Chase Sapphire Reserve Vs. Preferred, Which One?

Two great cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Preferred, but which one should you choose? I just fell under the 5/24 rule which means I can apply for another Chase credit card. Chase changed the rules a few years ago so you can only be approved for 5 credit cards in a two year period. Some cards are excluded, but most are not.
Since I knew I wanted to open two Southwest credit cards in December 2018, I held off opening any other cards for the last 24 months.
The bonus is I actually have four spots open, wow! I was approved for the two Southwest credit cards, woohoo, and earned the companion pass, (The companion pass is one of the best travel perks out there, you can read about this pass by clicking here) but I have another spot. I actually have two spots, but I am going to hold off using the last one.
I have been eyeing the Chase Sapphire cards for awhile because I already have the Chase Freedom and the Chase Ink Business card, but neither of those allow you to transfer Ultimate Reward Points to airlines unless you have a Sapphire card.
So now the question is which one?

Here are the pros and cons:

The biggest con, of course, is the difference in the annual fee $95 versus $450. However, if you break down the annual fee, you might make a different choice. 
For $450, you get a $300 travel credit so that knocks the annual fee to $150 and you also get a $100 Global Entry credit so now you are talking $50. If you value lounge membership and plan to use the Chase travel portal, then the Reserve starts to make sense. 
However, you get 10,000 extra bonus points with the Preferred. 
So you need to weigh the pros and cons depending on how you like to travel. 
Let us know what you decide. 

How To Earn Southwest Miles Without Flying....Fast

Once you get your new Southwest Peformance Business credit card and make $5,000 in purchases to reach your minimum spend and get the bonus of 80,000 points, the question is how to earn the companion pass quickly. 
You are awarded the companion pass when you earn 110,000 in a single calendar year. The pass is good for the year you earn it and the following year. So the earlier you earn it in the calendar year, the more value you can get out of it. 
For example, I earned the companion pass in February 2019. It is good through December 31, 2020. 
You can use it as many times as you want and change your companion three times each calendar year. 

So how can you earn 25,000 Southwest points quickly to reach the magic number of 110,000 without flying?

Here are a few ways to do it:

1. Use Rocketmiles.com to book hotels. Look for hotels with bonuses of up to 10,000 points. A quick search shows hotels in New Orleans, LA in November with bonuses of up to 15,000 points for 2 nights. The points will take about two weeks to post. 

2. You can book a rental car and earn miles on Southwest

3. You can dine at restaurants and earn miles on Southwest. Remember to dine within 30 days of opening your Southwest dining account and post a review to get a new member bonus. Plus opt in to email communication to get 3x points. 

4. And my favorite, the Southwest shopping portal. Earn thousands of points by doing your online shopping through the Southwest portal. 

5. You can even earn points for taking surveys, but this is pretty slow. 

Let us know in the comments below how you earn those extra points! Good luck! 

How To Get Buy One, Get One FREE On Southwest, Fast

The Southwest Airlines companion pass is one of the best travel perks out there. If you earn 110,000 points in a single calendar year, you earn the pass for that year and the following year. 

The pass is buy one, get one FREE on any Southwest flight. 

And you can change your companion three times each calendar year.

  Read about how I got mine here. 

For example, I took my son to the East Coast in March to look at colleges. I booked my flight from San Diego to Chicago with points and then added my son as my companion and his flight was FREE. As long as there is an empty seat on the plane, Southwest will allow the companion on board. 

Right now, the new Southwest Performance Business credit card offers an 80,000 point bonus that counts towards the companion pass. If you add in the 5,000 points for the minimum spend, you would only need to earn another 25,000 points to earn the pass. 

110,000 - 80,000 - 5,000 = 25,000

You could earn 25,000 with purchases on your new credit card which earns 3x points for purchases on Southwest Airlines, 2x points on business supplies and 1x points everywhere else. 

In my next post, I'll talk about ways you can earn Southwest points without flying. 

That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel.com 

How You Can Score 80,000 Southwest Points!

Chase and Southwest Airlines just announced a new business credit card with an 80,000 point bonus! That's crazy and the highest bonus we have ever seen. Plus if you get this bonus, it puts you very close to earning a companion pass. The Southwest companion pass is one of the best travel perks around. Once you collect 110,000 points in a calendar year, you earn the companion pass or buy one get one FREE for the rest of that year and the following year. 
Plus 80,000 points on Southwest can get you and your family a long way. Point values vary for flights depending on the price of the flight. But my flight from Fort Lauderdale to Havana last year only cost 2,956 points each way. 

Let's break it down:

New Performance Business Credit Card

• $199 annual fee 
• $5,000 minimum spend 
• $100 Global Entry credit
• 9,000 points on your anniversary 
• 3x points for purchases on Southwest
• 2x points for purchases on search engine, internet, cable and phone
• 1x points for purchases everywhere else
• 4 upgraded boardings 
• Inflight WIFI

The fine print

You can apply even if you already have the Southwest Premier business credit card 

Chase and Southwest reps will hold a series of business events for business owners to talk about how to grow their businesses. 

Bottom line, if you are under 5/24 and have a small business (I'll write a follow up post with what qualifies as a small business), apply for this card, it's a no brainer. 

Double Points With The Wyndham Shopping Portal

Wyndham is offering 2x points when you shop through its shopping portal. Now I didn't even know Wyndham had a shopping portal and I love shopping portals. 

But I'm glad they do because shopping portals are a great way to build miles and points on airlines and hotels or earn cash back or FREE products. 

I tend to use the shopping portals from Southwest, American Airlines, United Airlines, Ebates now known as Rakuten (If you use my referral link, you will get a bonus discount) and the Marketplace. 

Shopping portals all work the same way, though the cash back or points/miles that you earn from each retailer can vary from portal to portal. You can use cashbackmonitor.com to quickly check rates for a specific retailer. You can see above that through the Wyndham shopping portal, Macy's is offering 1 point per dollar with the bonus. It usually offers .5 points per dollar.

Services are also included in shopping portals with big points/mile bonuses. 

To use a shopping portal:

• Log in to your membership account 
• Find the retailer you want to shop with 
• Click on that retailer, you will be redirected to the retailer's website
• Shop normally and purchase 

Note, you must make your purchase on that redirected website for the tracking to work so you get the points. If you think you lost the tracking by clicking on another website, leave your items in the cart and go back to the shopping portal and repeat the original steps. 

Your items will still be in the cart and the tracking will be turned back on. 

It takes about 1-2 weeks for you to get an email alerting you that you earned points. 

And a few weeks after that for the points/cash back/miles to post. 

How To Get 5% Cash Back On Every Fill Up

Chase just released its new Q3 5% cash back categories for the no annual fee Chase Freedom credit card. Drumroll, please. 

Q3 5% Categories:

• All streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Sirius
• Gas Stations 

Woohoo. Who doesn't like earning 5% back on every fill up. Chase Freedom is a great card to keep in your wallet since it has no annual fee and can earn 1% cash back on every purchase and 5% on rotating categories. You earn Chase Ultimate Reward points which you can cash in for cash back. If you have a Chase Sapphire or Reserve card, you can transfer those Ultimate Rewards to airlines like Southwest. Huge!
You need to activate your Q3 categories by clicking here and entering your last name, zip code and last four digits of your card or you can login to your Chase.com account.
You will have until almost the end of Q3 to activate the categories and it is retroactive.
If you don't have a Chase Freedom card yet, use this referral link to get $150 cash back after you spend $500 in the first 3 months.
If you have the Chase Freedom, think about opening a Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred so you can transfer those great points to airlines.

Woohoo, Got My 100,000 Marriott Points Bonus

Back in February, my husband was offered 100,000 bonus Marriott points if he upgraded his Starwood American Express to the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card and spent $5,000 in the first 3 months. The Brilliant also comes with a 50,000 point certificate for a free night on your anniversary, $300 credit at any Marriott and Global Entry. It carries a hefty $450 annual fee, but with the hotel credit and Global Entry, it's almost a wash. 

Since we had a big event coming up and needed to direct those purchases somewhere, we took advantage of this upgrade. 

I applied for Global Entry and we will use the $300 Marriott credit this summer. 

By the way, since we already had the Starwood American Express card, we would not be eligible to apply for the Brilliant card ever. 

Well, look what arrived in my inbox today:

Woohoo! Next year, we are heading to Santiago, Chile so these points will come in handy to get all four of us there and back for FREE. For every 60,000 Marriott points, we can get 25,000 airline miles. Marriott gives you a FREE 15,000 points for every 60,000 points you transfer to an airline. The transfer ratio is 3 points for 1 mile. 

So this bonus gets us really close to another round trip ticket. Woohoo! 

Always be on the lookout for upgrade offers, they can be super sweet! 

The current offer for the Brilliant card is 75,000 Marriott points with a $3,000 minimum spend plus the $300 Marriott travel credit, Global Entry and the 50,000 night certificate on your anniversary. 

If you would like to apply for this card, please consider using my referral link and help my family get to Chile.