ftnoob, I cannot say that I have done this with this card before, but I have had to do this with other cards when I did not get a bonus that I thought I had signed up for and it has worked everytime I have had to do it so give it a try, your friend has nothing to lose. When you get your first statement and see that you get your 8 RR credits, call into customer service and tell them that you should have gotten 16 because of the promo that you used when you signed up. They should transfer you up to a manager and if they don't, ask to be transfered anyway. Tell the same thing to this person, they should know what to do, this is a standard process for them. They should ask you for some verification of this bonus and either offer to mail them the paper mailer with the 16 credit offer or a screen shot of the 16 credit offer that you "clicked through" when you signed up for the credit card (should be easier to get one of these http://www.southwest.com/bonus). It might cost you a stamp and a few minutes on the phone but this has worked for me with both Citi and Chase credit cards when they shorted me on a sign up bonus. Good luck!

OK, so I finally applied for/received the SWA Visa. Upon activating this afternoon, I browsed WN's list of preferred partners and...

http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/amex.html

When the heck was this announced???!!!! I mean, don't get me wrong - I'll enjoying using a free RR ticket just for having gotten the credit card. However, it seems to me that as PLAT, I'm going to have a lot easier time racking up MR points for transfer than I will using SWA Visa - for the simple reason that Amex maintains an online Bonus Points Mall, on which I earn a whopping four points on each dollar of spend, as opposed to WN's paltry 1:1.

Guess I should look at it this way...many vendors don't take Amex...can't hurt to rack up points towards my RR account that I'd have otherwise missed using my Marriott Visa...then I can augment later.

But is there something I'm overlooking here? Seriously, I can't believe I somehow missed this announcement...!

divemistress -

The ability to transfer points from Amex has been around for a long time - I'm fairly certain we've offered this as long as I've been an Employee (17 years), but don't quote me on that - my memory isn't what it used to be

The April 1, 2009 date was a change to the program where points now transfer immediately.

Also, remember that when you use your RR Visa for purchases with SWA or one of our preferred partners the earning is 2:1.

So you don't miss another opportunity - we also participate in the Diners Club Reward program - http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/diners_club.html

I've been transferring Amex MR to SWA RR for at least ten years - not sure why they have an April 2009 announcement date.

Starting April 1, 2009, American Express Membership Rewards� points can now be immediately transferred into Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards� credits.

There used to be a delay of up to 30 days, IIFC

Great. I just had a long post typed out and ready to submit, then when I logged in, FT ate it.....

Will try to reiterate. Basically I'm not finding much about the SWA Visa that's giving me cause for joy. 1500 Amex MR = 1 RR, which isn't that much more than the 1200 = 1 RR that I'm getting from the SWA Visa. Especially when I consider how many vendors from which I purchase frequently that are on the Amex Bonus Points Mall (REI, Sierra Trading Post, Overstock.com, etc.) All of which will grant 4 MR/$1.

I do realize there's the 2:1 premium for using WN partners, but 99% are hotel and car rentals. I get premium car rental insurance using PLAT, which is going to encourage me to continue to use it, and unfortunately I have hotel-branded cards for half of the hotel partners (Hilton, Choice, Marriott.) In each example I get at least 6:1 using the hotel's card at its property, with Choice topping out at a whopping 15:1. In any example I'll wind up ahead by using the hotel's own card, then xfer. Yes, I do have to pay fees for all these cards, but I can also use them for hotel stays without devaluing the points through transfers.

Are there no "everyday spend" categories, similar to Hilton's Surpass, which offers 6:1 at grocery, gas and drugstore? None at all? Choice offers 2:1 for everyday spend on its card and redemption is 3000 = 1 RR; very nearly as good as SWA's own card. Hilton's got 3:1 on everyday spend with a similar conversion rate.

Honestly there's just nothing that's got me very excited about having received SWA Visa, after the initial signing bonus is factored out. Is there something I'm missing, here....?

For your particular situation and needs, I would have to say... stay with what you have.

Divemistress:

A couple things about Choice:

They have a history of sudden, massive, unannounced devaluations relative to RR credits. I don't trust them. I don't like businesses that hose their customers.

WN Visa gets double points for Choice Hotel use. So it's $600 spend there for a RR credit. $600 spend on the Choice Visa at a Choice Hotel gets 3000 points, also 1 RR credit. So that's the same rate.

I agree, if you get all those Amex points for online spending, that's the way to go when possible.

The 8 + 8 offer has been sweetened a bit with a new $49 statement credit offer. This new offer was sent via DING!. The link on southwest.com's home page will only net you "$20 off today's flight" on the 8 + 8 offer.

Remember that the "16 credit offer" that is this thread's primary topic is actually a "16 + 8" offer, and is still the better deal for most people.

> 1/3 of my companion pass will be funded by the credits from the WN Visa. Since my wife goes with me on almost every trip, the savings will be substantial.

Thanks much for the thoughts, folks.

Quick question: Where can I get details on the "+8" part? How long do I have to maintain the transfer at WN without paying it off? Anyone know? Thanks for any info.

EDIT: Found partial info in ftnoob's link:

Hmmmm. So I'd have to pay a $288 balance-transfer fee to get those eight points, and that's without knowing whether there's a grace period to pay off the transfer before the 13.24% interest rate listed on the Visa application kicks in or whether I'll be required to maintain a balance at 13.24% interest for X period of time....Doesn't sound like a good deal unless I'm going for Companion Pass (I'm not). Especially since $288 will buy a roundtrip ticket to probably 80% of the destinations WN serves from BNA - and I'd still get 2.5 RR for going that route. (Just an aside: The Choice Hotels Plat card, which allows points conversion to RR at nearly the rate given by SWA Visa, offers balance transfers of up to $11,000 at only 5% interest and no transfer fee. Although that's going to change in June, it's still only 2% of the balance as opposed to 3% - and a full 8 percentage points less interest.

Although, point duly noted vis a vis Choice abruptly and without notice devaluing its RR conversions. I recall the brouha when people were transferring through CO, Amtrak and Choice to get RR points and suddenly the reward rules were clear as mud.)

And, in SWA's favor: I do realize there's also a 2-credit gift every year at anniversary, which would require $1200 or so of spend on the Amex before the 4:1 bonus....and now I can use those Amex points to augment my existing balance or for something else. ^

Does anyone know of an Amex that you can sign up for that has a 10 - 25k point sign up offer? I checked the site and only saw a Delta sign up offer. I am only 17 credits short of my Companion Pass and I start to lose a ton of credits in July. I doubt I can spend my way there, and I already have both Chase Visa cards, so any help would be great. I have always stuck to the bank issued credit cards so this is my first dealings with Amex directly. Thanks

Update: just went to the site and gave them my info to check for offers and was offered the Rewards Plus Gold Card with a bonus of 50k Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $500 in 3 months. It says to be eligible I just have to be enrolled in the Membership Rewards program, but that should be easy. I guess I might make it after all, but my fingers are still crossed.

Just a data point that may or may not be useful to you: PLAT Amex offers 4:1 on the Bonus Points Mall, Gold only 3:1. So yeah, you still earn boucoup points, but there's a nice 25% bonus for what is admittedly a rather hefty yearly PLAT fee.

I like how WN gives 2:1 for partner hotels.. it eliminates the need to get credit cards for each chain.. the only chain not on the list is Starwood, but everyone should have an SPG amex anyway.

Too bad WN doesn't have more retail partners.

A word of caution: T&C can be different under the various offers, and can change over time. My link was to a different offer.To be precise, the transfer would be with Chase, the issuer of the card. There is no length of time requirement. With some cards you can even pay off the transfer before you actually make the transfer, but that might be harder with the RR Visa because, IIRC, you have to do the balance transfer by phone and the CSR might choose to deny the transfer with a negative balance. Rather than take that risk, I paid off the BT a day or three after making it.There is no grace period. The possibility of a $288 fee is a new development that apparently has gone unnoticed until now. The T&C used to have a $99 cap on the BT fee. Last summer when I did the BT the cap on my card per the CSR was $75. (I thought it had already been increased to $99 when I applied for the (Business) card.) With one day of interest my total cost for the 8 credits was something like $78.50.

This raising of and elimination of caps on BT fees is a trend in the credit card industry that has been going on for some time. You mention being able to do a BT with no fee on the Choice Visa, but that is not the case for new applications:My advice would be to call the Chase toll-free number on the back of your RR Visa and ask whether your account has a cap on the BT fee. As you say it makes no sense to pay $288 for the 8 credits, but you might find eight credits worth $99 or so. Also note that in the past there has been a time limit (90 days from account opening, IIRC) to earn the +8 part of the offer.

BTW, I wondered whether the promo codes in the link in the OP would bring up the old offer with the capped BT fee, but that link now generates an error page that redirects to the home page of cardmemberservices.com.

IMO, it usually only makes sense to keep a RR Visa beyond the first year if you spend a lot of money on SWA flights (enough that the double earnings rate justifies the annual fee), or you can manage to earn CP status by using the card. In December 2007 there was a gift card promo tied to use of the RR Visa. If there were enough of those types of promos I'd be tempted to keep the card, but they have been rare.