Great News! Southwest Extends Companion Pass

Southwest announced this morning that they will reverse the hotel transfer policy until March 31st 2017 reopening a loophole to earn the companion pass. That is great news! They suddenly closed the loophole without any notice on Jan. 1st and were inundated with emails from upset people.
I sent them an email as well because I had been collecting Marriott points for more than a year waiting to cash them in for a vacation package. 
Why were so many people hoping to buy a vacation package? Here's the loophole. You can buy a Marriott vacation package and still earn the pass. The Southwest Marriott 7 day vacation package costs 270,000 points, but nets you 120,000 Southwest points and 7 day vacation at a category 1-5 Marriott. When the 120,000 Southwest points hit your account, Southwest automatically awards you with a companion pass. 
The companion pass allows you to bring a guest free on any flight for that calendar year and the next. So it's good for buy 1 get 1 free travel for 2 years. Wow!
Now you have until March 31st 2017 to do this so don't delay because starting in April the loophole will close for good.

Strange Southwest Email

I received a strange email this morning from Southwest Airlines. At first, I was excited then I was angry. To be clear, my companion pass expired Dec. 31st, 2016. I have been collecting Marriott miles for almost a year so that I could buy a Marriott vacation package and earn the pass again. On Jan. 1st, Southwest changed their policy and hotel transfer points no longer qualify.
Fellow blogger Loophole Travel  called Southwest and the agent told him he would see his companion pass post tomorrow. Loophole Travel says he has not earned the pass. The agent could not tell Loophole Travel how he had earned the pass.
Southwest's official Twitter page says the emails were sent out in error. I'll be checking tomorrow. Perhaps, Southwest felt bad for me.

Bad News For The Southwest Companion Pass

Sometimes you win in this game and sometimes you lose. This is a loser. Southwest Airlines announced on January 1st 2017 that points transferred from hotel loyalty programs will no longer count towards a companion pass.
So that means if you were saving up those Marriott/SPG points to buy a Southwest vacation package that would also earn you a companion pass, you are now out of luck.
More details are coming.......

One New Years Resolution You Will Want To Keep

Tonight as you raise that glass to toast the changing of the year, think about what you would like to do more of in 2017 or even into 2018. If travel tops the list, then start planning now. I have several clients right now who are already thinking ahead to summer 2018. And that's the way to do it if you want to travel for almost free.
It takes a while to rack up all those points/miles to take an entire family around the globe. But you can do it, if you put a plan in place early.

Here's the checklist:
1. Where do you want to go?
2. What airlines fly there? And who are their partners?
3. What credit cards offer bonuses for those airlines?
4. You may need to call the airline to confirm how many points you need to fly from A to B
5. Put a plan in place
6. Apply for the first card

For travel in summer 2018, you will want to book your flight by November of 2017. If you wait too much longer, the lowest fare economy award seats will be gone. And when you are traveling with a family of 4 or 5, snagging these low award fares are key.

Good luck and have a safe and happy New Year!

Hilton Sweet Spot

Everyone has their own wants and needs when they travel. But for me and my family, I look for hotels that are discounted, offer free breakfast, are centrally located and I can use points and miles.
Hampton Inns in the Hilton brand are a sweet spot for me. They offer breakfast included and are priced well.
They are considered a budget hotel, but I have always found them to be clean and more than adequate.
Hilton points on the other hand are crazy. They are worth about .4 cents each compared with Starwood points which are valued at 2.2 cents each.
So when you apply for a Hilton credit card, your bonus doesn't usually get you very much. Right now, Hilton has a no annual fee card with a bonus of 40,000 points and a minimum spend of $1,000. However, there is a sweet spot. Next summer, my family and I are heading to Eastern Europe specifically to Poland.
When I checked out hotel accomodations in Krakow and Warsaw, I found Hampton Inns in both cities for less than 10,000 points per night. Yes, 10,000 points per night. The actual price of the room was $54 per night. Pretty cheap.

But I have lots of Hilton points laying around and I need 2 rooms for our family of 5. So now you are talking $150 per night if I book the rooms directly with Hilton.
What is interesting is that a room for 2 people is offered at 5,000-10,000 per night, but a room for 3 with a pull out sofa is offered at 22,000 per night. You could also pay $27 and use only 2,000 points per night for the 2 person room.
Remember this includes breakfast so for a family of 5, it's a no brainer. Using just the minimum of Hilton points, 2 nights in Krakow and 2 nights in Warsaw, we used just 30,000 points for one room for 2 people valued at $300. You could probably add a bit more value since the stay includes breakfast.
So I opted to use points for the 2 person room and buy the 3 person room with my Barclay's card. The Barclay's card offers a 5% points back on travel plus a $500 bonus when you sign up. I'll show you how to redeem points on Barclay's in another post.

Selling Gift Cards For Cash

Now that the holidays are over, what do you do with all the gift cards from well meaning relatives that you don't really want. Here's an idea for you. Sell them online for cash. I recently received an Apple gift card for $300. Very nice gift and I am very appreciative. However, I already have a laptop, ipad mini and iphone. And I don't have a need for anything else. Cash though is always appreciated since we are planning a big trip for next summer.
So I sold the gift card through Cardpool.com online. When you call up the website, you can enter the amount on the gift card and the name of the store. Cardpool will instantly tell you how much they will pay for the card. You can choose to be paid by check or by Amazon gift card which nets you 6% more. I chose a check since I'm not a big Amazon shopper either.
By check, Cardpool said it would pay me $267. By Amazon gift card, Cardpool would have paid me $283.
I entered the gift card number and pin and Cardpool said it was accepted. I received a confirmation email and then a second email a few days later letting me know my check was in the mail. Woohoo!

Using your Barclays card for free travel

Sometimes it's hard to use points and miles for all the free tickets when you travel as a family. Perhaps you only have enough points or miles for 2 or 3 tickets or perhaps you want to fly on an airline that you don't have any points or miles with.
That happened to me 2 years ago, when my mother in law invited the family to join her on an all expense trip to Costa Rica. The only catch we had to pay to get to Costa Rica and we all had to fly on the same Delta flight.
Argh.
Delta is not an airline I usually fly. Since I can't stomach paying full price for an airline ticket, I had to figure out another way to get my family of 5 to Costa Rica. Airline tickets on this particular Delta flight were selling for about $600 per round trip. But I figured out if I charged the tickets to my Barclays Arrival Plus card I would get 1.5 free.
The 50,000 bonus plus 2,000 for minimum spend and the 10% bonus for redemption on travel was enough to get 1.5 tickets free. My husband did the same thing and got another 1.5 tickets free.
So essentially we paid for 2 tickets and got 3 tickets free. Not bad. Savings $1600.
I told my mother in law about the card and she applied and then used it to pay for the trip and saved thousands of dollars.
And bought me a pina colada on the beach!
This card is pretty easy to churn so we just applied for the card again and charged our property taxes to it to reach the minimum spend. Even though we paid $60 in fees to charge the taxes, it's worth it because we will use the bonus to pay for airline taxes and hotels for our summer vacation.  The redemption is now just 5%, but I think it is still worth it to cover airline taxes, trains, airbnb etc.
A big part of this game is strategy and how to use the tools. If you would like help planning your next big vacation to be almost free, let us know. We love to help!