The Best Deal for Travel in 2021-2022

When Cam and I first moved out of Indiana to the DC area, we realized we would be flying much more than we had been. We looked into all different airline credit cards. Cam is anti-credit cards. He hates them. The only reason he got one to begin with is because he had to have a credit card when he rented a car. lol We always fly Southwest it’s usually the cheapest and everything is included. We never have to pay for bags or anything like that. We never have issues with them, they’re affordable, and have great employees. We started to build up some rapid rewards just from flying a few times a year back to Indiana and saw the potential with Southwest.

Flash forward 4 years later when we started thinking about moving to California, we realized there’s no way we’re going to be able to drive back to Indiana from California. Just no way we can do that for our short visits. So we did some more research on the Southwest credit card and finally got it. The card we got has an annual fee of $69.99, but it’s 100% worth it for us. We got the credit card in January 2020.

Our main goal was to get the companion pass. If you’re not aware, the companion pass is available when you get a credit card and earn so many points you can have one person fly with you for free on any flight for a full year. You just have to pay tax for your companion which is just $5.60 one way.

You earn points anytime you use your card. Any purchases made with Southwest, you get 2 points per dollar spent. All other purchases you get 1 point per dollar spent. It’s a Visa card so you can use it anywhere that takes Visa. We used that card for EVERYTHING all year long and got the companion pass in August! We were able to use the companion pass for the rest of 2020 and now we can use it the rest of 2021. It’s saved us so much money! We pay off the card each month. We never put more on it than we could afford. (I highly recommend using all credit cards this way. Credit card debt is not worth it and the interest is way too high.) We just used that card to purchase everything that we normally would. Your points start over each year for the companion pass (you can still use your points to book flights, those points don’t expire) Since we started in January we joined when there was a promotion going on for 75,000 points. Once we hit those goals, we already had 75,000/125,000 points needed for the companion pass. Also, Southwest has been great during covid! They sent their customers extra reward points to help make up for the time we couldn’t fly. Between the extra points from them and using our card for everything else we were able to get the companion pass. With their help, we were just able to get it sooner!

WHY YOU NEED IT NOW

There’s a promotion happening NOW for 80,000 points! That’s the most they’ve ever given before! It is broken down by 30,000 & 50,000. If you spend $2,000 on the card within, the first 2 months, you will get 30,000 points. If you spend $10,000 in the first 9 months, you get the other 50,000 points. Depending on where you’re flying to, that’s already enough to get a round trip! That’s another great thing about the companion pass. You don’t have to “spend” your points to get the companion pass. You still get to spend those points on flights! So if you reach 125,000 points, you get the companion pass AND you get to use those 125,000 points towards flights and your companion gets to fly for free, so you only have to use half the points which means you can take more trips! It’s genius and really the easiest way to travel if that’s something you’re wanting to do!

BONUS

Chase is the company that the card is through and they always have specials running with certain companies to give you cash back on some of your purchases. – some of the companies we have used is: Starbucks, American eagle, Winc wine subscription, 1-800 flowers

LET’S RECAP!

If you want to travel by plane in 2021 – 2022 investing in a Southwest credit card might be a great option for you!

• You can earn up to 80,000 points if you sign up before February 8^th.

• Your points can be used on flights AND towards the companion pass.

• Chase runs specials when you buy from certain places you get extra points.

• For every dollar spent through Southwest you get 2 points.

• For every dollar spent anywhere else you get 1 point – unless there’s a special.

If you want to hear exactly how we got the companion pass by August, I wrote a whole blog post on it here!

Here’s the link if you ready to apply for a Southwest credit card!

*DISCLIAMER*

I am not encouraging you to get in credit card debt! We have not paid any interest on our card since we got it. We pay it off each month and just reap the benefits!