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This reader question showed up in my inbox today so I thought I’d give it a quick answer.
I thought I remembered reading about you having a Southwest Airlines credit card. I searched on the website, but didn’t find any results.
Also do you know what Wanna Get Away is on their website?
-Campground Girl
We sure do. Mr. FG and I use the Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card for almost all of our purchases, and we’ve gotten lots of free flights this way.
We never use the card to buy things we don’t already have the money for, and we pay the card in full each month. Otherwise, interest charges would quickly negate any airline mile benefits.
We love our Southwest card!
HOWEVER.
Sometimes you can get a better deal by signing up for the Chase Sapphire credit card.
I know that’s not a Southwest card, but the travel reward point bonus from the Chase card can be easily redeemed for Southwest Airline points, or for all kinds of other travel expenses (lodging, car rental, etc.).
Which card is a better option right now?
The Chase Sapphire credit card 60,000 bonus points are worth $750 in travel, which is more than the 40,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards card points.
However, the Chase card has a higher spend requirement to earn the points ($4000 in 3 months, vs $1000 in 3 months).
You do pay an annual fee with these cards, but the introductory bonus is so valuable, it’s going to far outweigh the annual fee.
What’s Wanna Get Away?
That’s Southwest’s lowest fare option and it’s the one we use every single time (it maximizes our points!)
Wanna Get Away tickets aren’t refundable (though you can exchange them for future travel) and they require advanced booking.
(There’s more detailed information right here.)
My take is that Wanna Get Away is totally awesome and you should always check for it when booking Southwest!
Readers, do you use a rewards credit card? Or do you stick with a debit card?
P.S. Obviously I personally think a rewards credit card is worth having, but please only apply for a credit card if you know you can trust yourself with it. If there’s any chance that you will use the card to start spending more than you have, you are better off sticking with your debit card.
Corrine Wilson says
We use the Fidelity Rewards Card to get 2% cash back on all purchases. We use this card for everything and pay it off in full every month. On average, we get $500 per year back. When we got the card they also offered a $150 sign on bonus. To open this card you have to have a Fidelity checking account also. The checking account offers free ATM fees.
We also use the Amazon Rewards Card for our Amazon purchases only. It gives 5% cash back for Amazon purchases and when we opened the card there was a $75 Amazon gift card included. On average we get about $5 per month cash back from the card. I also use ibotta to shop on Amazon,which typically nets me another 2% back.
The key to credit cards with rewards is paying them off every month and not seeing the card as free/easy money, as this would negate any rewards obtained.
stacy says
I LOVE my rewards cards and I’m going to admit that I have several! However, I DO pay them off every month and I use them strategically, based on what I’m purchasing. So there are some with zero balances some months. I have acquired them based on the good bonus offers you mentioned above. Yay for free travel!
Kathryn K. says
There are a whole host of websites and blogs devoted solely to credit card rewards and travel hacking. The free course at travelmiles101.com is a great place to start. Doctorofcredit.com is a website that doesn’t use affiliate links so you can trust his best cards recommendations aren’t being influenced by that.
I recently got started in travel hacking myself and got the Chase Sapphire Preferred earlier this year and it is a great first card since the points can be transferred to a variety of airlines or used to purchase flights directly through the Chase portal. Chase also has a limit (the 5/24 rule) of how many credit cards you can have opened in the past 24 months and still qualify to open a credit card with them, so it’s good to start with Chase.
Regarding other cards, it depends on your travel preferences and goals. I’m near a smaller airport and often also want to go to smaller airports so it seems like United has more flights that work for me than Southwest, but it all depends.
Kathryn K. says
I will also make a small clarification to Kristen’s post – there are actually two Chase Sapphire cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred (the one linked here) and the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Preferred is the one start with unless you do a LOT of travel since the Reserve has a $450 annual fee (although you get $300 in travel credits back so effectively $150).
Rosie says
Like Stacy said, I also have several reward credit cards that I use in rotation- they all have different bonus categories, so I use whatever card has the highest earnings for that category, and anything else goes on my Cap One Venture card which gives 2x points on everything (and 10x on bookings on hotels.com which stacks with the “stay 10 nights get one free”), which I can then use the points to “erase” travel type purchases, like train tickets, tours, etc. We also use our Chase Sapphire Reserve for dining and airline tickets (because trip delay insurance!) in pretty heavy rotation, a Chase Freedom for the rotating categories (this quarter is 5x back at grocery stores) in pretty heavy rotation, because the earnings are good and you can combine the UR points from both into one points pool, which you can use to direct book through their portal for discounted rates, or you can transfer even points to other airlines and stuff, including Southwest.
JD says
I don’t travel very much at all, nor do we eat out hardly ever, and we don’t make a lot of purchases, since it’s just the two of us, so I have only the Capital One Double Cash Back card to get 1% on purchases and another 1% on payments. I just have my rewards cash applied to my statement, so it gives me a small discount on the purchases. I pay my card off every month. I went years of never using a credit card, but we’ve had so much debit card hacking around here, I was getting nervous using only a debit card. Even though our bank gave us our money back when our debit number was stolen, I’ve known people who didn’t get theirs back. One of those people was one of my bank’s employees!
I put groceries, gifts, online orders, etc., on my card, then pay it out of my checking. So far, it’s working pretty well.
JD says
Duh, I meant Citi, not Capital One. My office card is a Capital One card.
Heidi Louise says
Only get the card that flies to where you want to go! I used to fly American to my parents’, but now Delta handles the route. I have a new Delta card and now have to figure out how to transfer my American Airline points to something else before they expire.
Once I get the airline or hotel sign-up bonuses, I’m pretty much done with charging, unless we are traveling. We buy so little that the 1-2% cashback is almost annoying to keep track of.
Also, watch for points that expire due to lack of activity in “branded”, company specific cards. American and Hilton notified me when that was going to happen and I used a few points to buy something tiny to keep my account active; another hotel chain did not.
Finally, Go Amtrak! Really generous miles card sign-up bonus, if the routes work in your favor. (Huge baggage allowances and no obnoxious security lines…).
Kristen says
That’s a very good point! Luckily for us, Southwest has gone most of the places we want to go. But if that weren’t the case, then we’d definitely be looking at other brands of miles.
Jenny says
I love the Amtrak thing and even have an Amtrak MasterCard so I can travel pretty deluxe once or twice a year “for freeâ€! And if no train travel, there are other rewards ( air, restaurants, etc.)
Krysten says
Living in the Pacific Northwest, the Alaska Airlines VISA is pretty hard to beat, if any of your readers live out this direction. Not only do you get miles, but there is an annual free companion fare, which we’ve used to great effect on family trips to far from us locations.
Elizabeth says
Hey! This was good to see because we have the Chase Sapphire card. It’s our only credit card and we’ve been happy with it. In fact, I need to go see if we have enough points to get us to MN this summer.
Jody says
I haven’t shopped around much for rewards cards, but the credit card we use does have rewards. Yesterday I bought a drill combo and drill bit set (around $200 worth) with a gift card from Home Depot (bought with credit card points). Later in the day I used a Lands End gift card (bought with credit card points) to buy needed swimsuits for 3 children.
This is quite frugal for us, but only because we always pay it off each month. We NEVER put purchases on it that we can’t afford. We use it for everything we can, including groceries.
EngineerMom says
We discovered that keeping track of a lot of credit cards was not a frugal practice for us. So we only have 2, both Chase Freedom. We use one for all of our spending (paid off every month) and one as a “back-up” in case something happens to the first (we have one small recurring expense attached to it to keep it active).
The amount of money saved by not losing track of our spending on top of the cash back we do get on top of no annual fees makes it worthwhile for us! We both work full-time and travel via plane so infrequently it’s easier for us to just save up the money than spend all that time trying to “travel hack”.
Athena says
We use our US Bank visa to pay for everything we can (paying it off each month of course) and then use the rewards points to get what we want. We’ve gotten a food processor and several Christmas gifts this way. I have thought about looking into a travel rewards card but hate paying fees for a card! We can use the rewards points from our US Bank card for travel stuff I believe but haven’t ever done so.
K D says
We have the Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card as our main card. I hate paying an annual fee (and a friend told me she had success when she called and asked them to remove the fee) but it seems worth it for the annual points bonus. I also have cards that I use when it seems worthwhile: the Discover 5% cash back quarterly bonus, AMEX Blue (no fee) for 3% back on groceries, a BOA Visa for 3% rewards on gas and 2% at warehouse clubs. If we didn’t have online bill pay I would not bother with having that many cards.
Effie says
I am in the UK and currently use American Express Platinum everyday for a 1% cash back reward ( which is just taken off my December bill). This is for all every day spending which is always paid off in full.
I prefer cash to flight/hotels as we usually fly low cost (EasyJet/Ryanair) and Airbnb. Always on the look out for a better rate!
Laurie Villotta says
I have 2 SW airlines cards. I have 1 paid off and will cancel it tomorrow. My other SW card has a small amt. I will wait until end summer and apply for a new card so I can use those miles to travel next year.
Randi Macdonald says
We have two airline credit cards. Alaska and American. We fly mostly with Alaska so that works best. We paid 450.00 to have the American card because it comes with Admirals club membership( that also lets us use partner lounges of which Alaska is one!!). We get free bags with both, and a 100.00 credit for global entry which we both have. This year, we’re taking 5 trips. We’re going to Maui for Xmas and I used the b1g1 companion fare offer. The companion fare is 99.00 plus tax. That worked well for the Maui trip. I also have a Starbucks card. When I signed up, I got 25 free items. I also have a TJ Maxx credit card and use that for ONLY purchases at TJ Maxx, Home goods and Marshalls. We pay them all off each month.
Madeline Theresa Kasian says
I use a regular older Chase credit card for ALL our purchases,groceries,etc and we pay it off every month. I accumulate points and use them for travel,mostly. We use Southwest airline as much as we can since we live in Phoenix and it’s easy–and their policy of allowing you to cancel and still SAVE the money for a future trip is awesome!! NO EXTRA FEES for doing that!!
Using our Chase card for purchases gives a LOT of extra benefits too: travel insurance! Extended warranties on items you purchase, and they will help you if there is a dispute over a purchase.
Big believer in having at least one good card and paying it off monthly. I can also track expenses easily from our monthly statement!
Diane C says
One more Southwest tip: Once you purchase a fare, if it goes down further, they will credit you the difference, but only of you ask. The credit can only be used for future travel within one year, but I’ve saved a few bucks this way, just by paying attention.
Jenny says
I thought on Southwest that you can’t reserve a seat. Is that true? How do you not get caught in a stampede and not get stuck in the worst middle seat on a plane?
Kristen says
You check in 24 hours before your flight and are assigned a boarding order. The more promptly you check in, the more likely you get an early boarding number and thus get more seats to choose from.
You can also pay for early bird check in, which automatically checks you in. But I hate paying for that and I don’t care THAT much where I sit, so I pretty much never do early bird check in.
KW says
I started with the Chase Sapphire Preferred and upgraded it to the Chase Sapphire Reserve since we travel a ton. 3x points on all travel and dining (travel even includes things like Uber, street meters, garages, and dining includes things like a vending machine!). Points can be transferred to airline partners including Southwest or redeemed for 1.5 cents per point toward anything travel related (hotels, airfare, rental cars).
One point to make – please never use a debit card. If your information is taken and you have a fraudulent transaction, it’s almost impossible to get that money back. On a credit card, every purchase is protected … and there are lots of other benefits of a travel card like CSP – travel insurance, primary rental car insurance, etc. I only use a debit card for ATMs, and that’s rare.