If you read my initial post about travel hacking you know that I had the Southwest card at some point but wasn't in an area where they flew so it was inconvenient. Well, I've moved to Phoenix and it is a hub for Southwest so I'm about to be back! In 2019 I'm going through Chase cards building up their Ultimate Rewards points which aren't a bad option but that was to kill time as I built to what I really wanted. Beginning of 2020 I'm going for the the holy grail of travel rewards. THE SOUTHWEST COMPANION PASS! In 2019 Southwest would give you a companion pass (buy one get one free) when you reach 110,000 points in a calendar year. Wait, it gets better. The companion pass lasts for the remainder of the year you got it and the one after as well. My hope is to get it early in 2020 so I can essentially have it for two years, 2020 and 2021.
The trick is to get the personal Southwest card and get the sign on bonus for 40,000 by doing you minimum spend. Next, you'll get the business card and the 80,000 sign up bonus by doing your minimum spend. There is also a business card with 60,000 sign up that is less expensive but you'll need to earn the rest of the point. At that point you have all the points you need and boom, you and your travel buddy are flying for the price of one! In 2020, they caught on and are now requiring you to get 125,000 points. They also reduced the sign up bonuses to 70,000 if you spend $5,000 in 3 months for both business cards and 40,000 points for spending $1,000 in 3 months for a personal card. This makes it more complicated because even if you reach your minimum spends you'll have $116,000 points (bonuses plus money spent) and need to spend another $9,000. You can use tricks like buying gift cards and all that be just be more careful when pursuing this now! This is a great time to get the pass as Southwest just started flying to Hawaii, Costa Rica, Belize, and plan to expand even more. Just to clarify, you can get buy one get one free Southwest tickets to places like Hawaii and start with 130,000 points. It really doesn't get better than that! Let’s answer some concerns you may have?
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out! Happy Free Traveling!
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HELLO AND WELCOME!
I'm Jake, a dude interested in personal finance and travel creating the life I choose. In 5 years I went from living in a basement with Craigslist roommates to paying off 90k of debt, backpacking 3 continents, getting a house for myself and 5 rental units. Read my story in the about me section. All photos on the blog are from my travels
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