Your Best Southwest (or any airline) Discount Tips and Tricks?

[aliceindisneyland]

Thanks again, you guys! Haha I'm probably the only person who lives in Phoenix who can't wait for it to hit 100+ each day, so even with humidity, summer in FL sounds good to me...but my family might disagree!
@#17 Cherry Tree Lane Hi! So many Disneyland and Dodger fans out here, Phx is like a suburb of CA!
@MommaBerd Hi! That would be a fun time to go! Thanks for the info!

 

[Texans_loyal]

about the heat...it's nothing like AZ.
I am from Houston, our weather is very similar to Orlando's and i can barely do it. I almost passed out last August.

 

[melst5]

You can use your points for anyone.

Thank you!

 

[WaywardMemphian]

You were asking August or September, and if you can do September, I would. I was just poking around Southwest's site today and airfares were much cheaper for my preferred trip in Sept than in August.
PHX to MCO nonstop for $400 is good - I have family there and was surprised how pricey it's gotten to fly there! Quite the destination these days!

The gift cards at Sam's is a 4% discount ($480 for a $500 gc online), plus if you are a Plus Member you get another 4% back. Time it right and use a Chase Freedom during a bonus period and get another 5% back and the I love. Redit Cards thread taught me about the Disney Vacation Accounts for another 2% back on rooms and cruises.

As an aside on Southwest, if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve book flights through their call in number, it's a better deal than even transferring the points to Southwest as they are valued at 1.5 cents per point vs 1.4 or less through Southwest Rapid Rewards. It's better to transfer to Southwest if it's just a Sapphire Preferred as they are only worth 1.25 via Chase.

 

[penjen]

Since everyone here seems very knowledgeable about southwest, I have a question. I have credits from a recent vacation, can I use the credits along with southwest points or does the rest need to be bought via credit card?

 

[brownhaired_girl]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-164#post-57495774
I have been learning a lot from this thread. The southwest credit cards have a low spend per card for the points received. you and your husband can each sign up for 2 cards to use to pay for your bills and maybe tickets and you might get close to getting your flights very cheap/free by the time you are done.

 

[Alexle2007]

Since everyone here seems very knowledgeable about southwest, I have a question. I have credits from a recent vacation, can I use the credits along with southwest points or does the rest need to be bought via credit card?[you

You can't mix credits with points on Southwest. You would need to put any balance on a credit card or gift card. And the credit can only be used by the person whose name the credit is in.

 

[mfly]

The gift cards at Sam's is a 4% discount ($480 for a $500 gc online), plus if you are a Plus Member you get another 4% back.

Just an FYI - Sam's terms for cash rewards state that gift cards (among other things like milk, fuel, and stamps) are not qualifying purchases for cash rewards for Plus members.

 

[WaywardMemphian]

Thought they did. Sorry.

Any hoo, Southwest gift cards can be picked up at Grocery stores and Drug stores for 5% back on Freedom right now.
The local grocery around here has $500 Southwest cards so the larger denomination will help circumvent the limit on how many you can use.

I paid for my U2 tickets in Dallas using Stub Hub gift cards this way.

 

[JKalai]

If you are going to apply for a Chase Southwest, I would recommend going for the second card to get the companion pass. It's very well worth it if you plan to travel a lot with someone.

Me and my s/o have already taken a trip to San Francisco, have a trip for New York next month, and have Orlando booked for August and still have 67,000 points left over.

 

[WaywardMemphian]

If you are going to apply for a Chase Southwest, I would recommend going for the second card to get the companion pass. It's very well worth it if you plan to travel a lot with someone.

Me and my s/o have already taken a trip to San Francisco, have a trip for New York next month, and have Orlando booked for August and still have 67,000 points left over.

And time it so that the points post as early in the year as possible. It's good for the year it's earned AND the following year.

The two closest airports to us are Tulsa and Memphis with Southwest service. To fly Southwest on points beyond point to point via connecting, the points needed go way up. We have found that you can maximize points by checking many how many it takes to go from the connecting airport to the end destination. Sometimes it takes less points if you want to spent a day or two between the flights at the connecting city. Searching their fare sales can put together a nice little two to three city, week long itenerary.

The current price online eat Sam's for a $500 dollar Southwest Card is 485.98. Time the purchase when a card like Freedom has membership clubs as a bonus category 5% or some other percentage.

A story, when I first got my Chase Sapphire Reserve while it was still 100,000 bonus points I used it to buy a new kitchen appliance suite to meet the minimum spend. Our appliances were 16 years old. It just so happened that JCPENNY'S via the Reserve shopping portal was offering 6% back at the time, I double checked their prices against the major competition and they were the same or slightly better, so I bought them via the shopping portal. We went with some higher end Samsung stuff and it was a little over 35,000 points in the end while meeting my min spent in one fell swoop.

We recently bought some lazy boy furniture and Southwest's shopping portal was giving two percent back via La z Boy. We went to the local La z Boy gallery to see if their deal on the piece we wanted was any better. It wasn't the same discount as the sale prices online. So we got the fabric codes and ordered it online.

The point is to check via the shopping portals and even though both are chase cards the points vary from shopping portal to shopping portal. La z boy isn't even listed through Reserve site but was via Southwest.

 

[krd315]

We love Southwest for value, 2 free checked bags and being able to make changes if necessary. Also check surrounding airports when pricing tickets. We live in San Antonio, TX but drive 1.5hrs to Austin,TX and save $100-$150 per ticket. With a family of 6 so its a significant savings.

 

[cam757]

We just flew SW from MCO yesterday. The flight left on time and we landed 20 minutes early. We don't fly much but the last few times we have flown it has been SW. I have never had a problem with a flight. Sometimes the aircraft seems a bit dated, like the flight to MCO last week. It was older 737, it did not have wifi and it was hot on the plane until we got up to cruising altitude. The flight home made up for it though. I am not real crazy about the boarding method, but it works. I would definitely suggest getting the SW app for your phone. I set an alarm for my phone at the 24 hour mark so that I could do early check in. We have always been able to get in the first B boarding group and have never had to sit separately. Also, I would recommend checking fares periodically after you book. Last month I booked a September flight to Ft. Lauderdale with my reward points. I think it was around 13k points per ticket. Yesterday, as we were waiting to take off so I checked the rate and it had dropped almost in half so I used the "manage flight" function on the app and rebooked at the new rate and was refunded over 6k points per ticket. Now I have more points to go back to Orlando!! Yay!!

 

[mcjw2011]

Another tip is if you're traveling on SW as a family, they allow families to board after the 'A' group boards. This usually works whenever families want to sit together, but not always.

 

[miztressuz]

Another tip is if you're traveling on SW as a family, they allow families to board after the 'A' group boards. This usually works whenever families want to sit together, but not always.

If you have a child under 6 travelling with you. And it only supposed to be 1 adult per qualifying child but I've never seen that enforced. They usually say something like 'immediate family only' at the gate as it's not intended for a whole extended travelling party.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Just one thing to note about Southwest: you can only use 4 forms of payment. So if the gift cards are lower denominations it might not work to pay for it all. You can use 3 gift cards at the most and the rest on a credit card if the gift cards don't cover it. Purchasing separate tickets will help with that. Oh and there is no way that I have found to be able to combine them onto one card like you can with Disney.

Also, just an FYI: Southwest doesn't have assigned seats. You get a boarding number when you check-in which you can do 24 hrs in advance unless you pay extra or have something special (business class for example). If you do separate tickets you will need to check-in for each one. If you get B2 and your 13yo gets B13 and your 10yo gets B30, you could all board with the 10yo at B30 but not all with you at B2. They don't usually watch it too close but if you get just the right person (either employee or other passenger) it could be an issue. Make sure you check-in at the 24 hour mark. On the planes I was just on there was A-C each with 1-60. I checked-in exactly 24 hrs and got B15, so there were 74 people that got to board before I did. That wasn't a big deal because it was a large plane and there was only my husband and I. If, however, there are more than 3 people (3 people per row) I am sure you will all want to sit together and with your daughter's anxiety you will probably want her to be able to sit where she thinks will be the most comfortable. Oh and the family boarding is only for families with children less than 6.

But you can call SWA and they will be able to process your purchase if you have to use more than 3 gift cards.

 

[mcjw2011]

If you have a child under 6 travelling with you. And it only supposed to be 1 adult per qualifying child but I've never seen that enforced. They usually say something like 'immediate family only' at the gate as it's not intended for a whole extended travelling party.

Oh, okay. Last time I went to Orlando, I got A60 and a family of four (kids obviously older than 6) were ahead of me (A55-A59) before family boarding started.

And as a reminder, the EarlyBird check-in does not guarantee you a spot in the A-group, it depends on how many people bought the full Business Fare or paid $40 for an upgraded A1-A15 boarding spot. Those rank ahead of people who purchase EB, and then people who check in 24 hours before the flight follow. I lucked out, as I added EB to my roundtrip flight two days before and I got A60 both ways.

 

[magical-me]

SW is my favorite. Never had to spend more than 200 round trip and that's from the Midwest to FL. I find Tues fights to be cheapest btw. Also you get 2 checked bags for free!

 

[jen7233]

This post has me really interested in getting a SW card. Right now they are 40,000 points after the first $1,000 spent in 3 months. But, not too long ago I saw 50,000 and then even had an offer for 60,000, just never signed up. The trip we took to Disneyworld in May we used Southwest to fly to Orlando from STL. We don't fly too often especially don't go to Disney often. I did go on and play around with some reservations for some random dates for a family of 4, it was going to cost roughly 76,000 points STL to MCO on what I assume are some off peak days I chose and maybe times. Anyway, you can get an idea roughly what you can get with points, nothing is set until you actually reserve because I'm sure point rates change.

The $69 annual fee though has me stalling, if not for that I would have done it back when it was 60,000. I just prefer not having annual fee anything. But, it seems like if you're certain you are going to fly in the near future and can meet the requirements to get the points, the $69 may not be anything to blink at if the flight is mainly covered using points. I'm still considering applying. I love SW and the bags policy is great.

 

[mfly]

This post has me really interested in getting a SW card. Right now they are 40,000 points after the first $1,000 spent in 3 months. But, not too long ago I saw 50,000 and then even had an offer for 60,000, just never signed up. The trip we took to Disneyworld in May we used Southwest to fly to Orlando from STL. We don't fly too often especially don't go to Disney often. I did go on and play around with some reservations for some random dates for a family of 4, it was going to cost roughly 76,000 points STL to MCO on what I assume are some off peak days I chose and maybe times. Anyway, you can get an idea roughly what you can get with points, nothing is set until you actually reserve because I'm sure point rates change.

The $69 annual fee though has me stalling, if not for that I would have done it back when it was 60,000. I just prefer not having annual fee anything. But, it seems like if you're certain you are going to fly in the near future and can meet the requirements to get the points, the $69 may not be anything to blink at if the flight is mainly covered using points. I'm still considering applying. I love SW and the bags policy is great.

The 60k point offers went away, but they came back a few days ago. Here are the (public) links if you or anyone is interested.

Plus
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/so...a202ee7b3f3e8d1f0INT&id=lw9MynSeamY&CELL=6PLS
Premier
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/so...90baf2b6c0bebaaf0INT&id=lw9MynSeamY&CELL=6PLS

The 60k points from the Plus ($69 annual fee) are worth over $800 in SW flights. I'd pay $69 to get $800 value (that I'd be spending otherwise) any day.

Every year when your annual fee post, you get roughly the equivalent amount of SW points to offset your annual fee.

If you really want to go big, apply for both the Plus and Premier. You'll earn 120,000 points - enough for $1600 in SW flights. Plus, by doing this you'd earn Companion Pass so a companion would fly for free with you through 12/31/18.