Credit Card Rewards - esp Southwest Airlines

[ScoutTN]

We are considering this. We would just run our regular budget/expenses through the card to get points, paying it off in full each month. I have looked on the site, but am not sure whether it would be worth the hassle. Not sure we spend enough to earn enough points. Looks like a $400 flight ( not counting fees) requires over 35,000 points. We are medium-low on income and still try to save, so not big spenders. We could sure use the extra help for some vacation $$, though.

 

 

Anyone here with experience? Pros and cons of Southwest cards or other programs?

 

I am assuming we would get approved. Neither of us has had a credit card in over 20 years. Our only debt is our mortagage and we are never behind on that or any utilities.

Edited February 1, 2016 by ScoutTN

[GailV]

  :lurk5:  We've been discussing this same card.  I hope someone chimes in.

[JennyD]

 

I am  :bigear: .  My mother has been noodging me to get the Southwest card but DH thinks that using our amazon.com credit card ultimately saves us more money.  

[Frances]

We have a US Bank travel reward card and it has definitely been a great saver for us on flights. I think we only need 25,000 points for a $400 flight, and we can use it for any flight on any airline on travelocity, and there are no blackout dates. I don't know about the Southwest card, but for ours there are many ways to earn points besides purchases, and we get double (maybe triple?) points for some purchases. We also get a $25 credit towards baggage fees, airline food, etc. each time we get a ticket through the program.

 

We very rarely use cash and put everything possible on this one card, including all of our insurance payments and all of our monthly bills that don't charge transaction fees, and pay it off completely each month. We have the option of using points to pay the $50 annual fee and there are also lots of other things to purchase besides flights, although that is the only thing we ever buy.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

We use rewards cards and have used Southwest in the past. We use our points for Walmart gift cards (groceries). To maximize points, we used it for reoccurring charges (Netflix, cell phone, Amazon Subscribe &Save) as well as paid our car and life insurance premiums, tuition, that are due within the three month period that most cards give you to earn points. We pay the card off in full as we have the money set aside for these monthly reoccuring costs and annual premiums.

 

We tend to cancel the card within a year before renewal fees kick in. and dh keeps an eye out for other cc reward opportunitiues.

 

We've used Chase cc's three different times and gotten $500 in gift cards each time.

 

Thepointsguy.com has a lot of good information.

[J-rap]

That's what we do.  We have two cards, a Capital One and a US Bank Flexperks card.  I can't decide which one I like best.  They both have good travel rewards, but work a little differently.  USBank Flexperks lets you use I think Travelocity.  A certain amount of points are required for an air ticket.  I think the minimum is usually 20,000, but actually, for really short one-way flights it's probably even less.  And, you can transfer points to and from other Flexperks members for free, which is kind of unusual I think.  Capitol One lets you use their points anytime;  you don't have to wait for a minimum amount, it's the formula X number of points = Y number of dollars that you can trade in anytime toward any travel-related expense (I think it's either hotel or air or car rental, and probably others too). 

 

We charge almost everything $10 and over to a credit card, even college tuition!  We pay everything off each month, 90% of the time.  I can't tell you how many free air tickets we've gotten!

 

We also have airlines frequent flyer memberships.  You can kind of double what you get if you charge the reservation on a travel perks credit card.  That is, if you charge an airline ticket to a credit card that gets points, not only do you get air mile points for the airline's frequent flyer club, but you also collect travel miles for your credit card.  

[MysteryJen]

We love the southwest card. We run a lot of monthly expenses through them (especially the swim team $$). But we buy lot of tickets. For example, we fly our college student home for Christmas and summer, and swim travel meets. Since November we have bought 12 round trip tickets. The points are awesome for us. Because we love SW and the ease of carry on/checked bags.

 

But generally we have a specific need that the SW card meets.

[Pawz4me]

I'd check cash back rewards cards.  We have a Chase Freedom and a Capital One Quicksilver that we use for everything.  The cash rewards we get are substantial, and we can use them for anything.  So I'd check into whether it would be better to get a card that locks you into using the rewards for air miles, or if you'd be better off with a cash rewards card where you could use the rewards for tickets but also anything else.  There is no annual fee on either card.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Pawz4me

[creekland]

Southwest's annual fee has made it a no-go for us.  $99!  It's literally offensive and makes it a card we won't consider.

 

We run all of our purchases through Discover, American Express, or a credit union card we have.  Two of those give us Amazon points, so are my first choice (Discover, Am Ex) and we've gotten oodles of free books (for college), birthday/Christmas gifts (can include books), and stuff we need (car, lawn mower parts, etc) for free.  We even get points on these for all the Southwest flights I book for the family (easily over a dozen per year).  I've never added up exactly how much we get for free in any given year, but it's easily in the hundreds of dollars.

 

We use the other card when places don't take Discover or AmEx.  They also give us points, but so far, they're not linked to Amazon.  We tend to select free Wally World cards, so every now and then get $100 free to use there.

 

No annual fees.  It costs me absolutely nothing.  

 

With Southwest, all of us (and my mom) are members of their Frequent Flier group.  That also gets us (almost) free flights with them every so often (still have to pay some fees and the $12.50 to get priority seating).  Just look at the cost of flights in points.  You don't need to wait to get 35K points or anything.  Free flights are somewhere in the 5K of points I think.  I don't keep track that much.  I just look and see where we're at.

 

ps  Be careful about running all bills through the credit card.  Some of ours (one college's tuition, electric, farm insurance) charge us a fee to do so.  That fee would cost us more than we would gain, so it's not financially a good decision then.  Most work well though.

Edited February 1, 2016 by creekland

[ScoutTN]

Thanks for the helpful info! I still have some research to do before we decide anything. It does seem like a general card would be more flexible, even though our main goal would be funds for vacation.

 

As one who has been heavily influenced by Dave Ramsey, the whole idea of a credit card is hard for me to even consider, but it does seem reasonable in our situation.