Apply Now To Get 80,000 Southwest Points And A Companion Pass

 

Southwest is offering 80,000 points on all three of their personal credit cards which is one of the highest offers we have seen, but there is a catch. The good news, 90,000 points puts you well in reach of the best perk in travel, the Southwest Companion Pass. 

The pass gets you buy one, get one FREE for up to two years on Southwest Airlines. And you want to earn it at the beginning of the year so you max out the two years so the timing is fantastic. You can read my previous post to see how to do that. 

However, the catch here is that there are two minimum spends you need to hit to earn the bonuses. Let me explain. 

1. 50,000 bonus points when spend $2,000 in the first three months which is not bad since it's traditionally been a higher minimum spend. 

2. 30,000 bonus points when you spend $10,000 in your first 9 months

If you break it down, it's just about $1,000 per month which is totally doable, but you won't get the companion pass until you hit that bonus. Since you have to earn all of your points in the same calendar year to earn the companion pass and you pass is good for the rest of this year and the next year, you will want to reach that $10,000 minimum as fast as possible. 

Even if you can't reach the $10,000 quickly, the 50,000 points puts you 1/3 of the way towards the 125,000 points needed to earn the pass. 

Make sense?

There are 3 personal credit cards offered in this promotion, the Priority, the Premium and the Plus. My favorite is the Priority because with all the perks, the annual fee is actually less than the others. And the cards earn 5x points on groceries and Amazon through Dec. 31, 2020. 

If you own a small business, you are allowed to hold a Southwest business card and a personal card at the same time so you may want to think about opening both to reach the companion pass as well. 

Now if you have received any Southwest credit card bonus in the past 24 months, you are not eligible to get it again plus you can only hold one personal card at a time. 

Where to Find The Best Travel Deals on Cyber Monday

 

We may not be able to travel yet, but you can get some deals on Cyber Monday to use when we can. A lot of the deals out there right now come with FREE cancellation or big travel windows which gives you a lot of flexibility. Be sure to check out the cruise lines and theme parks since they are offering amazing benefits along with discounted rates. Also, many of the airlines and hotels are offering a chance to buy points like Jet Blue, IHG, and United.

Now I don't usually recommend buying points, but when they offer a 100% bonus and you have someplace in mind, it could be worth it. 

You can check out this fantastic comprehensive list of deals from our friends at ThePointsGuy.com. 

And here’s a list of some of the Cyber Monday travel deals for this year from Shannon at Blackfriday.com:

• American Airlines: Book by Dec. 1 (for travel through March 31), and get up to 20% off. The discount amount depends on how much you spend.
• Expedia: The Cyber Monday sale runs through Dec. 1. Get up to 50% off select stays booked through the app.
• Hotels.com: Get an extra 5% off through Nov. 30 (for travel until Sept. 21, 2021).
• Hotwire: Get an additional 12% off all Hot Rate hotel bookings in-app. Use code BF12. The sale runs Friday Nov. 27 through Monday Nov. 30.
• Karisma Hotels & Resorts: Shop the mystery sale through Dec. 7, and get rates as low as $99 per person at Karisma resorts. Travel between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021.
• Orbitz: Promo code APPVENTURE15 gets you 15% off on select hotels when you book via the app. Book by Dec. 1
• Priceline: Sign up for the email list by Nov. 29, to receive special offers through Nov. 30 (aka Cyber Monday). These offers include mystery coupons for 99%, 15% or 10% off.
• Princess Cruises: The Cyber Sale (which runs through Nov. 30), offers reduced deposits, extra onboard spending money and up to 50% off deposits. Deals are good for departing May 2021 and later.
• Riu Resorts: Book by Dec. 4 for stays through Dec. 23, 2021, and get an extra 15% off all-inclusive beach resorts.
• Travelocity: Use promo code CYBER10 to save 10% when you book by 11:59 p.m. CST on Dec. 1. Most travel by Sept. 12, 2021.

If you do take advantage of the sales, be sure to use the right credit card to max the points. The Sapphire Preferred gets 2x points on travel and the Reserve gets 3x points. Good luck and let us know what you find! 

How To Max Out Points and Miles during Black Friday Shopping

 

This week marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season and specifically the Black Friday sales. Now this year is going to look very different with so many people just trying to make ends meet and retailers trying to save a dismal year. 

So whether you will be taking advantage of the sales a lot or a little, make each purchase count. One day, we will be traveling again, and why not, travel for FREE. 

So a few things to remember when you are shopping over the holiday season:

1. Use the right credit card - this year has been incredible for increased cashback percentages on certain types of purchases. For example, 

• the new Chase Flex credit card offered new credit cardholders 5% back on groceries for one year or up to $12,000. When you are shopping for that Thanksgiving meal ingredients, that would be the card to use. 
• Chase Southwest credit cards offered a targetted offer of 5x points on Amazon purchases this quarter so this would be the card to use at that retailer. And now there is a more general offer for 5x points on Amazon and groceries, you need to activate the offer with this link.
• Chase quarterly bonus categories on Chase Flex and Chase Freedom offer 5x points at Paypal and Walmart this quarter. 
• Cards like Sapphire Preferred and Reserve offer increased percentages at restaurants, travel and grocery stores. Both cards also offer a cash back program where you can erase purchases at an increased 25% and 50% value. 
• Discover offers 5% this quarter at Amazon, Target and Walmart. 

2. Shopping portals - I love shopping portals, this is FREE money. You can check out my guide to shopping portals here. The bottom line is never make a purchase online without clicking on a shopping portal. It costs you nothing and puts money back in your pocket. And right now, Rakuten will give you $40 FREE when you use this referral link. 

3. Amex and Chase offers - check your AmericanExpress and Chase account to see what offers are available. Honestly, I don't find the best offers here, but once in a while, there is a gem. A few months ago, I found $50 back on any Marriott hotel stay. Pretty sweet! 

4. Open a new credit card and use the purchases to meet your minimum spend and get the bonus. One of the best bonuses and cards is the Sapphire Preferred which is offering a 75,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus and 1.25 point cash back program. 

The bottom line is every time you make a purchase make it count twice or three times towards that FREE trip. I call it leveraged spending and in the future, we will call it FREE travel. Woohoo! 

How You Can Score A FREE Flight To Santorini, Greece

 

One of the most amazing trips I ever took was to the Greek Islands including the island of Santorini pictured above. I spent one month traveling from island to island enjoying the sun, ruins, blue-roofed homes and yummy food. This has to be on everyone's bucket list. 

Now Aegean Airlines is offering 5,000 award miles just for signing up for their program. The miles never expire so this is really a no-brainer. Aegean Airlines is a Greek airline and a Star Alliance partner. A quick check shows 5,000 reward miles are valued at approximately $72 and can get you a FREE flight from Athens to any Greek island. Pretty sweet!

Or you could use it for short flights to neighboring countries. A quick search of other flights shows that a flight from Athens to neighboring countries like Italy, Turkey, and Croatia cost about 7,000 reward miles and hop over to London or anywhere in Europe for 11,000 reward miles. 

Aegean Airlines has a shopping portal and reward mile earning deals with Booking.com and other booking sites for hotels and cars. So you could run this up pretty quickly and save hundreds on flights. Plus Aegean Airlines is a partner with Star Alliance so you could use the reward miles to book on United and other airlines. Aegean Airlines typically charges less miles for the same flights as United. 

Just use this link to register and open a new account. Once the promotion ends, you will see 5,000 award miles deposited into your account. You will also get 1,000 miles that count towards Elite status if that's important to you. 

Big Bonuses Offered To Small Business

 

Two great new offers from Chase for small businesses. Both cards carry no annual fee and a $750 bonus for a $7,500 minimum spend. That's the highest offer Chase has ever offered on these two cards. Remember many businesses and side gigs can qualify as a small business. 

So which one to choose? 

• Ink Unlimited offers 1.5% cashback on all purchases. It's the ultimate in simplicity. 
• Ink Business Cash offers 5x points on internet, cable, office supply stores and phone, 2x on gas stations and restaurants, and 1x on everything else. 

Remember both of these cards actually earn Chase Ultimate Reward points which you can use at dozens of hotels, airlines, in the travel portal, cashback or to erase certain purchases. And if you have a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve card, you can transfer your points to those cards increasing their value even more. Check it out here. 

Huge Bonus From The #1 Shopping Portal

 

If you follow me at all, you know how much I love shopping portals. Portals are FREE money and I love that! They are essentially a marketplace of retailers that offer cashback, miles, or points in exchange for being listed on the marketplace. What does this mean for you? I call it leveraged spending, it sounds like a very financial term, but it really just means getting more value out of each purchase. 

Picture this, you need to buy a new toilet from Home Depot. You can buy it straight from homedepot.com, you can walk into the store and buy it OR you can click on a shopping portal to reach homedepot.com and buy it there and get 3%-10% cashback. Woohoo! 

Most of the airlines and Chase offer shopping portals plus there are a few cashback portals including my favorite Rakuten used to be Ebates. 

Stores come and go and the cashback rates change all the time. I use cashbackmonitor.com to check the percentages for retailers. The best part is when you get the email from Rakuten saying you have a big fat check on the way. If you are not a Rakuten member yet, use this link to open your account and you will get $40 when you spend $40. Cha-ching! 

How You Can Score Another FREE National Park Pass

 

Do you have a fifth grader? If so, you now qualify for a FREE National Park Pass. Before today, the FREE pass was awarded only to 4th grade students, but now it has been expanded to include fifth graders too. 

So if you took advantage of the FREE pass last year when you had a 4th grader, well, now I'm assuming your child is in fifth grade and qualifies you again. 

Nice! 

There are 421 National Parks in the US including Yellowstone National Park pictured above and entry fees vary from just a few dollars to $35 per day. So the pass is a huge savings and it's good for the car not just for the people inside. 

Last year, we visited three National Parks in one trip, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons, the pass saved us hundreds of dollars. 

To get the pass for your 4th grader, you need to click on the official site, but for your 5th grader, you can just print the voucher and place it on the dashboard of your car. 

If you don't have a 4th or 5th grader, the pass sells for just $80 per year and is good for 12 months (the month you buy it in and the entire year). There are several days a year that are fee-free days too like Veteran's Day.