board the plane in the exact order of your boarding pass. Whatever is available when you walk on the plane is where you can sit. So basically for all A boarding passes and usually most/all B boarding passes (this is greatly dependent on how many preboarders there are (wheelchairs,etc) and how many family boarding there are (families with kids 4 and under can board after A60 most of the time) - you can sit together. By the time it gets to C's - there are a few seats at the back together plus a lot of middle seat only rows.

You get your boarding pass number when you check-in, which can be done at the 24 hour mark. So if you do it exactly at 24 hours, you are likely to get a decent boarding number. EBCI does the check in FOR you before the 24 hour mark - so these people get the lowest boarding numbers. But this EBCI does cost extra. There is still no guarantee even with EBCI because if 100 people bought the EBCI BEFORE you did...that means that you'll have at least 100 people in front of you. But that usually does not happen.

 

[nchulka]

I was just checking out the southwest deal last night! My DD will be turning 10 in March and I was thinking of doing a special mother/daughter 3 day trip somewhere. I wouldn't do Disney without the rest of the family. We live in the St. Louis area. Does anyone have any ideas of a cool place to take a girl for her 10th birthday??? Last night I was basically looking at the map of the US with all the places SW flies and was totally stumped on where we should go

 

[drinkme]

I got an email offer from Southwest Visa for their card, 50000 RR points after first use. I can get 3 r/t Wannagetaway tickets to Orlando with that! Even after the $99 annual fee, you can't beat it! If I charge, say $10, pay it off and never use the card again, I'll get these points? Am I wrong?

I just signed up for this deal. I charged something the day I got my card, and it took about 4 weeks to get my 50,000 pts posted on Rapid Rewards Account.

I haven't used my points yet. I'm waiting for FD dates to be announced before I use it. If I can find some $72 fares out to Orlando, then I will have enough points for the 3 of us for 2 trips!!!!!

I'm not understanding what everyone means about having different confirmation numbers for each person in the family. When you book with the R.R. points do you have to book each ticket separately? I'm not getting it...

 

[aclov]

Is there an expiration date on when u have to book or use the flights?

 

[puffkin]

Is there an expiration date on when u have to book or use the flights?

I was going to ask the same question. I also got the offer email and we fly Southwest almost exclusively. We already have our tickets for our October trip and probably won't go again until next summer sometime.

 

[Mickdeb]

Your points won't expire as long as you "book a flight or have a partner earning activity every 24 months."

 

[drinkme]

Your points won't expire as long as you "book a flight or have a partner earning activity every 24 months."

That's right!

 

[tkitty]

We first got the offer for 30,000 pts at $69 a year. I couldn't decide. DH just got the 50,000pt offer for $99yr. I guess it's time, I'm gonna apply!
So if we got the card now, we will be charged $99 right away. I don't need the tickets till Sept. 2012. Will I have to pay $99 next year and keep the card active till I use the tickets, or as long as I purchase the tickets within the year can I cancel the card before the fee is due again.
I overthink everything.