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Southwest Points


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2021 Feb 21, 9:06am   1,260 views  12 comments

by WookieMan   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

I hate pumping shit like this, but it's one of the best deals I've seen in a long, long time. Southwest is offering companion pass for a year just by opening a CC. You pick one person and they fly for free with you. You can change it 3 times as long as the person you pick is on all the tickets booked. Plus you get 30k points. ~2 flights plus your companion out the gate. 4RT flights.

I know some of you are averse to credit, but depending where you'd want to fly it's a $600-$1k offer as long as you pay it off. Annual fee, but you can always cancel the card and it's pretty minimal. I think lowest card is $69/yr.

I have a referral link, but I don't know if it would dox me, so I'm mentioning this out of the kindness of my heart. If you were planning domestic, Mexico or Caribbean travel in the next 1 year, you've got a $69 flight for probably 2 flights with a companion. And companion is free on any other flights until 2/28/2022.

It's a Chase CC, so I know that will piss some off. If you have a spouse or kid though, it's printing $600 minimum for $69. Plus you guys can get out of CA and see how the rest of the country lives with Covid. I will give my referral code to some, it's of no benefit to you, but I get points if you like me and I also have to trust you from history here to not dox me :)

Comments 1 - 12 of 12        Search these comments

1   B.A.C.A.H.   2021 Feb 22, 7:08am  

My credit card has no fees and pays 1% cash back. There's a bank that I use, and also a brokerage with banking services, that offer higher cash back with no fees but I am too lazy to switch.

Please don't take this as a Snarkey question, no snark intended: would you do the same travel anyway without the points and credit card discounts?
2   WookieMan   2021 Feb 22, 7:39am  

B.A.C.A.H. says
would you do the same travel anyway without the points and credit card discounts?

No. I'd probably only travel once or twice a year. At least flying. Maybe more road trips I guess. Even with points it has gotten tougher as we've taken in my nephew. We banked a ton of points with Covid, but we'll burn through them fast as we now have to pay for 3 flights with points. Potentially 4 as my companion pass (kid/spouse/friend flies free) expires the end of this year.

Occasionally we'll have to pay for a flight. Last October was SJU to STT for 5 people. $1K for a 15 minute flight. But it was $55 from MDW to SJU. The math just doesn't work for flying often without points or having a lot of cash. It's a balancing act that takes some planning and work. I enjoy it though and per hour of time spent researching and making sure we're not paying interest, I'm probably making $100/hr in tax free money.

Key is timing with airfare. If you've got somewhere you want to go and know the dates, you need to search everyday. Three weeks prior and around 3-4 months prior are generally the sweet spot. If you "have" to go somewhere, say a wedding, book early but I'd probably make sure it's refundable and keep searching until the price/points drop.

I'm actually out to Phoenix tomorrow to do some golfing with a few buddies. $11 and the house is my buddies and free. So food and golf are the expenses. Which is the 2nd layer to travel. Connections and or planning well with groups to split costs. Not set in stone, but my wife turns 40 in 2022 (well that part is). I'm looking at getting a place for about 30 people that like $4k-5k/nt, but per couple is actually affordable and in a location that most dream of visiting and staying at.

I love travel and actually have a website I'm in the process of mapping out. Different than anything else I've seen and I've seen it all in my research. Not the best time to try and mess around in the travel industry, but it's a good idea and I have the time to burn messing around with it.
3   Patrick   2021 Feb 22, 7:51am  

B.A.C.A.H. says
My credit card has no fees and pays 1% cash back.


I'm actually in the process of switching away from the Southwest credit card because it's from Chase like you mention, and because my local credit union also has a card with no fees and 1% cash back.

I'll still fly Southwest though.
4   B.A.C.A.H.   2021 Feb 22, 8:03am  

WookieMan says
No.

Thank you for sharing your perspective, Wookie Man.

I passively collected points from the United and American miles programs when I was a road warrior. One time, I used the United miles to comp my aunt a trip from the east coast to here so she could visit us. All the other times I redeemed them for magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

Because, when it mattered, you could NEVER GET A FREAKING UPGRADE on a flight to Asia. Even though I called myself a Road Warrior, the most I ever did it was about once a quarter. I knew guys that did one week a month in Taiwan for years, accumulated a buh-zillion miles on United, and never ever got a freaking upgrade. Not once.

As a consolation prize, a young Hipster used his United miles to travel to London in first class to visit his parents on Thanksgiving Weekend. Another colleague used his to take his whole family of five to Hong Kong, in first class, for the Christmas Holidays. Because they could not get a freaking upgrade for any work related flight. Even with their elite status or whatever, others had even higher status and were ahead of them in line. Mostly those two, and others, traveling so much for the job the last thing they wanted to do was more air travel for leisure. But the upgrades were just about impossible during those years.
5   WookieMan   2021 Feb 22, 8:09am  

Patrick says
B.A.C.A.H. says
My credit card has no fees and pays 1% cash back.


I'm actually in the process of switching away from the Southwest credit card because it's from Chase like you mention, and because my local credit union also has a card with no fees and 1% cash back.

I'll still fly Southwest though.

I don't like Chase. BUT, I'm sticking it to them by having a card they pay rewards on AND I'm not paying interest. Chase is paying me. If you could get enough people to do this, it would cost them a shit ton. If there are annual fees, they're usually kicked back with annual bonus points or some other perk. I have an Amex card that I get lounge access. Free food and beer for 3 hours at an airport, hell yes.

Haven't started 2021, but here's an idea of money saved. I haven't conquered the hotel game yet, but got $500 in rewards currently. I try to update this in real time with the actual ticket prices when I booked.

6   EBGuy   2021 Feb 22, 2:41pm  

I have a Chase United card ($100 a year but free checked luggage for you and companion pays for itself with one round trip a year). By my calculations it pays out at around 2% (~$250 for a one way ticket). Not to be morbid, but I'm banking miles for any emergency trips to see parents or in laws. It was very convenient to have the accumulated miles when my FIL passed as flying a family of four at the last minute is not otherwise inexpensive.
7   WookieMan   2021 Feb 22, 3:26pm  

EBGuy says
I have a Chase United card ($100 a year but free checked luggage for you and companion pays for itself with one round trip a year).

This is where Southwest kills it though. 2 checked bags included no matter what and my kid or spouse fly free with companion pass. They get 2 bags free too. One carry on and personal bag as well. So 2 people could bring 4 checked, 2 carry on and 2 backpacks. Traveling with 5 and not worrying about the bags and how we pack is a convenience.

Headed out to Phoenix tomorrow and they don't have the beer I like, well prefer I should say (it's not good to beer snobs). So I've packed about 40 (yes beers) with my clothes and I'm bringing my clubs. So two heavy ass bags. Boarding is the biggest bitch with SW, but I get 8 early boarding options between the cards I have. Kids have helped with that, along with me being broken for 3 months with a heel broken.

I hate flying out of ORD so I don't even touch United or American. I'm getting well over 5% back though. Probably 5-7%. Maybe it's because Chicago is a huge hub for SW and flights are cheaper? MDW is literally SW. Sucks to land at though. San Diego is a close 2nd.
8   B.A.C.A.H.   2021 Feb 22, 4:27pm  

The best thing about Southwest is its reliability.

It's been my first choice to US destinations ever since they added San Jose to their network in the 1990's.

Longest ever late was about 15 minutes one time. And this includes all sorts of sketchy weather over the years.

The next best thing about them is their penalty-free cancellation policy. And like Wookie Man said their checked baggage non-charge policy.

The other airlines just freaking don't get it.
9   Patrick   2021 Feb 22, 6:02pm  

Southwest has been an excellent stock to own as well.
10   WookieMan   2021 Feb 22, 6:41pm  

B.A.C.A.H. says
Longest ever late was about 15 minutes one time. And this includes all sorts of sketchy weather over the years.

We messed up and missed a flight in October, 100% our fault. Southwest bent over backwards and got us to our destination. Sure it was during Covid and there were seats available even with the middle seat vacant, but they didn't have to do anything for us. Didn't charge us a dime. The employees honestly made us feel like they fucked up. It was one of the weirdest customer service experiences ever.

Besides the points, they have some of the best customer service I've experienced and I've flown them all. My biggest beef is me being big/tall. The seats suck on longer haul flights 3+ hours. That's all airlines though unless you upgrade to business or first class which is usually what I'll do on a solo trip. I wish SW had some sort of business/first class section. I know that's not their jam, but I'd pay more for it with the value of their points.
11   B.A.C.A.H.   2021 Feb 22, 7:14pm  

WookieMan says
customer service


There's more than one definition for "service".

Most airlines seem to follow this one (from merriam-webster.com):

10: the act of a male animal copulating with a female animal

Been "serviced" by "passenger service"?

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