New Southwest 65,000 Bonus!

Southwest just launched a new personal credit card with a 65,000 mile sign up bonus! And the bonus counts towards the companion pass (a BOGO free pass for flights). Amazing. But, of course, there is a catch so let's break it down. 

Southwest currently offers it's Plus and Premier personal credit cards which typically come with a 40-50,000 sign up bonus with a $3,000 minimum spend in the first 3 months. 

Southwest also offers a Premier business card with a 60,000 sign up bonus and $3,000 minimum spend in the first 3 months. 

You used to be able to apply for two personal cards and the combined sign up bonus got you super close to earning a companion pass, but Southwest changed the rules and you can't do that anymore. You can still apply for the business card and a personal card as long as you are not a current cardholder of any personal Southwest credit card and have not received a sign-up bonus in the past 24 months. 

This new personal card, Southwest Priority card, offers a 40,000 sign up bonus after you spend just $1,000 in 3 months and another 25,000 bonus when you spend $15,000. You have 12 months to make the additional spend. 

The Priority card has an annual fee of $149, but comes with a $75 credit on Southwest and a 7,500-anniversary mile bonus. It also comes with 4 upgrade boarding passes which could be an important perk if you value the "A" boarding group. 

As far as the companion pass goes, the bonus from the Priority card does count, but you cannot hold another personal Southwest card or have received a sign-up bonus in the last 24 months. 

So if you are new to the game, you could open the Priority card and the business card and get super close to earning a companion pass. However, the personal cards fall under the 5/24 rule so keep that in mind. 

Remember, earn the companion pass early in the year so it will be good for that year and the entire following year. That's almost two years of BOGO travel. Woohoo! 

Get A Price Break On IHG Hotels

IHG released its new list of point break hotels. This is a list of hotels that IHG releases each quarter that offer us an amazing deal. They are usually out of the way or hotels that need to drum up business, but sometimes you will find a hidden gem or it will just work out with your travel plans. 

Last year, I was touring colleges with my daughter and the Crowne Plaza in Newark, New Jersey was on the list for just 5,000 points per night. Woohoo! We happened to be in Newark so we jumped on it. Can you say FREE? 

IHG hotels includes brands like Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge and Crowne Plaza. This latest list is good through stays on September 30, 2018. 

If you don't have any IHG points, you can buy them through this link. If you use those points to buy a night for 5,000 on the point break list, it will have cost you $45. Check availability before you purchase the points. 

Check out the new list and book early if anything fits your travel plans. 

Bonus Miles With Back To School Shopping

It's still July, but retailers are already looking at the kids going back to school. So let the promotions begin and if you are smart, you are taking advantage of these offers to build up your miles and travel for FREE. 

So whenever you shop online, check your favorite airline's shopping portal. 

Some examples are: 

United Airlines 

Spend $150, Earn 500 miles 

Spend $350, Earn 1,500 miles 

Spend $600, Earn 3,000 miles 

Southwest Airlines

Spend $125, Earn 250 miles 

Spend $300, Earn 900 miles 

Spend $550, Earn 2,000 miles 

American Airlines

Spend $150, Earn 500 miles 

Spend $350, Earn 1,500 miles 

Watch the deadlines to shop. Your purchases do not have to be made in one purchase, 

but do need to be made within the dates allowed. It's easy, click on your favorite airline shopping portal, you may need to sign in and find the retailer you would like to purchase from. The portal will track your purchase and 6-8 weeks later, the miles will drop into your account. Easy! 

So happy back to school shopping. Keep in mind while your child gets some new clothes, you are one step closer to an amazing vacation! That's how we do it at almost free family travel. 

How To Spend 48 Hours In Denver

Me at the Garden of the Gods

When you think of Denver, Colorado, you probably think "gateway" to skiing. But you may want to reconsider this gateway city as a destination. 

Denver has tons to offer from great restaurants to hikes to concert venues to gardens to baseball and more. 

Denver Airport features a plane in the center

First, you can find flights to Denver from most cities for about $200 round trip. Spirit, Frontier and Southwest Airlines fly to Denver. The airport has 3 terminals plus a main terminal with a Westin hotel attached to it. Rental cars are available on site though you need to take a shuttle to pick up your car. Make a note, the airport is about 30 minutes outside of downtown Denver. We were able to secure a reservation at the Sheraton Tech Center located in Greenwood Village.  This hotel is about 20 minutes outside of Denver, but does make a good jumping off point to explore if you have a car. 

Relaxing at Seven Falls

Seven Falls - 224 steps to the top

From Denver, there are several day trip hikes you can take. One is Seven Falls in Morrison, CO. Located about 1 hour from Denver near the Broadmoor Luxury Hotel. By the way, the Broadmoor is the longest Five Star Michelin Hotel in the United States. The Broadmoor offers a free shuttle and parking to Seven Falls. The hotel bought the falls property several years ago and completely renovated it. Now it features a restaurant, gift shop and elevator if you don't want to climb the 224 steps to the top of the falls. 

The Broadmoor Luxury Hotel

Another great day trip is to visit the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. There is a museum on site that features guitars and memorabilia from the bands that have played in the venue. Check out the trading post too! There are several hikes around the amphitheater as well, but be careful of the urban wildlife!

Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Urban wildlife blocking our path! Eek

Denver is known for its Bonnie Brae Ice Cream so that's a definite. Plus head to the Highland area for trendy restaurants like Root Down and one of the world's top-rated speakeasy William and Graham. 

Starpoints Sale End July 20

We are all mourning the loss of our beloved starpoints from Starwood. But through July 20th, you have one last chance to load up at a savings. I'm not a huge fan of buying points, however, if you need to top off an account or have a specific goal in mind and are a bit short, now is the time. Starwood is offering 35% off if you purchase 5,000 points or more. 

For example:

5,000 points costs $113.75 on sale (regular price $175)

6,000 points cost $136.50 on sale (regular price $210)

On August 1st, Starwood will officially merge with Marriott and create a new loyalty program. 

Your starpoints will convert to the new program at 1:3 so if you are like me, you have been loading up on starpoints. 

So here's your last chance. Hope it helps! 

Spend $10 At Whole Foods, Get $10 Credit At Amazon

If you are an Amazon Prime member, then this deal is for you. If you shop at Whole Foods and spend at least $10 anytime between July 11th and 17th, Amazon will give you a $10 credit to spend on Amazon Prime Day (which actually lasts 36 hours). 

Amazon Prime Day is July 16th this year. 

Plus if you have an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa, Amazon is doubling your cash back when you shop at Whole Foods from July 14-17 from 5% to 10%. 

This is the first time Whole Foods is participating in Amazon Prime Day. 

Happy Shopping! 

How To Rent An RV For $1 Per Day

Before you spend thousands of dollars to rent an RV to explore the country, check out Imoova.com. It's a clearing house for RV rentals. Many people rent RV's to drive one way on their trip. So how do the RV rental companies get those RV's back to the city of origin. They could hire drivers or they could rent them to other people making the return trip for a cheap price.
It's similar to the repositioning cruises.
That's where you could score.
The offers change all the time depending on which RV's need to go where, but a recent check of the website showed lots of RV's needing to be driven from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, various cities to Phoenix and various cities to Florida.
The offers were anywhere from $1 to $25 per day and you were given usually a few weeks or a month to get to the destination. Some even included money for gas.
All included linens.
There is required $1,000 refundable deposit.
If any of these match your planned trip or maybe you are flexible and just want to try traveling in an RV, this seems like an awesome way to make it happen.
These are one-way rentals so you will have to get to or home on your own. Let us know if you tried this website and how it worked for you.
That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel.

How To Get 10X Points And FREE Global Entry

I love booking flights with miles, but sometimes, you don't have enough miles to book a certain flight or you can't transfer your miles to the airline you want to fly or there's no availability. 

So what do you do? The Capital One Venture card is the answer and now, the card offered some added perks. 
First, the new perks for those of you who already know about this card. Through 2020, book a hotel through hotels.com and earn 10x points on your Capital One Venture card. Wow! That's a quick way to rack up points. 

Another perk is FREE global entry. This is a $100 value. I'm not convinced that global entry saves any time, but if you fly a lot and run into security issues or long lines, then it may be helpful. 

The best value of the Capital One Venture card is that you can erase any travel purchases with points. What does this mean?

For example, you book a flight on Norwegian Airlines for $400 round trip from Newark to Rome. You purchase the flight with your Capital One Venture card. Once the purchase goes through, you can log into your Capital One Venture account and use points to erase the purchase. You have 120 days to erase the purchase. And with a bonus of 50,000 when you sign up for the card, you can erase about $600 worth of travel. Travel purchases are hotels, flights, train tickets and anything else coded for travel. 

I used my bonus to cover 5 one way flights from Houston to LAX. This was the last leg of our flights home from Panama. Unfortunately, my United points would only get us from Panama to Houston and not all the way back to LAX due to lack of availability. But I used the Capital One Venture bonus to finish the trip. 
The card has a $3,000 minimum spend in the first 3 months with $0 annual fee the first year, $95 after that. 

That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel! 

A New Way To Save Money At The Grocery Store

There's a new app out there called Ibotta that could save you a ton of money at the grocery store. The basic idea is the same as cutting coupons, but now it's all electronic.

Here's how it works.
Before you head to the store, check Ibotta to see which brands are offering coupon discounts. Click on the coupons, you think you might use.
After you shop, take a photo of your receipt with the Ibotta app. Ibotta will cross check the items on your coupon list with the ones you marked off. If any of them match, Ibotta will drop the money into your account.
Watch for bonus coupons too. I was able to collect an additional $3 for mobile shopping.
The second way to use this app is like a shopping portal. I found their percentages to be low compared to other ones on the market. But the app offers a welcome bonus of $10 so that makes at least the first purchase worth it.
The only catch is that you need $20 in your Ibotta account before you can cash out.
I tested Ibotta by buying my cat food from Petco.com through the shopping portal. I received $10 for my first purchase plus 5% cash back on my $60 cat food purchase so that's another $3. I got a $3 mobile shopping bonus.
Then I scanned my Sprouts receipt and picked up another $.50 for bananas and mango. Plus a $2 bonus for in-store shopping.
So my total right now is $17.50. Of course, I need $20 to cash out so I'll have to use the app a few more times at least.
If you are coupon cutter, this app may be right up your alley. If you use my link, you will get the $10 welcome bonus.