Southwest Airline 50000 bonus points credit card promotion. $69 for two free round-trip US flight tickets

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Southwest Airline offers 50000 bonus points credit cards again.  Although there are two for personal needs, and two for business needs, most people will be qualified for one personal and one business cards

Bonus Points

To qualify for your bonus points, you must make purchases totaling $2,000 or more during the first 3 months from account opening. Government fees as low as $10 are not included. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for bonus points to post to your Rapid Rewards account. Purchases do not include using your account for balance transfers, cash advances, or the payment of any fees on your account (including an annual fee, if applicable), or using any checks that access your account. To be eligible for this bonus offer, account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment. This one-time bonus offer is valid only for first-time Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Credit Card cardmembers with new accounts. Previous and existing Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card cardmembers/accounts are not eligible for this bonus offer. Note: the bonus may be earned on one first-time personal and one first-time business Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card new account.

(After purchasing two tickets to Baltmore in September due to family urgency, Isa still has about 48,000 remaining Southwest miles remaining in the account.  We do not plan to apply this time.)

Out-of-pocket cost is $16 for two round-trip flight tickets

Q1. Is there an annual membership fee?
Premier card has $99 annual membership fee, not waived for the first year. Plus card has $69 annual membership, not waived for the first year also.

Q2. Is 50,000 Southwest Rapid reward miles worth the non-waive-able  membership fee?
Yes, if you live in U.S.  For example, our 50,000 Southwest sign-up reward miles were used up last time for the family trip of four round-trip flights to LA-Santa Monica-Las Vegas.  Technically speaking, this time, the round-trip tickets to Baltiimore, MD has a cost.  My parents transferred their 40000 Chase Ultimate Reward miles from their Chase Sapphire Preferred card card bonus into Isa's Southwest Rapid Reward account.  The transfer took about one day to complete.  40,000 UR points can be cashed out as $400.  (note: +$600 can be tax-able, not reward miles). I was not sure whether transferring Chase Ultimate Reward points from one family member to another would work.  It seemed so, if both transferee and transferer have the same mailing address.

Southwest miles is about 40% discount from regular price for getaway tickets
A one-way flight ticket from San Jose, CA to Baltimore, MD for our ticket is priced about $180. Round-trip tickets for two persons are $180*4 = $720 + $15 fee = $735.    Still save $735-$400 = $335, or $720 for net out-of-pocket gain.

Q3. Can I use Southwest miles to book tickets for friends? Are Southwest miles transferable?
It is not transferable.  I can book tickets for companions; I must fly in that trip also.

Q4. What are other benefits of Southwest Rapid Reward miles?

• Points expire date can be extended via the convenient Southwest dining program.
• Points can be cashed out, provided the Southwest credit card is still active
• Online cancellation of Southwest flight tickets is effortless and without penalty fee.  Unlike hotel reservations, flight reservation often incur credit card charges right away. Cancelling flight reservation in carriers such as United Airline incurs a fee also.

Q5. Not fair to my parents who "lost" $400?
I would say no. They never pay the out-of-pocket money of $400.  They already earned their free United Airline round-trip tickets next year to Hong Kong/Taiwan from California. Anyway, one of them is about to apply one Southwest 50,000 bonus miles credit card about 10 days later.  There is a targeted 2500 referral bonus points for each approved application.  They may as well apply via the link.

Southwest Airline points may be good for flight to Hawaii in the future
Servicing flights to Hawaii would be a lucrative business opportunity to Southwest.  I would not be surprised to learn that Hawaii flight service is in Southwest business agenda.

Another top Chase reward credit card
We are looking for more international miles earning opportunities such as United miles, American Airline AAdvantage miles or American Express Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points, as Southwest also does not fly to Canada.  This week only (or every year around the same time?), Chase offers 60000 bonus points promotion for its suite of business credit cards.

Chase 60,000 bonus points promotion, business credit card

I applied Chase Ink Plus card on 6/19, which is still in pending status.  I plan to call the reconsideration line two days later.  It is my first business card application.

Update 6/21:
Two days after the online application, I called Chase Business reconsideration line at 1-800-453-9719 MF 8am-9pm EST courteously.  A bit anxious as it is my first business card application.   The card agent asked my personal identification to pull up the file.  Surprisingly, the agent said my card was approved yesterday.

Next fun thing to do: how to spend $5000 in 3 months without really spending $5000?

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