Last fall, I had my husband apply for a personal Southwest credit card. Maybe I should rewind a bit. My husband used to have the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card. Because I knew that we wanted to work towards earning a Southwest Companion Pass for 2023 (yes, notice I only mentioned one year, instead of almost two), I had him close his existing card in spring of 2022. Southwest doesn’t offer any no-fee card options that you can downgrade to, so closing out his existing account was the only option we had.
For starters, because my husband travels for work, we can earn the Southwest Companion Pass yearly. It’s what I call effortless effort – the only effort we had to make was to have him apply for a personal card last fall (and obviously meet the minimum spend on that card). That card itself wouldn’t be enough to earn the required number of points obviously, so points earned from personal spend and work trips (prior in the year) helped us meet the rest. Having him close out a card in the spring, gave him enough cushion time to apply for a new personal card in the fall of 2022. You can read more about our one-card trick to earning the Companion Pass (yearly) here.
When he applied for the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, the offer (when he applied in the fall of 2022) was for 50,000 points if you met a minimum spend of $1,000. Easy enough. A few short weeks later, it went up to 75,000 points if you met a minimum spend of $4,000. My initial thoughts: NO WAY, he had literally JUST applied and gotten approved! Now what? We had also already received our Companion Pass for 2023.
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask right? I had him call customer service and ask to be matched to the higher offer. They said yes, but on one condition. He had to meet the minimum spend difference of $3,000, and if completed, they would deposit the difference of 25,000 points in his Rapid Rewards account. Sweet! We met it, and just last week they deposited those points in his account. Maybe this sounds like a lot of work, but it honestly just took minutes for each action. Yes, I did have him follow up because I always need points in my accounts faster than they come in – and got the standard answer of “ You’ll need to wait the X number of weeks.” (But that’s just me being impatient!)
It’s always worth the additional steps and effort. We are a family of five, and earning enough points for any trip for that matter, takes time. You see, those additional 25,000 points helped me book one way flights for the five of us (I only needed enough for four people as I’m free as my husband’s companion ;)) to L.A. My husband has a cousin who is getting married this July. We will fly from DFW to LAX on Southwest Airlines, and then from LAX, a few days later, we will fly to Portland, Oregon. We are having a cousins reunion in Portland (my side of the family this time) – and I’m so excited to have my kids hang out with all their cousins!
While we had no intention to have two back-to-back trips, we are making it work thanks to points and miles. It’s also a reminder that no matter how much you plan and strategize, sometimes life happens – whether it’s changing credit offers or family get-togethers. And that’s ok. Just remember, when in doubt, always ask (for those additional points, that is). The answer you get, may just surprise you.
Picture: New York, May 2022
