Southwest Visa cardholders: Is there a catch?

[puffkin]

Got my card yesterday! I am planning on only using this card to pay my monthly bills (and then pay the card instead to rack up those points). If I pay my cable bill today with the card, will that count as a purchase?

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I am finding that when trying to book using points is difficult. They say there are no black out dates but they pull a bait and switch. If I try to book a fare that shows it will take 8,500 points when I select the flight I get an error and they say it will now take 12,000 points.

I have tryed this on different flights , different days, & different airports and 9 times out of 10 I can't get a flight for the points posted.

Here is the message.

We are unable to secure the price for the flight you selected.
The next lowest available fare(s) for the flights you selected are listed below. If you accept the new price, please select Accept and Continue to proceed. If not, select Modify Flight(s) to make new fare and flight selections. We sincerely apologize about the inconvenience.
For additional information about pricing issues which may be the cause of this message, please see more information about our fare combinability rules.
If you continue to have difficulties, please contact a Southwest Airlines Customer Representative for assistance at 1-800-I-FLY-SWA (1-800-435-9792).
The next lowest is 12,000 points!

 

[candy0730]

I am finding that when trying to book using points is difficult. They say there are no black out dates but they pull a bait and switch. If I try to book a fare that shows it will take 8,500 points when I select the flight I get an error and they say it will now take 12,000 points.

I have tryed this on different flights , different days, & different airports and 9 times out of 10 I can't get a flight for the points posted.

Here is the message.

We are unable to secure the price for the flight you selected.
The next lowest available fare(s) for the flights you selected are listed below. If you accept the new price, please select Accept and Continue to proceed. If not, select Modify Flight(s) to make new fare and flight selections. We sincerely apologize about the inconvenience.
For additional information about pricing issues which may be the cause of this message, please see more information about our fare combinability rules.
If you continue to have difficulties, please contact a Southwest Airlines Customer Representative for assistance at 1-800-I-FLY-SWA (1-800-435-9792).
The next lowest is 12,000 points!

This system glitch has already been addressed earlier in this thread. If you call SW you will be able to book at the lower point amount.

 

[Debbru]

Jumping in with another question about the Chase Southwest 50,000 pt offer...

DH & I each got this offer (50,000 pts, 3,000 annual bonus, $69 annual fee). If we both got the cards, could we:

Use approximately (using this year's pts as a rough estimate) 36,000 pts for both of our round trip plane tickets to California in Sept. 2012 and use the remaining points to get gift cards?

Thinking 50,000 + 50,000 + 3,000 + 3,000 = 106,000 pts. total after 1 year

minus 36,000ish for flights = 70,000 = 14 $50 gift cards to Walmart (where we grocery shop) or Amazon for Xmas shopping, etc.

So we would get approx. $600 worth of airfare & $700 worth of gift cards for $276 (annual fee 69 each x 2 years). Is this right?

Thanks for any input!

 

[wgwtgb]

so it looks like I missed out of the 50k pt. reward... I can only find a 25k and one flight offer now. Does anyone have any idea when they may boost it back up. I tried to find a history of rewards (kinda like a history of Disney's free dining dates ) but couldn't find any.