Originally Posted by
Million Mile Secrets
In my opinion, this is one of the best sign-up bonuses for domestic US travel, because Southwest has great availability, in my experience, for the lowest level award seats.
You may be able to squeeze out at least 3 domestic tickets if you use the 50,000 bonus points for the cheapest fares.
The only other card which comes close to offering 3 free domestic tickets is the Citi AA 75,000 card.
I just wrote a detailed review of the
Chase Southwest Airline Credit Card on my blog.
At least three. But maybe not two. The flexibility of this card is a great strength but will require some planning and patience even beyond normal award tickets. Although you're getting points, Southwest's award structure has a true dollar to point relationship which other cards don't have.
Anyone taking this card who doesn't have an immediate need for travel should spend some time getting used to the rhythms of Southwest's sales because as the money cost of flights fluctuates so does the award cost. Contrast this policy with the programs of most of the legacy carriers--although there may be a low season, high season structure at the legacies, the award cost is not so directly tied into the dollar cost.
For instance, I can pretty regularly fly between Norfolk and Baltimore on Southwest for $78 roundtrip plus taxes. That'll cost me around 6000 RR points. On AA this weekend, I can fly from Tampa to Miami, a flight of somewhat comparable distance, for $96 plus taxes--or 25,000 AA miles.
That's the benefit of this card. It allows some shorter distance flights on awards that people might not have previously considered. Am I always going to use the rewards to go to Baltimore from Norfolk? No. But it allows me to consider that idea (and avoid what's increasingly becoming a seven-hour trip between those two cities, a problem compounded if you need to go farther north on I95). There's almost no scenario under which I could see myself blowing 25,000 AA miles to get from Tampa to Miami. I'll buy that ticket or drive between the two cities.
On the other hand, you can blow a good chunk of change if you want to fly from coast to coast. I've seen regular fares from ORF to SFO at well over $400 roundtrip even on Wanna Getaway fares. At the other end of the scale, I'm flying to SFO in November for $284 ai on one of Southwest's fare sales.
As with most of these miles cards, a little bit of research will put you in good stead. And I tend to think more research than normal might be helpful with this particular card by identifying the routes you might want to take and then tracking prices for awhile to see what the fare patterns are. That way you can use these points most efficiently rather than blowing a bunch on an overpriced flight. For instance, I can also drop over 25,000 points on a flight to Baltimore if I'm not paying attention.