SouthWest Visa CC vs. Disney Rewards Visa CC

[BWV Dreamin]

I already have a Disney Rewards Visa CC. I have been using it to rack up the Disney Rewards Dollars. However, in the next two years, I will be flying more than usual. Is the SouthWest Visa CC worth it? It does have an annual fee of $59.

 

[dudspizza]

I already have a Disney Rewards Visa CC. I have been using it to rack up the Disney Rewards Dollars. However, in the next two years, I will be flying more than usual. Is the SouthWest Visa CC worth it? It does have an annual fee of $59.

I have both a Disney Visa and American Airlines MC. I stopped using the Disney Visa as I was only able to earn money that could be spent at Disney. The airline card allows me to fly anywhere I need to go, including Disney. I like the flexibility of the AA card. I feel it is very much worth the annual fee. I rack up between 50,000-100,000 miles a year on the card with all of the incentives they offer. It felt like it was taking forever to earn Disney rewards.

It makes me laugh when I check in for a flight using miles. The agents always say, oh, your flying on miles, you know the routine then.... I don't tell them that I have only paid for 2 flights on AA, the rest have been free via my CC.

Duds

 

[DebbieB]

I got the SW card one year to get the credits I needed for a free ticket. Then cancelled it before the renewal to avoid another fee. It's good if you know you will be flying SW. My problem was that there were no award flights on the day I wanted to travel to MCO, I had to go a day early, which took away some of the benefit.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I got the SW card one year to get the credits I needed for a free ticket. Then cancelled it before the renewal to avoid another fee. It's good if you know you will be flying SW. My problem was that there were no award flights on the day I wanted to travel to MCO, I had to go a day early, which took away some of the benefit.

So there are black out dates? How exactly do you know what dates your credits are good for?

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I got the SW card one year to get the credits I needed for a free ticket. Then cancelled it before the renewal to avoid another fee. It's good if you know you will be flying SW. My problem was that there were no award flights on the day I wanted to travel to MCO, I had to go a day early, which took away some of the benefit.

So there are blackout dates? How do you know what dates you can't use the credits on?

I did just apply today. Thru FlyerTalk.com, a poster posted a link in which I got free first year (no $59 annual fee), $500 gift cards for spending $5000 in 3 mos (I have a BCV contract to pay off! ), 8 credits for balance transfers, and 2 credits on your anniversary date. So it was worth a try for one year! Any other info you might have to pass along?

 

[HappyHappy]

Can you share the link? I checked on Flyertalk. The promo I found did not mention "first year free". Thanks

 

[BWV Dreamin]

http://www.mychasecreditcards.com//6000054/Default.aspx
I called the 1-800 number to apply and she read off everything in the link! Also, I do not live in Denver....

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Updated (posted wrong link)
http://www.mychasecreditcards.com//6000054/Default.aspx

 

[quagmire0]

That Southwest CC promo is the best I've ever been a part of. Got one free RT after first purchase, then got the 100/150/200 gift cards as well. Was able to pay for my and DS' airfare in June, then sold the extra gift cards on Plastic Jungle for cash. On top of that, because I had a few past credits and earned more credits through using the card and other promos, I just got awarded another free RT ticket today.

Only downside is that Chase/Southwest were really slow with the gift cards. We got the $100 after a while, then we got the $200, then finally we got the $150 a week or so later. But I did get a free RR credit for sending a message to Chase inquiring about the cards, so that was cool.

Had no problems applying the free RT ticket for a Saturday flight in June. Not sure when the blackout dates would be.

 

[DebbieB]

So there are black out dates? How exactly do you know what dates your credits are good for?

From the SW website:

Rapid Rewards Standard Awards are subject to seat restrictions, and seats will not be available for Standard Award travel on all flights on all days. It may be particularly difficult to secure a seat to popular destinations around holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, President’s Day, some weekends during Spring Break, Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day to popular destinations.
If you ask to use an Award on a date for which no seats are available to the city you request, we will accommodate you on the nearest date for which seats are available.

The flights I wanted (morning or afternoon) on the date I had my room reserved for had no award tickets when I checked the first day they came out. There was one arriving late night but I had plans to meet friends for dinner that night (it was a group trip to celebrate a friends birthday).

 

[kmermaid]

I have had a SWA cc for about 4 years now. In the beginning it was very easy to book reward flights. Now if you are traveling at a busy time(ie summer) you had better know when the schedule comes out the first day and be flexible with your times. I need six seats for june 2011, arriving on sun and departing on sat (staying at BCV 2bdr so my dates are what they are). No such luck with regular rewards, now I'm socking away my cc purchases on the swa cc so I can convert 2 regular rewards into one freedom reward. I'll probably get 4 seats, maybe 5 but not 6. Don't want to scare you off the cc though, I still love it and I had no trouble with booking 2 regular reward seats for my Jan trip just last week.

 

[kristenrice]

I have the Blue Sky card from AMEX and I LOVE it.

I opened it when I got a promo offer in the mail for 30,000 bonus points if I made $500 in purchases in the first 6 months. I looked into what "30,000 points" would get me and I was really surprised. For every 7,500 points you earn, you get $100 in "travel" credit. This means that you just charge your travel purchase to your AMEX and when the bill comes, you can apply points in 7,500 ($100) increments to cover any or all of the expense. I have been able to redeem my points for hotels, UCT tickets and resort charges at WDW. There is no annual fee for the "base" card. Mine has been upgraded so that I earn double points on gas, cellular bills and I think restaurants. I pay a $39 annual fee but I more than make that up in what I earn on gas expenses (2 full-size SUV's in our family) and our family plan wireless bill. I was recently offered another "upgrade" for a $79 annual fee, they'd add three more categories of double points and I would receive an additional $100 travel credit every year. I declined since the added categories were not ones that I would use.

I like it because there is so much flexibility for redemption. In addition to the travel credit (which covers hotel expenses, rental cars, airfare, cruises...anything categorized as "travel"), you can also redeem for AMEX gift cards, statement credits or cash. The "value" is much better for the travel credits (7,500 points gets you $100 credit) vs. the gift cards (3,500 points gets you $25, or something like that). You are also not tying yourself down to one airline when you want to redeem for flights. You just find an airfare on an airline that you want to use, book the flight and request your statement credit when the bill comes. You don't even have to redeem enough to entirely cover the ticket. If your ticket costs $350, you can redeem $100, $200, $300 or $400, but you don't get "change".

 

[Horse]

http://www.mychasecreditcards.com//6000054/Default.aspx
I called the 1-800 number to apply and she read off everything in the link! Also, I do not live in Denver....

Like Dreamin said, you don't have to live in Denver to get the promo. I signed up for it in Sept and received the free RT ticket, the first year fee free, and the $500 in gift cards after meeting all the purchase qualifications.

Only downside is that Chase/Southwest were really slow with the gift cards. We got the $100 after a while, then we got the $200, then finally we got the $150 a week or so later. But I did get a free RR credit for sending a message to Chase inquiring about the cards, so that was cool.

All my gift cards came immediately after I earned them. I do know after reading about the WN promo on a FF forum, the delay seemed to be early on in the promotion when they had a large influx of new applicants who earned the gift cards and Chase ran out of them temporarily. Some even received an additional credit or half credit applied to their FF account for the inconvenience. Now that the promo has been out a while, the gift cards are being sent out quite quickly.

 

[HappyHappy]

Thank you BWV Dreamin!!