With all of these cards with huge sign on bonuses, it makes me think, “What was I doing paying for my flights before this?” I can’t believe how fast time goes, and how these offers just fly right by. It seems like I’ve been following these deals forever these days.
End of the Southwest deal
I got notice that the Southwest Airlines Chase card that offers 50,000 Rapid Rewards Points is going away soon (NOW GONE). They will be pulling the offer on the 7th of August 2011. Sometimes they extend these offers, but sometimes they don’t. I’ve you’ve been hesitating on getting the card you only have a couple of days left before it will expire.
The Southwest deal is great because it offers you the 50,000 Rapid Rewards points, but you also have to take into account that they don’t charge for bags. Each person is allowed 2 bags without any charge. It does have an annual fee that is not waived. So keep in mind that the value of the points is up to $800, but you have to net out the $100 annual fee. That means that you get $700 in value on that card. Not too shabby. This is especially great as there isn’t a big spending requirement. It only requires your first purchase, and then they credit you the points.
US Airways Barclaycard
Here is another card that might interest you if you fly a lot on US Airways. This is an offer that will give you 40,000 dividend miles (easily, you can get 60,000 after one whole year and a monster balance transfer).
This is a snapshot of the deal. It looks like you get 40,000 miles for the first purchase, which is a pretty good deal. It also gives you a 10,000 bonus if you use a balance transfer. I don’t think that it would be worth it to transfer a balance as these are the terms:
Balance Transfer Bonus Miles: Cardmembers will earn one (1) mile per one dollar ($1) in balances transferred to your US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard requested in the first 30 days after account opening, up to a maximum of ten thousand (10,000) miles. The Balance Transfer is subject to the Balance Transfer Fee set forth in the Terms and Conditions
I’m not willing to rack up 10K on a credit card ever. Nor am I going to pay the fees to transfer that balance either. I guess that I see the 40,000 points, and that is pretty good. It works really well as you don’t have an annual fee the first year either. Thanks to thepointsguy for this link.
Another good thing about this card is that it decreases the amount of miles that an award ticket requires. For example: An inside the USA ticket would cost you 25,000 miles normally. Having this card will make it only cost 20,000 miles. This means that you can take two trips inside the USA as long as you fly on their “cheap days.”
20,000 Mile Award Travel: The Primary Cardmember will receive a 5,000 mile discount off of each eligible Award Ticket. For example, if 25,000 Dividend Miles are required to redeem an award ticket, then as a US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard Cardmember who met the criteria set forth in the Terms and Conditions, the Cardmember’s Dividend miles account would only be deducted by 20,000 miles instead of 25,000 miles. For more information visit www.usairways.com.
Downsides:
- Barclaycard will approve you for a card with lesser benefits if they deem you to be “unworthy” of the US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard. I would be certain that you have good credit by using CreditSesame.com to get your free Experian score before applying for this card.
- Offer is only available to first time cardholders
This would be a great deal to match up with the Starwood Preferred Guest. The best part is that you only need to make one purchase on this card and $4500 in purchases on the SPG Amex card and you have two people going wherever in the USA and staying pretty much wherever for free. Huh, and some people say that they can’t travel because it is expensive.
We also encourage you to use our links whenever possible as you apply for these cards and services. That is what keeps the information flowing from us to you. Thanks for wanderlusting with us.
