So I see there's a 50,000 bonus lurking around for this card. After $2000 spend in first 90 days. Southwest is billing that as enough for "two roundtrip flights." It also includes 6,000 annual bonus miles (unless it's just once on the first anniversary, not sure). I'm doubtful my spend justifies the $99 AF, but who has some experience earning points with this card? How easy is it to rack up points? It looks like only certain air and lodging purchases get 2 points to the dollar. If 25k is a rountrip flight, you'd need like $12k in travel purchases to earn one flight. Any other ways I'm missing? thanks
@Bman70 wrote:
So I see there's a 50,000 bonus lurking around for this card. After $2000 spend in first 90 days. Southwest is billing that as enough for "two roundtrip flights." It also includes 6,000 annual bonus miles (unless it's just once on the first anniversary, not sure). I'm doubtful my spend justifies the $99 AF, but who has some experience earning points with this card? How easy is it to rack up points? It looks like only certain air and lodging purchases get 2 points to the dollar. If 25k is a rountrip flight, you'd need like $12k in travel purchases to earn one flight. Any other ways I'm missing? thanks
Southwest's points redemptions can change pretty drastically depending on which flight at which time of day you choose. If you go to their website there is a map you can play with that will tell you how many points different flights would cost (they always give you the best case though). The Freedom / CSP combo is another good route to go if you want to earn Southwest points. No 6k a year bonus but better earning options on spend.
I was able to get a round trip to Ft Lauderdale, New Orleans and Green Bay based off about 40k points from Chase Sapphire Preferred (1:1 transfer ratio). The points are $$ based from $100+ so if you are able to score a cheap deal you can really stretch your points. The 6000 points is enough to a redeem a $100 one way flight somewhere which offsets the yearly fee.
This should by no means be looked at as a sign and dump card if you like to use Southwest. The 50k bonus you get from this card counts towards earning a companion pass,. That pass allows you to bring someone free on paid AND award flights on the year it's earned + the year after. So if you earn a companion pass in Jan 2015 you can fly someone free until Dec 2016. The 50k bonus will get you half way there, and if you qualify for the business version of the card you can practically earn the pass free. There are travel sites which give more detail. If interested PM me.
If you aren't going for a companion pass, go with Chase Sapphire Preferred! It's a wonderful card which will earn much more southwest points on everyday purchases and still gives a good sign up bonus. Freedom/CSP is an even more powerful earning combo like the previous user mentioned.
Good luck!
Couldn't agree more. I have always wondered about retention for this card, and found the card and offer to be very weird... It has a fantastic sign up offer at 50k miles, but there is really no reason to keep the card over the CSP. The CSP offers equivilant earning on SW flights and higher earning elsewhere, plus flexibility to transfer elsewhere if needed. The SW card really doesn't offer any secondary benefits like an extra free bag or something, and the annual benefit of 6k miles just doesn't seem worth it to me. I don't really get it.
