The best time to do this is when they are offering the highest number of points as a bonus.  For example, NOW through July 11, 22, they are offering 75,000 after the first $5000 spent during the first 3 months.  Put everything you can on there.  If you do not think you can spend $5000 in three months ($1667\/month), think about places that you tend to spend money and purchase store gift cards using the credit card.  When we’ve needed to do this, several places I will buy gift cards to would be Chickfila, Target, Kroger, and Amazon.  I know that I will spend money at those stores, so I know they will get used.  75,000 is about 3 average flights, though we tend to get them even cheaper.  I’ll discuss that later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Companion Pass<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

   Ideally, you open your card early in the year.  As of this post, you need 125,000 points to earn a companion pass.  What do you get with a companion pass? You get a free companion on any flight you take on SW from the minute you hit 125,000 and for the whole next calendar year.  You can change your companion three times in the calendar year.  So, lets say you take those 75,000 then spend the remainder of the year earning 50,000 more.  Lets assume you have nine months to do this, so you’re looking at about 5,500 points a month.  Some ways you can boost your spending power is to watch for SW credit card bonuses for spending a certain amount of money during specific months AND using the Rapid Rewards dashboard on the Southwest website to spend money at their preferred online retailers (see below).  One thing to keep in mind: you MUST hit 125,000 by the time your last statement in December hits.  For example, If your billing cycle ends on the 13th of the month, you only have until Dec 13 to hit that threshold.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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   1. If you Already Have a SW Card<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      If you already have a SW card, you can close and reopen a card two years after YOUR REWARDS HIT.  It is not 2 years from when the card is opened.  That is important to remember. They will not give you new bonus points if you apply for this card even a day sooner than the 2 years “rewardiversary”.  We tend to try to be on an every other year schedule so that we are at least one companion a year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Then What?<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

         Once you’re rolling in points, you start booking those flights!  It is almost always best to book your flights the day the calendar opens.  Calendar opens? What does that mean?  Southwest opens their calendar and random times throughout the year.  Google the next calendar release dates and add them to your calendar.  It never hurts to book right away and then cancel later.  All of your points (and taxes) will be refunded.  It can also benefit you to check in on your flights every now and again.  Not often, but sometimes, if you’re lucky, flights will have gone down and you can “rebook” and get those extra points refunded.  WIN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         I know this can be overwhelming and confusing, but if you do one step a time, you can really make it pay off!  Good luck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

         6\/15\/22 DOMESTIC TRAVEL USING SOUTHWEST! ALL of our domestic flights are paid for with points. We haven’t paid for a domestic flight in over seven years.   How? After a lot of research, I found that Southwest Airlines offers the best deals for your buck.  If you are on the “Dave Ramsey plan”, you might as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/southwest.jpg?fit=768%2C432&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwanderthat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}