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johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #300 on: December 03, 2015, 07:56:59 PM »
I'm getting so anxious about not screwing this up. I was going to go for two personal cards but now I'm thinking about the business one instead. Not sure I can qualify though. I do a lot of expensing for my job, and it would be nice to have a separate card just for that, but idk if that will qualify me because it's not my business, I just work there.

Work reimbursed expenses do not qualify you as having a business. I have seen this numerous times on this forum. To get a business card you're supposed to be a small business owner. Not just an employee.

That being said, the same way that you're pretty much never asked to verify your income on a cc application, in my experience I have never been asked to verify I actually own a business. I do check a box saying all the content of my application is true.
If you still want to apply for a business cc despite not having a business, that's your prerogative.

kudy

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #301 on: December 05, 2015, 01:45:37 PM »
It's been a year already! Annual fees just hit both of my accounts. Rapid rewards account received renewal bonus points a few days later. Earlier today I canceled both cards - does anyone know if Chase claws back the annual renewal bonus, or is that a freebie if you cancel?

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #302 on: December 05, 2015, 01:55:23 PM »
It's been a year already! Annual fees just hit both of my accounts. Rapid rewards account received renewal bonus points a few days later. Earlier today I canceled both cards - does anyone know if Chase claws back the annual renewal bonus, or is that a freebie if you cancel?

As long as the points posted to your Southwest account they won't claw them back.


But what was the point of cancelling the cards today? You already paid the annual fee. There was nothing to lose by keeping the cards open.

iamlindoro

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #303 on: December 05, 2015, 04:07:19 PM »
It's been a year already! Annual fees just hit both of my accounts. Rapid rewards account received renewal bonus points a few days later. Earlier today I canceled both cards - does anyone know if Chase claws back the annual renewal bonus, or is that a freebie if you cancel?

As long as the points posted to your Southwest account they won't claw them back.


But what was the point of cancelling the cards today? You already paid the annual fee. There was nothing to lose by keeping the cards open.

With most cards, including this one, if you cancel after the annual fee hits, but before you do any further spending, they'll credit you for the annual fee so that you never end up paying it.  With other cards, they'll even refund you a pro-rated portion if you've done further spending.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #304 on: December 05, 2015, 04:12:48 PM »
It's been a year already! Annual fees just hit both of my accounts. Rapid rewards account received renewal bonus points a few days later. Earlier today I canceled both cards - does anyone know if Chase claws back the annual renewal bonus, or is that a freebie if you cancel?

As long as the points posted to your Southwest account they won't claw them back.


But what was the point of cancelling the cards today? You already paid the annual fee. There was nothing to lose by keeping the cards open.

With most cards, including this one, if you cancel after the annual fee hits, but before you do any further spending, they'll credit you for the annual fee so that you never end up paying it.  With other cards, they'll even refund you a pro-rated portion if you've done further spending.

Oh that's weird.

I wouldn't cancel to avoid the annual fee and at the same time pocket the anniversary bonus, since I want to maintain a good relationship with my banks, but to each their own.

iamlindoro

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #305 on: December 05, 2015, 04:22:44 PM »
Oh that's weird.

I wouldn't cancel to avoid the annual fee and at the same time pocket the anniversary bonus, since I want to maintain a good relationship with my banks, but to each their own.

The anniversary bonus is an reward for your previous year's spending/membership, not in anticipation of the future.  This won't affect your relationship with the bank at all (but of course, you should do what you're comfortable with).

Jeremy E.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #306 on: December 07, 2015, 12:27:32 PM »
what type of flights do you guys recommend? the options are,
Wanna get away flights - cheapest flights, least flexible
Anytime flights - more expensive, more flexible
Business Select - most expensive, most flexible

dragoncar

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #307 on: December 07, 2015, 12:38:51 PM »
what type of flights do you guys recommend? the options are,
Wanna get away flights - cheapest flights, least flexible
Anytime flights - more expensive, more flexible
Business Select - most expensive, most flexible

If you are paying with points, wanna get away is great because if you cancel you just get your points back... Pretty flexible eh?

Jeremy E.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #308 on: December 07, 2015, 12:46:30 PM »
what type of flights do you guys recommend? the options are,
Wanna get away flights - cheapest flights, least flexible
Anytime flights - more expensive, more flexible
Business Select - most expensive, most flexible

If you are paying with points, wanna get away is great because if you cancel you just get your points back... Pretty flexible eh?
Nice, thanks for the info, I'll have my companion pass on the 13th of this month and it'll be time to start flying! Wanna get away it is, I want to do a trip to Aruba and Vegas(to check out Vegas and also to go see/camp at some National Parks in Utah)  with my GF next year, the crappy thing about Aruba is that there are no direct flights from the airline I'll fly from GEG Spokane, WA. So I have to find the cheapest/least painful way to stop at another airport in between.

dandarc

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #309 on: December 07, 2015, 01:02:12 PM »
what type of flights do you guys recommend? the options are,
Wanna get away flights - cheapest flights, least flexible
Anytime flights - more expensive, more flexible
Business Select - most expensive, most flexible

If you are paying with points, wanna get away is great because if you cancel you just get your points back... Pretty flexible eh?
Nice, thanks for the info, I'll have my companion pass on the 13th of this month and it'll be time to start flying! Wanna get away it is, I want to do a trip to Aruba and Vegas(to check out Vegas and also to go see/camp at some National Parks in Utah)  with my GF next year, the crappy thing about Aruba is that there are no direct flights from the airline I'll fly from GEG Spokane, WA. So I have to find the cheapest/least painful way to stop at another airport in between.
When paying with points, I'd go Wanna Get Away.  Also when paying cash.  Both because they are so much cheaper. 

If you have to pay cash and WGA is not available - maybe a last-minute flight for something important, Business is not much less than Anytime.  You get more miles, and a drink, and a better boarding position for like $30 each way.  Whether or not that's worth it is up to you. 

As an example, I'm currently looking at a flight where the fare difference is $28 from Business to Anytime.  You get 1265 more miles - almost $19 worth of miles at $0.015 / mile.  I've found $0.015 / mile a reasonable estimate, if you stick to wanna-get-away fares when booking with points.  Of course, WGA is available on this particular flight right now, and that is $253 less than Business for this particular flight. 

In conclusion: WGA if available, Business Select if WGA is not available and you must fly, unless you place essentially 0 value on an in-flight beverage and an easier time at the airport.

dandarc

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #310 on: December 07, 2015, 01:21:36 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #311 on: December 07, 2015, 01:29:41 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

dragoncar

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #312 on: December 07, 2015, 01:49:36 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #313 on: December 07, 2015, 02:04:43 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

It cannot exist for technical reasons. Southwest doesn't provide an API for other sites to run automated queries for their flights and get back cost data. You may have noticed this yourself - Google Flights can get you routes but it won't tell you the price. Skyscanner can also find routes and price them, but the prices are from the FlyFar travel agency, and they must be charging a commission because the prices are higher than searching directly on Southwest.com. Expedia and Orbitz just flat out do not list Southwest flights.

I was seated next to a Southwest pilot once and he told me not listing Southwest flights on search engines like Expedia or Google Flights is part of their business model (I forget what the rationale was unfortunately). He also said this was one of the main reasons they decided to put southwest.com on the wingtips the then last time they changed their livery (they changed it again recently, but I talked to this pilot before the last livery change).

katsiki

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #314 on: December 07, 2015, 02:52:46 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

TripIt Pro actually does this.  I received a few of these in the last year.  I don't know how they do it..

charis

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #315 on: December 07, 2015, 03:00:04 PM »
We applied for and were approved for personal (husband) and business (me) cards.  We will get the cards in 1-2 weeks.  There shouldn't be any issue with spending at the end of December, right (the first payment due date is 1/24, but the closing dates are unknown)?

Just returned from our first flight earned with our Chase cards and companion pass last week! 4 beautiful nights in Puerto Rico.

A huge thank you for sharing all the info!

FYI, I was declined on the second card, so my husband applied for the Plus card using MY rapid rewards number, and it worked!

Both of our cards earned bonuses towards my RR account. We'll try to do the opposite in another two years.

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

I am hoping that this works for us too, but it really sounds to good to be true.  Did both of your points just show up in your RR account?  We also signed up for both cards with my RR #.

dandarc

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #316 on: December 07, 2015, 03:12:18 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

It cannot exist for technical reasons. Southwest doesn't provide an API for other sites to run automated queries for their flights and get back cost data. You may have noticed this yourself - Google Flights can get you routes but it won't tell you the price. Skyscanner can also find routes and price them, but the prices are from the FlyFar travel agency, and they must be charging a commission because the prices are higher than searching directly on Southwest.com. Expedia and Orbitz just flat out do not list Southwest flights.

I was seated next to a Southwest pilot once and he told me not listing Southwest flights on search engines like Expedia or Google Flights is part of their business model (I forget what the rationale was unfortunately). He also said this was one of the main reasons they decided to put southwest.com on the wingtips the then last time they changed their livery (they changed it again recently, but I talked to this pilot before the last livery change).
Technical note - the API to do this exists.  It is called Southwest.com.  Probably an abuse of their terms of service, and for practical reasons it could be difficult (change the page structure might break your screen-scraping), but totally could be done.

dandarc

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #317 on: December 07, 2015, 03:13:09 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

TripIt Pro actually does this.  I received a few of these in the last year.  I don't know how they do it..
Thanks for this - have TripIt Pro through Barclaycard - will have to check it out!

dragoncar

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #318 on: December 07, 2015, 03:51:05 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

It cannot exist for technical reasons. Southwest doesn't provide an API for other sites to run automated queries for their flights and get back cost data. You may have noticed this yourself - Google Flights can get you routes but it won't tell you the price. Skyscanner can also find routes and price them, but the prices are from the FlyFar travel agency, and they must be charging a commission because the prices are higher than searching directly on Southwest.com. Expedia and Orbitz just flat out do not list Southwest flights.

I was seated next to a Southwest pilot once and he told me not listing Southwest flights on search engines like Expedia or Google Flights is part of their business model (I forget what the rationale was unfortunately). He also said this was one of the main reasons they decided to put southwest.com on the wingtips the then last time they changed their livery (they changed it again recently, but I talked to this pilot before the last livery change).
Technical note - the API to do this exists.  It is called Southwest.com.  Probably an abuse of their terms of service, and for practical reasons it could be difficult (change the page structure might break your screen-scraping), but totally could be done.

Yeah it might be better as a browser plugin or local executable so you aren't hitting the site 1000 times a day from the same ip


thefrugaler

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #319 on: December 07, 2015, 04:20:25 PM »
New here, just trying to follow everything.  It looks like there is a way to do this with two personal cards, but you want to space the applications out by a week?  The first post in this thread says to use another browser in incognito mode.  Is one way better/preferred?  Just trying to get the logistics worked out.  It looks like now is a great time so I can use the card in early 2016 to get the most out of the CP.

 I have several trips coming up mid/late next year and this would be great to be able to use!

jorjor

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #320 on: December 07, 2015, 05:48:13 PM »
New here, just trying to follow everything.  It looks like there is a way to do this with two personal cards, but you want to space the applications out by a week?  The first post in this thread says to use another browser in incognito mode.  Is one way better/preferred?  Just trying to get the logistics worked out.  It looks like now is a great time so I can use the card in early 2016 to get the most out of the CP.

 I have several trips coming up mid/late next year and this would be great to be able to use!

I did two personal cards and signed up for them literally 5 minutes apart. I am a current Chase customer, and was immediately approved for both (both cards appeared on my Chase online account within a couple minutes).

The Premier card can be applied for online, though make sure the 50k bonus is active if you do. Otherwise, the 50k bonus is still commonly available for the Premier card using a referral link. To my knowledge, the only way to get a 50k bonus on the Plus card is by applying over the phone using referral info from a current SW cardholder. This was true within the last month when I applied. If still true, this makes the incognito browser mode suggestion irrelevant.

katsiki

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #321 on: December 07, 2015, 05:57:12 PM »
Does anyone know how Chase is regarding inquries?  I applied for a number of cards 4-5 months ago.  Showing 5 inquiries on Chase's credit report (Experian).  Score is 803 per their Fico score.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #322 on: December 07, 2015, 06:19:35 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

It cannot exist for technical reasons. Southwest doesn't provide an API for other sites to run automated queries for their flights and get back cost data. You may have noticed this yourself - Google Flights can get you routes but it won't tell you the price. Skyscanner can also find routes and price them, but the prices are from the FlyFar travel agency, and they must be charging a commission because the prices are higher than searching directly on Southwest.com. Expedia and Orbitz just flat out do not list Southwest flights.

I was seated next to a Southwest pilot once and he told me not listing Southwest flights on search engines like Expedia or Google Flights is part of their business model (I forget what the rationale was unfortunately). He also said this was one of the main reasons they decided to put southwest.com on the wingtips the then last time they changed their livery (they changed it again recently, but I talked to this pilot before the last livery change).
Technical note - the API to do this exists.  It is called Southwest.com.  Probably an abuse of their terms of service, and for practical reasons it could be difficult (change the page structure might break your screen-scraping), but totally could be done.

But how would you automate it? If you can't automate it you can't make a tool for it.

dandarc

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #323 on: December 07, 2015, 06:38:24 PM »
One more tip - once you have booked a flight, keep an eye on the fare.  If it goes down, make a change and you'll get the difference credited back to you.  The change can be to the exact same flight.

+1

I recently got back ~12k WN points by doing this.

Good tip-- would be a great online tool if someone could make a bot to watch this for you

It cannot exist for technical reasons. Southwest doesn't provide an API for other sites to run automated queries for their flights and get back cost data. You may have noticed this yourself - Google Flights can get you routes but it won't tell you the price. Skyscanner can also find routes and price them, but the prices are from the FlyFar travel agency, and they must be charging a commission because the prices are higher than searching directly on Southwest.com. Expedia and Orbitz just flat out do not list Southwest flights.

I was seated next to a Southwest pilot once and he told me not listing Southwest flights on search engines like Expedia or Google Flights is part of their business model (I forget what the rationale was unfortunately). He also said this was one of the main reasons they decided to put southwest.com on the wingtips the then last time they changed their livery (they changed it again recently, but I talked to this pilot before the last livery change).
Technical note - the API to do this exists.  It is called Southwest.com.  Probably an abuse of their terms of service, and for practical reasons it could be difficult (change the page structure might break your screen-scraping), but totally could be done.

But how would you automate it? If you can't automate it you can't make a tool for it.
I've done this at my day job for an integration with a website for a system we don't directly control, and the resources weren't there to provide a more conventional interface.  There are libraries available to parse html / navigate the site.  Granted, now we have to be like - "be sure you tell us if you make any changes on screens A B and C so we can test", but it works.  These are government systems, so changes aren't very frequent.

The real risk is you do your thing, write your script to navigate / record / report on southwest.com, and then the owner's change a bunch of things so the buttons you click aren't the same as they were, and the field's aren't named the same.  Basically, since the API is not officially supported, things can change that break what you've done.

Cathy

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #324 on: December 07, 2015, 07:02:34 PM »
If I wanted to craft something that programmatically interacted with a webpage, I would use the Mechanize library. It's extremely user-friendly. Using this library, one could fully automate the Southwest fare checker described above in less than an hour of work. If the webpage later changes, you would just invest another 15 minutes into updating the program; it wouldn't be a big deal.

Personally, I think programming is a fundamental skill that everybody should learn at some early age in school, precisely because it's so useful for automating everyday tasks. I taught myself programming at age 8 or so and I think it would fit in well in an elementary school curriculum. Once you learn the basic skills, you never forget, and you can always pick up new languages and libraries with trivial effort. It's similar to how everybody learns to read and write in school, because even if they aren't going to become professional writers, those are fundamental skills for participating fully in society. In other words, programming shouldn't be thought of a special niche skill, but rather as a basic commodity tool available to all.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 07:21:54 PM by Cathy »

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #325 on: December 07, 2015, 07:28:34 PM »
Personally, I think programming is a fundamental skill that everybody should learn at some early age in school, precisely because it's so useful for automating everyday tasks. I taught myself programming at age 8 or so and I think it would fit in well in an elementary school curriculum. Once you learn the basic skills, you never forget, and you can always pick up new languages and libraries with trivial effort. It's similar to how everybody learns to read and write in school, because even if they aren't going to become professional writers, those are fundamental skills for participating fully in society. In other words, programming shouldn't be thought of a special niche skill, but rather as a basic commodity tool available to all.

Thank you Cathy for that condescending remark about how I clearly have no programming skills.

I've implemented a partially (I and P frames, no B frames) H.264 video encoder in C++. Believe me, that's no easy task.
I didn't know how you'd do this because I have zero experience with programming for the web. But clearly I don't know jackshit about programming.

Cathy

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #326 on: December 07, 2015, 07:44:59 PM »
Thank you Cathy for that condescending remark about how I clearly have no programming skills.

I'm not exactly sure how you got that out of my post, but it wasn't stated or implied or intended.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #327 on: December 07, 2015, 07:50:53 PM »
Thank you Cathy for that condescending remark about how I clearly have no programming skills.

I'm not exactly sure how you got that out of my post, but it wasn't stated or implied or intended.

Haha okay. Fake ignorance to make your point.
Either that you're just really that naiive and aren't aware of how you come off.
I don't know which one is worse.

Cathy

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #328 on: December 07, 2015, 07:56:04 PM »
I'm not sure why you are being so hostile. I posted the impugned paragraph because I thought it would be encouraging to people who might otherwise think programming would be too difficult for them to learn. I didn't even have you or anyone in particular in mind when I wrote it.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #329 on: December 07, 2015, 08:03:37 PM »
I'm not sure why you are being so hostile. I posted the impugned paragraph because I thought it would be encouraging to people who might otherwise think programming would be too difficult for them to learn. I didn't even have you or anyone in particular in mind when I wrote it.

Alright let me spell this out for you.

First, you explain how you'd create an automated tool, using the Mechanize library. That's cool. If you had stopped there we wouldn't be having this discussion.

But then this is immediately followed by comments about how everyone should learn programming.
The implication here being "oh you didn't know about this library. So you must not know programming. And I think everyone should. I mean, it's clearly easy. I taught it yourself at age 8."

dragoncar

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #330 on: December 07, 2015, 08:16:53 PM »
My cat's breath smells like cat food

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #331 on: December 07, 2015, 08:20:48 PM »
I was just approved for the personal card and I understand I have to wait a while to get my second car. I am worried that the offer for the sign on bonus will end in the meantime. Any idea on how long the promotions typically last?

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #332 on: December 08, 2015, 06:03:54 AM »
Why would you have to wait a while to get a second card?

boarder42

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #333 on: December 08, 2015, 06:05:40 AM »
i have the premier card personal... but i've had it over 2 years.  i plan to cancel and then get it again... how long should i wait before i try to get it again after canceling.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #334 on: December 08, 2015, 01:21:48 PM »
New here, just trying to follow everything.  It looks like there is a way to do this with two personal cards, but you want to space the applications out by a week?  The first post in this thread says to use another browser in incognito mode.  Is one way better/preferred?  Just trying to get the logistics worked out.  It looks like now is a great time so I can use the card in early 2016 to get the most out of the CP.

 I have several trips coming up mid/late next year and this would be great to be able to use!

I did two personal cards and signed up for them literally 5 minutes apart. I am a current Chase customer, and was immediately approved for both (both cards appeared on my Chase online account within a couple minutes).

The Premier card can be applied for online, though make sure the 50k bonus is active if you do. Otherwise, the 50k bonus is still commonly available for the Premier card using a referral link. To my knowledge, the only way to get a 50k bonus on the Plus card is by applying over the phone using referral info from a current SW cardholder. This was true within the last month when I applied. If still true, this makes the incognito browser mode suggestion irrelevant.

Just to clarify I need to apply over the phone using referral info from a current SW Plus cardholder, or any SW cardholder?

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #335 on: December 08, 2015, 01:36:00 PM »
New here, just trying to follow everything.  It looks like there is a way to do this with two personal cards, but you want to space the applications out by a week?  The first post in this thread says to use another browser in incognito mode.  Is one way better/preferred?  Just trying to get the logistics worked out.  It looks like now is a great time so I can use the card in early 2016 to get the most out of the CP.

 I have several trips coming up mid/late next year and this would be great to be able to use!

I did two personal cards and signed up for them literally 5 minutes apart. I am a current Chase customer, and was immediately approved for both (both cards appeared on my Chase online account within a couple minutes).

The Premier card can be applied for online, though make sure the 50k bonus is active if you do. Otherwise, the 50k bonus is still commonly available for the Premier card using a referral link. To my knowledge, the only way to get a 50k bonus on the Plus card is by applying over the phone using referral info from a current SW cardholder. This was true within the last month when I applied. If still true, this makes the incognito browser mode suggestion irrelevant.

Just to clarify I need to apply over the phone using referral info from a current SW Plus cardholder, or any SW cardholder?

I'm not really sure. I assume a Plus cardholder? I found another forum where people were advertising that they had referrals for Premier and Plus cards (the referrer gets 5k referral points when I used the card, so something is in it for them). I PMed one of them. They sent me the link for Premier card and gave me their info to use when I called in for the Plus referral.

The whole part about calling and giving my application info over the phone seemed a bit fishy to me, so I did some searching around to make sure the number I was calling was legit and someone wasn't scamming me. Seemed fine. Cards showed up on my Chase account almost immediately.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #336 on: December 08, 2015, 08:11:52 PM »
I got both SW Premier and Plus personal cards in early October.  The Premier 50K was publicly available and I applied online. For a 50K Plus referral link I joined the Flyertalk forum. There is a referral link thread there where you can get a referral link. I PM'd someone with one available, they gave me the info, I called SW and applied (I needed their SW RR# and their zip code I believe).  It worked.

Once I got both cards I changed my billing cycle so my Nov cycle closed 12/4.  My Dec billing cycle will run from 12/5 to 1/4 so I've just started my spending period.  I've saved up my Christmas shopping, and have the final payment on some home construction that will get me to the $4000 total spend across both cards by the time my 90 days runs out.  The points should hit after my billing cycle closes 1/4, and will leave me with $6K left to spend for which I'll probably MS. 

That's the theory anyway. 

boarder42

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #337 on: December 09, 2015, 05:35:16 AM »
If anyone wants a Plus card referral let me know.  you have to call in but its pretty painless. 50k points the easy way.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #338 on: December 09, 2015, 09:11:18 AM »
I earned a companion pass June of this year and am ashamed to say I haven't used it once. :(

That changes friday though, when I fly to Vegas! Hopefully I get more use out of it in 2016.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #339 on: December 09, 2015, 10:12:46 AM »
So I now have the Premier, and will close on the 2K spending requirement to get the 50K bonus come January.

I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

Thanks for the input, folks.

JGS

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #340 on: December 09, 2015, 10:21:13 AM »
I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

The numbers I've heard in the past are that it needs to be closed for 2 years before you can re-apply and get the sign up bonus. This is why couples will alternate who gets the cards (I get both this year, get the pass for her, kill the cards, two years from now, she gets the cards, gets the pass for me, kills the cards, two years later, I get the cards...)

Your best bet may be one of the business cards since you won't be able to get the sign up bonus for a while.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #341 on: December 09, 2015, 10:34:51 AM »
I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

The numbers I've heard in the past are that it needs to be closed for 2 years before you can re-apply and get the sign up bonus. This is why couples will alternate who gets the cards (I get both this year, get the pass for her, kill the cards, two years from now, she gets the cards, gets the pass for me, kills the cards, two years later, I get the cards...)

Your best bet may be one of the business cards since you won't be able to get the sign up bonus for a while.

Nope.

If you read the T&C it says to qualify you need to currently not hold the product and have not received the signup bonus in the past 24 months.

There's no need to rely on hearsay for this stuff. You're much better off just reading the fine print.

EDIT: Grammar mistake.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2015, 12:48:17 PM by johnny847 »

dandarc

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #342 on: December 09, 2015, 10:39:37 AM »
I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

The numbers I've heard in the past are that it needs to be closed for 2 years before you can re-apply and get the sign up bonus. This is why couples will alternate who gets the cards (I get both this year, get the pass for her, kill the cards, two years from now, she gets the cards, gets the pass for me, kills the cards, two years later, I get the cards...)

Your best bet may be one of the business cards since you won't be able to get the sign up bonus for a while.

Nope.

If you read the T&C it says to qualify you need to currently not hold the product and have not received the signup bonus in the past 24 months.

There's know need to rely on hearsay for this stuff. You're much better off just reading the fine print.
This. 

The question is, if I close my account today, will I be considered a previous card holder tomorrow?  Intuitively yes, but given that Chase can re-open a closed account, maybe not?  Probably in the big packet you get when you open the account it will be clarified.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #343 on: December 09, 2015, 11:55:57 AM »
I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

The numbers I've heard in the past are that it needs to be closed for 2 years before you can re-apply and get the sign up bonus. This is why couples will alternate who gets the cards (I get both this year, get the pass for her, kill the cards, two years from now, she gets the cards, gets the pass for me, kills the cards, two years later, I get the cards...)

Your best bet may be one of the business cards since you won't be able to get the sign up bonus for a while.

Nope.

If you read the T&C it says to qualify you need to currently not hold the product and have not received the signup bonus in the past 24 months.

There's know need to rely on hearsay for this stuff. You're much better off just reading the fine print.

Thank you for looking it up. I guess that is a slight difference than what I said that only applies because JustGettingStarted1980 has had the card for 5 years. For your average credit card churner, what I said is basically still correct.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #344 on: December 09, 2015, 12:47:54 PM »
I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

The numbers I've heard in the past are that it needs to be closed for 2 years before you can re-apply and get the sign up bonus. This is why couples will alternate who gets the cards (I get both this year, get the pass for her, kill the cards, two years from now, she gets the cards, gets the pass for me, kills the cards, two years later, I get the cards...)

Your best bet may be one of the business cards since you won't be able to get the sign up bonus for a while.

Nope.

If you read the T&C it says to qualify you need to currently not hold the product and have not received the signup bonus in the past 24 months.

There's know need to rely on hearsay for this stuff. You're much better off just reading the fine print.
This. 

The question is, if I close my account today, will I be considered a previous card holder tomorrow?  Intuitively yes, but given that Chase can re-open a closed account, maybe not?  Probably in the big packet you get when you open the account it will be clarified.

Probably, but I'd give it about a week just to be safe.

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #345 on: December 09, 2015, 12:54:30 PM »
I already have the Plus, and I've had this for >5-6 years.

To get the other 50K bonus points, do I have to close the Plus account, and then Reopen it? How much time in between closing and opening is required? Do I just do this over the phone with the very nice SW customer service people?

The numbers I've heard in the past are that it needs to be closed for 2 years before you can re-apply and get the sign up bonus. This is why couples will alternate who gets the cards (I get both this year, get the pass for her, kill the cards, two years from now, she gets the cards, gets the pass for me, kills the cards, two years later, I get the cards...)

Your best bet may be one of the business cards since you won't be able to get the sign up bonus for a while.

Nope.

If you read the T&C it says to qualify you need to currently not hold the product and have not received the signup bonus in the past 24 months.

There's know need to rely on hearsay for this stuff. You're much better off just reading the fine print.

Thank you for looking it up. I guess that is a slight difference than what I said that only applies because JustGettingStarted1980 has had the card for 5 years. For your average credit card churner, what I said is basically still correct.

No that's not "basically still correct" for the average credit card churner. The average cc churner doesn't close their cc immediately after getting the signup bonus. They wait until month 10 or 11 usually. And try to see if they can get the annual fee waived. Or in the case of the Southwest cards, as mentioned previously in this thread, get the cardmember anniversary bonus, and then cancel (and Chase will refund the annual fee if you haven't used the card since assessing the fee). If the bonus was earned in month 1, and the card was cancelled at the 12 month mark, then the churner could apply for the card again in month 25 and still get the bonus.

Under your initial assertion, the churner would have to wait until month the 36 month mark in this situation.

Even if the churner cancelled the card immediately after earning the bonus, they're missing out on that cardmember anniversary bonus of 6000 miles on the Premier or 3000 miles on the Plus, which is totally possible to get for free if you time it right:
With most cards, including this one, if you cancel after the annual fee hits, but before you do any further spending, they'll credit you for the annual fee so that you never end up paying it.  With other cards, they'll even refund you a pro-rated portion if you've done further spending.

Oh that's weird.

I wouldn't cancel to avoid the annual fee and at the same time pocket the anniversary bonus, since I want to maintain a good relationship with my banks, but to each their own.

The anniversary bonus is an reward for your previous year's spending/membership, not in anticipation of the future.  This won't affect your relationship with the bank at all (but of course, you should do what you're comfortable with).

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #346 on: December 18, 2015, 02:17:37 PM »
Can I book flights for a relative with my points? Also, can I buy a flight for a relative and then use a companion pass for another person, or would I have to be on the flight for the companion pass to work? For Christmas I want to give my parents a trip to wherever they want in the U.S. and just curious the best way to go about it.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #347 on: December 18, 2015, 02:30:26 PM »
You have to be on the flight with your companion - even if you bought the ticket for yourself, added the companion, and then you couldn't fly for whatever reason, your companion needs to re-book. 

You can use miles to buy tickets for others, at least from what I can see.  Haven't actually tried, but the "Passenger Name" fields are editable when you get to that part on the website.

Jeremy E.

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #348 on: December 18, 2015, 02:38:55 PM »
Sounds good, does anyone know if early bird check in is worth it? $12.50 per passenger each way, and comes with,
Automatic Check-In
Better Boarding Position
Earlier Access to Overhead Bins

johnny847

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Re: Southwest 100,000 bonus points + 2 years of Companion Status badass offer
« Reply #349 on: December 18, 2015, 02:40:30 PM »
You can use miles to buy tickets for others, at least from what I can see.  Haven't actually tried, but the "Passenger Name" fields are editable when you get to that part on the website.

I did this a couple months back. Definitely possible.

Sounds good, does anyone know if early bird check in is worth it? $12.50 per passenger each way, and comes with,
Automatic Check-In
Better Boarding Position
Earlier Access to Overhead Bins

No. If you can't find a seat you like just ask some people politely if they wouldn't mind switching seats with you.