Fact: A free flight is better than one you have to pay for. Always.
Face it, you were going to book a flight on that Southwest Airlines sale, anyway, weren't you?
The summers here in Arizona are brutal. Too brutal for this former Midwesty and SoCal resident! I made it through the summer by planning trips. There's something about the anticipation of something exciting on the horizon that can easily distract me from the 115* + desert heat - and that something is mountains, beaches, the Pacific Northwest, music festivals and college football games in the Big House. All of these are on the horizon. Truthfully. But I only had to actually pay for 1 of the 8 flights on the horizon. Seriously!!
How?
We all know how to use our credit cards to accrue points or miles on our airline of choice, right? My airline of choice is Southwest. So this example applies only to Southwest. Let me preface this by saying, I'm not encouraging credit card use or incurring debt - be responsible, people!
First, I began using my Southwest Card to pay for bills that accept credit card payment. In my case, cell phone, car insurance, health insurance, electric. Most of those are set up on auto-debit, which makes it easy. Then, the balance is just paid off at the end of the month. Boom! Miles collected.
But with this renovation, I took my mile collecting to a whole new level. I went ahead and opened another Southwest Airlines credit card through Chase to use for business expenses. It's easier to keep track of all of the reimbursable items I needed to purcahse on all of those trips to Home Depot. In doing so... I was awarded 50,000 miles once I spend $3,000 in the first 90 days. If you're smart in when you redeem those miles, that can easily equate to 2-4 FREE round trips. You're welcome.
But wait...
Southwest partners with a LOT of retailers and they award bonus points. All you have to do is access the retailers website THROUGH the Southwest portal. [This is your MOST important step!!]. Retailers like, oh hey... Home Depot and Lowe's will give you 2 points for each dollar you spend. That means, if you've accessed their site through the SWA site and you purchase the item with your SWA card, you're actually getting THREE miles per dollar spent. Sometimes these retailers want to make it rain points and offer 4 or 6 points per dollar.
So after a gas range, a dishwasher, some lights, electrical outlets and a couple of vanities... I was banking some serious extra points.
Sweet, right?
It gets better. When you order things online through the retailers, you can often just choose "Store Pickup" -- I know you feel me when I say, places like Home Depot can quickly become a time warp and the next thing you know you've been looking and wandering for an hour. This way, you have the HD staff gather all of your items... and have it waiting for you at Customer Service. Saving you (and me) precious time!! More time, more points, more free flights... life is good.
It still gets better...
Remember those 50,000 points I was awarded originally? Southwest has another cool thing called the Companion Pass. IF you accrue 110,000 points in one year, they'll award you a Companion Pass... which allows one person who you designate the ability to fly free, wherever you go. That pass is vaild for the remainder of the year you achieve the Companion Pass status in AND THE ENTIRE NEXT YEAR! What?!?!
True story. So thanks to this Southwest Partner Shopping portal thingy... I have a fall filled with trips. And, I can bring my designated Companion to ANY of these places with me for no added cost.
Not doing an entire remodel in the future? No problem, the holidays are coming up... get your shopping done and bank some points with that online shopping. Check out this list: SOUTHWEST SHOPPING RETAILERS