Whimsical September

A Family + Lifestyle Blog

Traveling 11 Comments

All About How We Fly For Free and How YOU CAN TOO!

Disclaimer: Southwest did not ask me to write this post. I’m genuinely just kind of obsessed with them and want to spread the love!

I’ve done a couple posts in the past about our flying secrets, but I have a little bit more info today to share with you!

It’s far from a secret that we love a good getaway around here! On our single-income budget you won’t find us going anywhere too fancy, but we truly enjoy zipping around the country seeing family and friends when we can. Having our Southwest credit card has helped tremendously; We haven’t paid for a flight for any of us in well over a year!

Last summer I wrote a big post about how we’d recently achieved the Southwest Companion Pass, and our whole family has been flying for free ever since. We’re looking at using the pass at least three more times this year before it expires in December, and it’s really just been the best thing ever.
If you’re wondering why Southwest has the best reward card as far as airlines go, let me shoot it to you straight.
  • I’ve found flights on Southwest for as little at 4,500 points each way. With most (if not all) other airlines, one-way flights start at 12,500 points.
  • Since I get one point (two points if you make purchases through Southwest.com) for every one dollar I spend, I can get a round-trip ticket for free on Southwest after spending just $9,000.
  • In order to get a free round-trip ticket on any other major airline, you have to spend upwards of $25,000 (unless you have a different reward card that offers 2x/$1 – there’s a couple I know of). Hoping this makes sense!
Basically, we get to spend a lot less money on our card but still rack up a ton of free flights!
I got my first credit card in 2011 – a Delta American Express card. After having the card for two years, I never earned a free flight. I got a portion off of my flight one time, but that was it.
Here’s the point of this whole post! 
Last night I got an email saying that if any of my friends use my referral link to sign up for the card they’ll automatically get 50,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 in the first three months. Besides our mortgage and car payment, we put everything on our card and then immediately pay it off. No interest, but lots of points! Woohoo! For us, reaching that $2,000 was a cinch.
If you just go to the normal Southwest Chase Visa site to apply for the card, you’ll only get 25,000 bonus points. You basically have to use my link in order to double your points. This offer is good until August, so you have plenty of time to think about it.
I do get rewards points when you sign up which is an obvious perk for me, but when I saw that you can only get the 50,000 bonus points right now if you use the link I couldn’t not share the opportunity! Duh! Southwest offers the 50,000 bonus points randomly about three times a year, so I’ve tried to keep a look out for it for you guys, but I haven’t had any luck! It’s hard to catch it if you’re not watching the site constantly.
Anyway, I hope this information is helpful for you! If you have further questions I’m more than happy to help! I emailed back and forth with a reader last summer who ended up getting the Companion Pass just a few short months later! Made doing that whole post worth it. Feel free to leave a comment or email me any time!
 
Here’s the link in case you missed it – click here.

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