SWA 50K bonus saved big

[boswellnakia]

I just used my 50K bonus points plus a few extras that I had to book my Christmas flights to Disney. For the three of us, I saved $1,286.10! I'm so excited. Staying at AKL Villas on points for a week that are free. I just have to pay for tickets and meals and we can't wait!

 

[mdsd8700]

Congrats that is great!! What a wonderful Christmas gift

We also have the 50,000 SW points and will use for a trip next year, haven't decided when yet. We will use our DVC points and already have tickets. So meals and souvenirs is all that will be out of pocket. Not a bad deal.

Have a Great Trip!

 

[Greysword]

I just used my 50K bonus points plus a few extras that I had to book my Christmas flights to Disney. For the three of us, I saved $1,286.10! I'm so excited.

Credit card sign up bonuses can really help with the transportation costs. Some cards also have continuous benefits like companion certificates and baggage fee waivers. In fact, I recommend using your good credit to work for you in this manner. Boardingarea.com has quite a few blogs on the topic.

Staying at AKL Villas on points for a week that are free.

This is a bit of a misnomer, since DVC points are pretty expensive to acquire and maintain. How did you get free points?

 

[ain0004]

I am thinking on signing on with SW and dumping my American Express delta card. I love Delta and free bag check is nice. But they only offer non stop out of DTW> Southwest has non stops out of DTW, DAY And CMH. I am just waiting on a good sign on bonus!

 

[mitchwebb]

Bought 5 ticket from MCO to San Jose for return trip on 1/3/14 but still waiting on tickets down. Not really sure of day yet. This worked out well for our family of 5. I had 114,00 points and DH has 53,000. To top it off our flight home from Portland on Tuesday was canceled and we were each givien a $100 dollar credit. We were put on a plane three hours and two glasses of wine later.

 

[kristenrice]

I've accumulated about 56,000 points (including the 50,000 bonus) and I booked airfare for DH and I for this November. We're paying the $10 9/11 fee and a whopping 18,976 points for both of us. At that rate, we have enough points left to cover all 4 tickets for our family trip next October.

For November, I used SWA points to pay for our airfare, I covered one AP with my Sunshine Rewards/Ebates cash out, we're staying at AKV on our DVC points, and I have $400 in AMEX and Disney Visa rewards to cover anything we charge to the room (i.e. our food!). So, DH and I are taking a nice adults-only trip for about the cost of one AP.

 

[bjscheel]

I was so happy to find out about that too! We weren't going to go to CA this year unless I could find a way to make it cheaper. We got them in each of our names and are flying to CA for (almost) free- just had to pay those $5 fees and the cc's annual fees. We have quite a bit of points leftover that I am hoping to add to and stretch into another free flight next year. DH charges a lot for business, so if I need more I can have him use the SW card for a while.

The best part about booking with SW points, besides being "free", was that if you change your itinerary or rebook at lower points, you just get points back in your account, instead of a credit with a time limitation. So I would love to always fly on points, but unless I have DH use the SW primarily, we won't be able to get much more than 2 trips out of it. I'm not sure if we're better off getting the SW points or 2% cashback on his charging.

 

[hsmamato2]

Bought 5 ticket from MCO to San Jose for return trip on 1/3/14 but still waiting on tickets down. Not really sure of day yet. This worked out well for our family of 5. I had 114,00 points and DH has 53,000. To top it off our flight home from Portland on Tuesday was canceled and we were each givien a $100 dollar credit. We were put on a plane three hours and two glasses of wine later.

did you mean 114,000,or 14,000? if it's the first,then you should also have companion pass...which is the best thing in the world....

 

[mitchwebb]

No 114,000, but unfortunately I did not understand all the ins and outs of SW. I received 50,000 in 2012 and the next 50,000 in 2013. Need to have the 110,000 on the same year to receive the companion pass. Now my DH is in schedule to get a companion pass by the end of this year.