[Article] Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with a partner

Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

Cliffs:
Sign up for 2 Southwest cards. Two options:
  • "Spend" a total of $4,000 in three months and earn 104,000 miles.
  • "Spend" a total of approximately $10,000. Earn a total of 110,000 miles on Southwest and a free companion ticket where ever you go for 2013 and 2014. Totaling up to $3674 worth of free travel.
Long Story:
Chase is running a couple of new promotions. Earn 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 in three months. They will allow you to own a personal and business credit card from them (likely more than that, but whatever). Both cards have an annual fee of $99. I'm not certain if it's waived the first year or not. Even if it isn't, $198 for over $3600 in free travel is a pretty good deal.

So here's a link to the two cards:
Once you meet the spending requirements for both cards, you'll likely have ~104,000 miles in your account. To get a free companion pass for the remainder of the year and the next full year, you'll have to reach 110,000 miles. That means about another $6k in spending.

If you need a way to generate $10,000 in spending, there are plenty of ways. Certainly you should start putting all your expenses on a credit card. Additionally, if you need more to get you over the hump, don't forget my article about the bluebird. With it, I was successfully able to put my mortgage on a credit card and make a credit card payment this month. Assuming I can still find the Vanilla reload cards at my CVS, I should be able to do the same for December.

Also note, the Southwest miles need to be earned in a single calendar year. So sign up for them now, but do not start using the cards until January! That way all the miles will count towards the 110,000 mile minimum to be awarded a free companion pass.

Finally, a lesson for myself. I've been grinding on a British Airways card to get two free first class flights to Switzerland next year. Like Southwest, BA also has a companion deal. It's only for one ticket though and is awarded after spending $30k in a calendar year. When signing up for the card, I missed the "in a calendar year" part. This means its likely that I'm going to fall about $5k short of the $30k spending requirement. Lesson learned: pay attention! Thankfully, I'll still have enough miles for the two tickets, but the free one would have been nice. I could have probably gotten some free coach tickets for friends of ours that may be travelling with us. Oops. On the plus side, I can now start using this Southwest deal to get us cheap domestic flights. Look for fly and April coming to a city near you in 2013 or 2014!

Got an idea for an article of your own that we should hear about? Want free swag? Make a thread in the forum or email it to [email protected]. If accepted, you'll receive a free tshirt!
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

Got an idea for an article of your own that we should hear about? Want free swag? Make a thread in the forum or email it to [email protected]. If accepted, you'll receive a free tshirt!

ya right, where's my shirt buddy!
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

boo, ive already got the card
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

also, the first card is 69, not 99 in annual fee
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

I just signed up for the Rapid Rewards card (I've been meaning to for ages) and now it won't let me sign up for the business card.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

I just signed up for the Rapid Rewards card (I've been meaning to for ages) and now it won't let me sign up for the business card.

What do you mean? I got instant approval for the personal card, but the business card was waiting for review. Which just means that I can call the Chase credit reconsideration line at 1-888-245-0625 (personal cards) and 1-800-453-9719 (business cards) in a couple days to likely get approval.

BTW in my rush writing this article I forgot to mention, for the business card use Sole Proprietorship for business type and use your SSN as your tax id.

edit: Whoa, could you use this to pick up your son? :happy:
 
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Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

What do you mean? I got instant approval for the personal card, but the business card was waiting for review. Which just means that I can call the Chase credit reconsideration line at 1-888-245-0625 (personal cards) and 1-800-453-9719 (business cards) in a couple days to likely get approval.

BTW in my rush writing this article I forgot to mention, for the business card use Sole Proprietorship for business type and use your SSN as your tax id.

I got instant approval for the personal card too (I have zero credit card debt), but when I click on apply for the business one it says "An error occurred while we were processing your application. Please begin a new session and re-submit your application." I'm not sure what that means since I don't have a "session" and just launched a new browser window. Unless it's an IP thing and I need to try from home later tonight.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

Also, did they ask for a business name for your sole proprietorship? They have a note for one on the personal card in the employment section.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

I got instant approval for the personal card too (I have zero credit card debt), but when I click on apply for the business one it says "An error occurred while we were processing your application. Please begin a new session and re-submit your application." I'm not sure what that means since I don't have a "session" and just launched a new browser window. Unless it's an IP thing and I need to try from home later tonight.

You tried from the Learn More link right? I applied from the same IP. Maybe clear cache, or even easier - use incognito mode?
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

This one was timely dickdrip! They may shut this thing down by next week!

what would they shut down? The ability to get both cards?

Doubtful, this has been live forever.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

Also, did they ask for a business name for your sole proprietorship? They have a note for one on the personal card in the employment section.

Yes, they do ask for a name. Just use your own name again as the business name.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

You tried from the Learn More link right? I applied from the same IP. Maybe clear cache, or even easier - use incognito mode?

I clicked Learn More first, yes. I will try your other suggestions.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

the 50k miles on the personal card has been around for years. It used to be free, no spending 2000 bucks to get it.
 
Re: Article: super sweet credit card deal with southwest, especially if you fly with

the buddy pass at 110k miles though is new to me, that sounds freaking awesome. Ill just power through on my current card and i should hit 109k about november of next year, then ill hold off until january to hit 110 and have free buddy passes for two years.