Southwest Airlines CC

AprilZ81

@hoffse I think you have this credit card...  Any insight?

Mom wants to takes us on a cruise for her 60th birthday, she and Dad are going to pay for the cruise cabins, we pay for flights, hotel, excursions and incidentals.

The best flight options seem to be on Southwest (lowest non-stop prices plus no baggage fees) and I'm considering opening up their cc to get the points.

The cruise would be Feb 7-13 so we might not have enough time to get the card and get the points required.  We would get 25,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first three months (we easily spend that in one month).  How long does it take for the points to be posted for use?

lbonga1

From what I understand, with more rewards credit cards, the points post just after the statement close date of the month in which the transaction that made you reach the spending requirement occurred. For example, if you reach the $1000 spending on Dec. 27, and the statement close date is Jan. 3, then the points would post right after Jan. 3.

als1982

Don't get the Southwest card for anything less than a 50,000 mile sign up bonus. It runs pretty much year round, but you may need to Google it. The bonus points will hit the billing cycle after you spend the threshold. Do know though that the cost in miles for a Southwest flight is directly tied to the dollar cost of the flight, so last a minute booking may cost you a lot more (or maybe even less) miles than you'd expect. I'd think about Barclay Arrival Plus, which allows you to book now but retroactively redeem within a 120 day window. I believe the minimum spend is higher but the sign up bonus typically equates to $400 in travel spend. You can also redeem for any cruise excursions.

hoffse

als1982 said:

Don't get the Southwest card for anything less than a 50,000 mile sign up bonus. It runs pretty much year round, but you may need to Google it. The bonus points will hit the billing cycle after you spend the threshold. Do know though that the cost in miles for a Southwest flight is directly tied to the dollar cost of the flight, so last a minute booking may cost you a lot more (or maybe even less) miles than you'd expect. I'd think about Barclay Arrival Plus, which allows you to book now but retroactively redeem within a 120 day window. I believe the minimum spend is higher but the sign up bonus typically equates to $400 in travel spend. You can also redeem for any cruise excursions.

**************

This.  They run 50K point deals all the time, you just have to find it.

Like PP said, the points post when your first billing cycle closes.  But you don't have very much time if it's for a trip in February.

I tend to prefer the Chase UR cards for this kind of thing (just my preference), but if Barclays lets you redeem retroactively that might be the best option, given your time constraints here. 

AprilZ81

Thanks guys!  I'll take a look and see if I can find a 50,000 sign up bonus that is active.  That would get us both free flights based on the points value of the flights I looked at yesterday.

Worst case scenario is that we don't use them for this trip but instead use them on a future trip.

AprilZ81

Do you find that the 50,000 points offer comes with a $2,000 minimum spend in the first three months?

We spent on average $1,500 on our card each month but I don't know if we would be able to hit that amount fast enough to get the points for this trip.

hoffse

AprilZ81 said:

Do you find that the 50,000 points offer comes with a $2,000 minimum spend in the first three months?

We spent on average $1,500 on our card each month but I don't know if we would be able to hit that amount fast enough to get the points for this trip.

Yep, that's the deal I saw when I got the card.  The spending minimums can be tricky if you don't have a big purchase already planned for it.  H and I have only been able to do so many sign up bonuses recently because I can pay for my LLM tuition by credit card without a fee, and the website lets me split the payment up among multiple cards.

AprilZ81

hoffse said:

AprilZ81 said:

Do you find that the 50,000 points offer comes with a $2,000 minimum spend in the first three months?

We spent on average $1,500 on our card each month but I don't know if we would be able to hit that amount fast enough to get the points for this trip.

Yep, that's the deal I saw when I got the card.  The spending minimums can be tricky if you don't have a big purchase already planned for it.  H and I have only been able to do so many sign up bonuses recently because I can pay for my LLM tuition by credit card without a fee, and the website lets me split the payment up among multiple cards.

Mom wants us to get our tickets in the next 24/48 hours so no way to get this deal.  I'm keeping it in mind for future trips.  If it wasn't for the $99 annual fee I would go ahead and get it now, but since we are TTC this may be our last trip for awhile and I don't want to accumulate credit card fees when I can use a different travel card.