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Southwest launches attractive promotion to get status faster
Southwest is roaring into March with some accelerated ways to earn Tier Qualifying Points to hit status faster. What exactly does that mean? It means you that you’ll be earning increased Tier Points to help you get status quicker, but not redeemable points. Let’s take a look – and you can go here to register
Here’s the latest promotion offering double Tier Points, Rewards flight Tier Point credits, and credit card boost
- 2x on Tier Points on flights
- Must Register, Book and Fly between 3/1/23 and 5/31/23
- Reward Flight credits
- Earn 1 Tier Qualifying Flight credit
- 10% of the points you used count towards Tier Qualifying Points
- Credit Card Boost
- Get a bonus 3k Tier Qualifying Points for every $5000 you purchase between 3/1/23 and 5/31/23
How does Southwest Status work?
In order to evaluate this promotion you need to know how Southwest Status works
It’s broken down into 3 elite status levels:
- A-List
- 25 one way flights or 35k Tier Points
- A-List Preferred
- 50 one way flights or 70k Tier Points
- Companion Pass
- 100 one way flights or 135k Tier Points
How to Earn Southwest Tier Points
You earn Southwest Tier Points based on the fare type you purchase
- Wanna Get Away = 6
- Wanna Get Away Plus = 8
- Anytime = 10
- Business Select = 12
Southwest Promo 2x earn rates
During the promotional period ( 3/1 to 5/31 ) you’ll earn the following rates – a 24x earning on Business Select means you could hit A-List spending $1460…
- Wanna Get Away =
6- Earn rate goes to 12
- Wanna Get Away Plus =
8- Earn rate goes to 16
- Anytime =
10- Earn rate goes to 20
- Business Select =
12- Earn rate goes to 24
Rewards Night breakdown
During the promotional period ( 3/1 to 5/31 ) If you were to use 10k points on a flight
- Earn 1 Tier Qualifying Flight
- Earn 1k Tier Qualifying Points
Credit Card Breakdown
During the promotional period ( 3/1 to 5/31 ) you’d earn like this
- Spend $5000 you’d earn the following
- 5000 base points ( both redeemable and Tier Qualifying )
- 3000 bonus Tier Qualifying Points
In total you’d earn 8k Tier Qualifying Points + 5000 redeemable Southwest Miles.
Overall
Southwest had an well publicized bad end to 2022, and with business travel still considerably below pre-pandemic levels this is geared to not only entice the casual traveler to give Southwest another go, but to hopefully pivot some business expenses their way as well.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.