How My Family Flies For Free(Ish)

In July we traveled to Washington State to celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday. We earned some sweat-free time together in the Pacific Northwest when temperatures in Texas prove quite miserable.
I flew from the Northwest to Orlando to participate in a National Health Coaching conference and to tour Disney again with my fun friend Carla and her family. I even sneaked in a 5 hour “Keys to the Kingdom” tour in Magic Kingdom (Sidenote: it was crazy amazing. You should definitely take this tour if given the opportunity).
In September, Thing 2 and I drove out to Utah and then drove 4 hours to Idaho to drop him off at school.
In October my hubby and I took the trip of a lifetime together to Oahu! 8 days in paradise was divine. We flew my parents out to take care of Things 3 and 4 and our dogs.

In December I surprised my youngest with 5 day, 4 night trip to Orlando. She was shocked. The temperatures were warm, but together we savored the season in true Disney fashion!

At this point you are probably wondering how we could afford all this travel. That was A LOT of flights in one year! Would you believe that each of these flights cost me a total of $11.20 per person round trip? You read that correctly! For the cost of a movie, we traveled the country, savoring sights while enjoying time with family and friends.

How did we do such a thing?? In a nutshell, it was all thanks to the Southwest Credit Card Rewards Programs!

I bet you are wondering if you can do the same. The answer is absolutely YES! Would you like me to walk you through it step by step? Okay, buckle up, because here we go!

    1. If you are not a Southwest Rapid Rewards Member, make yourself an account. It is FREE.

     2. Apply for a Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card. Here is a link to follow. The https://www.referyourchasecard.com/226p/6NAFFE8KJS Apply for a personal Southwest Rapid Rewards card and you will earn 40,000 points after you spend $1000 in the first 3 months of use.  *Note: you will be charged a $69 annual fee for this card.

I am going out on a limb here and assuming you don’t need ideas on how to blow $1,000 in 3 months, so we are moving onto step 3 . After you have spent $1000, you will have earned AT LEAST 41,000 points.

     3. After you have completed step 2, apply for a Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business card. You will earn 60,000 points after you spend $5000 in the first 3 months. You say, “Wait, I don’t have a business!”  The term “business” here is pretty flexible.  Have you signed up to sell something as a side hustle (Mary Kay, Pampered Chef etc)? Do you teach piano in the afternoon? Run childcare from your home? These are businesses and they count! You don’t have to be an pediatrician or a franchise owner to take advantage of this option. Think small. *Note, you will be charged a $99 annual fee for this card.

Now pay any and all bills that can be paid with this business card until you reach $5,000.  These bills do NOT need to be business related.  Water bills, cell phone bills and so on can be paid via credit card.  Put any and all purchases on this card.

If you do this, you will now have AT LEAST 65,000 points generated from this card.

It is important to note that the points from both of these cards will be linked and combined via your rapid rewards number.  Even if you cancel one or both of these cards at this point, you will retain your points.

Between the 2 cards, you will now have AT LEAST 106,000 points. Back in the old days (also known as last year) I would now excitedly tell you that you are almost there!  It used to be that 110,000 points earned you a companion pass.  As of January 1, 2020, that number jumped to 125,000 points. That means you are still in need of 19,000 points.

At this point you could just keep spending on one of your Southwest cards and hope you earn enough points. You would have to spend between $8,000 and $19,000 to do this.  Do not despair, I have another option for you!

I highly recommend you take advantage of the Southwest Rapid Rewards referral program! You can refer 5 people annually.  Do you have other people in your life who would want to earn a companion pass? If so, don’t just tell them about it! Give them the referral link you will receive from Southwest and ask them to sign up via the link! You will earn 10,000 points for each person that does this.  If only 2 people do this, you are have earned an additional 20,000 points. You are now up to 126,000 points without spending a dime.

It is worth noting is that your spouse can apply for his/her own card using your referral link.  So, while your family will be spending $69 to open his/her own account, this is an easy way to earn an additional 10,000 points. Do what you want with this little tidbit.

When you reach 125,000 points you will qualify for a companion pass This means that for the remainder of that year AND the entire following calendar year you will be able to take a friend with you for free everywhere you go. Southwest will issue you a card with your designated companion’s name on it. In addition, you may use the points you have earned in this process to purchase your ticket and the tickets of other family members. You will each need to pay the regulatory taxes of $5.60 each way, but aside from that, your travels will be totally free! Yippee!!!! 

Assuming you went the personal card/business card route, you will have paid a total of $168 in annual fees between the two cards. The perks for that $168 are AMAZING!  To help give you an idea, I flew 5 of us round trip to New York City for 55,000 points!  Imagine that!  You could take a trip to New York City and still have points to spare!

Here’s some important things to note. Some of these I’ve mentioned and some I haven’t, so don’t skim over this part.  I want to make sure you understand all the details.

     *Be sure to accrue all 125,000 points in THE SAME CALENDAR year! Your qualification period to earn the companion pass restarts at zero on January 1. You will keep your points, but they will no longer count towards the companion pass. I learned this the hard way, and boy was it painful.

     *You can designate a different companion a total of 3 times in a calendar year.  I didn’t understand this and I think it’s really important to note that you can’t just assign someone as your companion willy-nilly. Think ahead when designating who your first companion will be.

     *Thanks to a recent change, your rapid rewards points NEVER expire. If you are judicious with these points, you can really spread them out and get a lot of travel out of them. For example, I am flying with my daughter at 9:20 pm the day we leave vs. 2:35 pm. The reason for this is the points are so much lower! I used 5,400 points instead of 16,000 points! I could have taken an early morning flight and spent a little more if that time was more convenient. When you go to book flights using points, really look at the point costs and determine what flights you are willing or not willing to take so you can save some for another adventure!

Why I love traveling with Southwest:

     1. Free Bags and carry-on’s! Two free checked bags and 2 free carry-on’s! This is huge to me!
     2. I love the fact that I can change my plans again and again and not be charged a fee. It’s seriously the best!
     3. I love the funny songs that flight attendants sometimes make up and sing for us. Yes, I am in fact, a 12 year-old trapped in a 47 year-old body. 

So, now that you know about the Southwest Companion pass, where will you travel to next? The skies the limit my friends!