1-28-15 Reader Question – Need Quick 50k Points for Southwest Companion Pass In a Month....

[BigHabitat]

Reader Question:

So, I’ve got a trip coming up on Feb 28, and I really would like the SW companion pass before then so a buddy can go along for free. I’m currently 50,048 miles short.

Here are my current options as I see it:

1. Right now, I hold a SW business card, and could potentially apply for one of the personal cards and have them set my statement date for mid-Feb (if I get approved). The minimum spend would be easy as I have a Prepaid Target Redcard I can just load.
2. I’ve been waiting for a decent promo on SW shopping portal for either Sears or Staples, and they haven’t obliged. The only thing I’ve found right now that I can break even, or make a little money on is the xxx through Staples. It is on sale for $xxx. After 6% tax, that is $xxx. They sell for right at about $xxx on Amazon and after the Amazon fees and shipping, I’d get about $xxx back. So, I’d lose $x or so, but I get 5% back from Staples (Premier member) and obviously the points have value, but it is only 2 pts/$ right now (could get 3 pts/$ if I use the SW card instead of Ink, but I hate giving up the 5x UR points). Problem with this route is the sheer number of them I’d have to order. Staples.com only lets you order 1 at a time and I’d need around 40 of them to meet the number.
3. Variation of option 2. Buy similar items to reduce the number of orders.

Option 1 requires another hard pull, and I’d rather not do that at this point unless I really have to. Option 2 would be no problem to move through Amazon, but I don’t really want to risk Staples blacklisting me or anything. I buy a lot of stuff through them (paper, laptops, etc.). Do you think they’d have an issue with me placing around 40 individual orders? I’d gladly do it in orders of 10 or something, but their site just doesn’t allow you to do so. Option 3 will involve more shipping as I’d be buying 6 different products and would want to bundle as much as I can together to ship for FBA.

See any options I’m missing? What would you do in my situation? Thanks.



Wow. Normally I love an opportunity to score the valuable Southwest Companion pass in a month. Or even 2 Southwest companion passes in a month.

And you only need 50,000 points. Should be easy, right?

But this timing is terrible. The key to my success before were points leverage, and deals.

For points leverage, I was enjoying 9-10x shopping bonuses at Sears through the Southwest portal, and then double dipping by using the gift cards to buy the merchandise, so I was getting 18-20x SW points per dollar spent, so I could knock off 60k points by spending just over $2,000. Today, we are talking $30,000 of spend.

And the deals kept coming, most notably the Samsung Galaxy Tab S with $100 back in Shop Your Way Points, and Nintendo Wii U’s with $40 back in points or so that sold lightening fast. These were relatively high value items which I was making a profit on. But today, if I were losing $10 per $500 Galaxy Tab, that’s $20 per $1000, and on $25k of spend that’s $500. Not horrible, but before any risks of returns. and on 60 tablets, there would be some.

And I wasn’t really time constrained. I mean, I didn’t want to fail to get it in a month or lose my self-imposed challenge, but it wasn’t urgent.

And that’s a big problem I see here. This timing requires you to have everything posted as well. In my experience shopping posts quick (< 1 week) but gift cards can take 2-3 weeks.

Then you need to activate the companion pass and book the companion ticket.

You could do everything right, and posting delays could cause you to miss out for this trip.

And the real timing is thus about 2-3 weeks (shopping only) or less than 2 weeks (with gift cards).

Honestly, I’m a big hesitant about the reselling option given the timing without any good bonus. So lets look at other options

Southwest Credit Card


This is actually a solid option in this case (man my blog would be much easier if I could just recommend this all the time). Yes there are no compelling benefits for having the card (e.g., no status, bags are already free), the big advantage is certainty. You know you can knock out that spend, get the points, and book the ticket. Plus you can take your time with deals and optimize portal bonuses and such.

Hotel Points transfer Option


Do you have a crapload of Marriott points, you could check out their hotel and air points packages as those Southwest points transferred in would count: All hotels work, but the transfer ratio to SW is generally crappy so the best deals are these Marriott packages. I’m guessing this is a long shot, but including anyway.

If you are going to try reselling… Here’s how I would do it

• Watch for a Sears / Kmart bonus at the SW portal. If you see it, jump on gift cards. You can buy the gift cards to bank the points, and spend them down at Sears / Kmart as you find deals
• You probably need to diversify spending. 40 individual computer orders at Staples probably would draw some attention, particularly since they all have to be online to go through the portal.
• Today, I would look at Microsoft store (5x points) which had some potential deals, the only “problem” is that their tablets and computers are “signature editions” which strip out the bloatware. That’s actually better, but the problem is they can be different SKUs at Amazon.
• Look at Groupon (Nexus 7s), 3x SW points per dollar. Use code TRIPLE today for 10% off Goods deals. Signup for a couple of Groupon accounts and do it again.

Readers, what would you do?


Get the card? Wait for a deal? Use Avios instead for this trip? or go for it..

Chime in on what you would do, and if we are missing anything.

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[Joseph]

This suggestion would be farfetched, but Citi allows checking account funding up to $50k for new accounts. Although, there are reports of people having issues funding with large amounts. Additionally, it would depend on how high your credit line is.