1000 Rapid Reward For Doing Your Taxes

Southwest and TurboTax are back offering 1000 Rapid Reward points for completing your Federal Tax Returns with TurboTax.

To earn the points, you will need to click the TurboTax link through the Rapid Rewards Online Shopping Portal. In addition, you will need to file your taxes by April 15, 2014. Here is the terms and conditions:

I completed this offer last year and used the 1,000 points towards my Companion Pass. This offer SHOULD work help you get closer to the companion pass. The terms and condition state, "Points will not go towards A-List or A-List Preferred qualifications." It is silent about the companion pass, so it SHOULD work.

I completed my taxes on 2/24/13 and received my points about a month later:

If you complete your federal taxes online, this offer is a great way to earn some miles.
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5 Reasons Why I LUV Southwest

I have a love/hate relationship with Southwest. Depending on my mood, I love Southwest and other days I treat Southwest like the red-headed stepchild. I have even gone as far to write the 5 Reasons Why I Dislike Southwest.

That all being true; there are certain things I love about Southwest. Here are the 5 Reasons Why I Love Southwest:

The Companion Pass

- The secret weapon of travel hacking. The Companion Pass is like a buy one, get one free coupon. The holder of the pass designates someone has his/her companion. From then on, anytime the pass holder flies on Southwest, so does the companion for free. Be it paid or award tickets, the companion flies for only the cost of the 9/11 Security Fees.

To earn the Companion Pass, you need to earn 110,000 points in one calender year. 110,000 points might seem a lot to earn, but it is very doable within one year. Here is how I obtained my Companion Pass.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to use my Companion Pass yet. The person I designated as my companion decided to get an MBA and attend classes on Saturday. Regardless, I have learned 3 Things Since Earning My Companion Pass.

The Southwest Companion Pass is the single greatest travel tool that you must have in your arsenal.

Rapid Rewards Program

- Southwest's frequent flyer program is known as Rapid Rewards. Rapid Rewards is not your typical frequent flyer program. Instead of having set amount of miles for award tickets (ie 25,000, 50,000), award tickets are issued based upon the price of the ticket on the date of purchase.

 Here is how many points per $1 are needed for an award ticket:

However, the number of points per $1 is increasing to 75 for Wanna Get Away Fares on March 31st, 2014:

Southwest's frequent sales are great opportunities to purchase award tickets. For instance, I got my ticket to Connecticut for Thanksgiving on a sale date for 6,000 points. The award program is simple and predicable, which is more than other frequent flyer programs presently.

Lower Prices = Money Back

Another unique features of Southwest is their refund program. With other airlines, a drop in price after purchase, is to bad for you. Not with Southwest. If you purchase your ticket and the price drops, you may ask for a refund from Southwest.

Southwest allows you to get a credit for the difference. Book the flight with points? The difference in points will be credit to your account instantly.

To get your refund, find your itinerary and click "change reservation" link directly under the reservation.

The system will ask you which flights (outgoing or incoming) that you want to change. Next, you will see your options to change your ticket and the price of the new ticket. Complete the steps and Southwest will eventually show your savings.

If you booked with point, the points will be credited back to your account. On the other hand, if you purchased your ticket with cash, you will receive a voucher for the difference. The voucher must be used for future travel completed within a year of it being used. 

Your ticket price dropped multiple times? No problem, you can do this change as many times as you like. 

2 Free Check Bags

Southwest is one of the few airlines that doesn't charge for checked baggage. Currently, they allow you to check 2 bags at no additional cost.

That small difference makes Southwest the common man's airline. The average Joe can take his family on vacation and not spend hundreds checking baggage.

In-Flight Entertainment System

As I wrote here, Southwest is the only airline with gate to gate WIFI. That alone should be enough to make people love them. However, they go one step further. The cost to use the WIFI is affordable, at only $8 a day.

In addition to WIFI, Southwest offer DirectTV and a selection of movies for purchases. I reviewed the system here and was pleasantly surprised.

My only compliant is that my Kindle Fire is not compatible with Southwest's system. Unfortunately, reading the message boards, Southwest doesn't have a plan to make Kindle Fires and Android products compatible with their system. This is a real shame . . .

Conclusion 

Despite Southwest's IFE incompatibility with my Kindle Fire, I still LUV Southwest every once and a whilet. Southwest has all the makings of a great airline. The problem is that every once and a while they want to be a legacy carrier and they get greedy. Get too greedy and average Joe might turn their back on you.

Over the next two weeks, I will be flying Southwest with frequency. Hopefully, I can report back only good things.
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3 Things I Learned About My Southwest Companion Pass

Earlier this year, I detailed my road map to earning a Southwest Companion Pass. Shortly after my post, I crossed the 110,000 points threshold to earn my golden tickets.

I have only used the companion pass once for an upcoming trip to Chicago in October. Since I book the trip in May, I have learn 3 things about using the Companion Pass.

1. A Companion Can Only Be Added After A Ticket Is Purchased

When I purchased my ticket to Chicago, I could not figure how to add a companion to my ticket. My first thought was that I had to add 2 tickets to my cart and then link my companion to the trip. Wrong!

Then I though that I added one ticket to the cart and during the check-out process there would be
a place to add my companion. Wrong!

After a quick call to Southwest, I learned that I needed to purchase my ticket first then add my
companion to the itinerary.

To do this, log into your Rapid Reward Account and click on "My Travel."

 
Find the flight you want to add the companion. Under the itinerary is "Add A Companion."

After clicking the link, the process is self-explanatory.

2. Sales Are Great Even After You Purchase Your Ticket

This one has more to do with Southwest than the Companion Pass. After purchasing a ticket on
Southwest, its not a one and done situation. If Southwest has a sale and your ticket is now cheaper,
Southwest allows you to get a credit for the difference. Book the flight with points? The difference in points will be credit to your account instantly.

To get your refund, find your itinerary and click "change reservation" link directly under the reservation.

The system will ask you which flights (outgoing or incoming) that you want to change. Next, you will see your options to change your ticket and the price of the new ticket. Complete the steps and Southwest will eventually show your savings.

3. Changes on an Itinerary with a Companion Requires an Extra Step

Twice since booking the Chicago trip, the price of the ticket has dropped. I booked the trip with points and the drop in price/points has saved me 2,000 points per ticket. However, I encountered a problem when I went to make the change.

When I tried to change the ticket as I showed above, the following error appeared:

Itineraries with companion tickets require you to cancel the companion ticket before making any changes. This is one thing Southwest needs to fix. Its time consuming to make ANY changes to these type of itineraries.

Find the companion ticket's confirmation number and go to Southwest's homepage. On top of the page, click the "Air" button and then click "Cancel Reservation"

After cancelling the companion reservation, you can then make a change to the your reservation.

The final step is to add the companion back to your itinerary. I am going to repeat this:

Don't Forget To Add The Companion Back To Your Ticket!

I forgot to do this for two weeks after making one of my changes. That could have ended badly!

The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best travel tools out there. However, at times, getting it to work can be like calculus.


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Club Carlson & New Partner

Club Carlson is making a big push to enter the "big boy" hotel club. There latest change is adding Southwest as a partner that you can transfer Club Carlson Gold Points to Southwest's Rapid Rewards program.

The transfer rate isn't anything to jump-up and down about:

• 2.,000 Gold Points     =    250 Rapid Reward Points
• 50,000 Gold Points    =    8,000 Rapid Reward Points
• 100,000 Gold Points  =    18,000 Rapid Reward Points

While I will most likely not being transferring points any time soon, this option might be helpful for those trying to get Southwest's Companion Pass. 

What is Southwest's Companion Pass?

The companion pass is Southwest's hidden gem of their frequent flyer spender program. The companion pass acts as a buy 1, get 1 free offer. If you have the companion pass, you deem someone your companion, and they fly free when you buy a ticket or redeem points. Flying to New Orleans, your companion comes free. Redeeming points for a trip to Seattle, your companion comes along.

How does one get the Companion Pass?

One needs to earn 110,000 Rapid Reward Points in a calender year.

That sounds hard/ impossible, right?

Not really. In the past, Southwest has had a Chase Personal and Business credit card that earn 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 in three months. If you get both cards, and hit the minimum spend, you will have 100,000 Rapid Reward Points. This will leave you 10,000 points shy of the companion pass. It is important to note, that in the past the credit card sign-up bonus has counted towards the companion pass . . . will that stay the situation is unknown...so proceed with caution. 

Can you now see how this transfer offer might be helpful? Transferring 50,000 points will net you 8,000 Rapid Reward points, 2,000 points shy of the Pass. Maybe you earn 50,000 points with one of Club Carlson's big offers last year and value the option of having your wife, kid, best friend travel free for a year; instead of one night at a $400 night hotel.

If the cards come back, I am going to jump on them this time. My hope is to travel more (possibly by airplane) to college football games this year and next. The Companion Pass will help Chris and I get Cash-Back Boy and Limited Credit Boy to the games. Instead of buying three tickets, we only need two, reducing the cost of the trip.

A new transfer option like this might not make sense to everyone, but the addition of each new option, opens new doors for us points addicts. With so many doors being closed to us in the game now a days, its nice for once a new and somewhat valuable one being opened.