Flyguyvf

Hello there, my partner and I are on a limited budget and using airline miles is very helpful for us.

In October, we signed up for the new performance business card and we hit our minimum spend today - so we should be getting about 80k deposited into her account in a few days. In hindsight we should have also signed up for the 50k plus on the same day, but we were doing this on her end and she has brand new credit, and I didn't think both would be approved. We had to do reconsideration for the performance biz. Anyway, now the plus/premier are at 40k and I am trying to figure out the best way to get the companion pass in early 2020. We will need another 45k points.

total 2020 points as of now are 80,500

Option A is to sign up for the plus 40k offer, and which will net 41k after spend, and then churn another $3,500-4,000 over time. We actually are pretty frugal people and don't have any big spending coming up (we frontloaded all that on the 5k spend for the biz performance) so I think the 4k will take around 6 months to complete. I'd like to use the CP in april so I would prefer to do this sooner. I'm also not a big fan of MS so I don't really want to buy thousands in gift cards.

Option B is somehow get the in-flight offer and get a 50k bonus - either by applying in flight or finding the kiosks. My question here, is do they still do the kiosks and are any in Northern California? Is there any way to get the in-flight link while not actually on the plane? or any other way to get the 50k offer?

Option C is to wait around for the 50k public offer but I have no clue when this will happen again and I think it's probably not going to happen in 1Q since they just did it in October.

Option D is to sign up for the 40k offer and then find someone to use a referal link for another 10k, but I don't have any close friends who need it at the moment.

So I would just like some opinions on your thoughts and if there is any other way I am missing. I think the best option is get the 50k offer because it's more points and less total spend, but I don't have a plan to fly anywhere in the next couple months as we over-exerted our travel budget and vacation time over the holiday season. I have read of people buying a southwest ticket, going through security and applying at the in airport kiosk and then cancelling the flight to get the points back and walking out, but that would obviously only work if there is a Kiosk near Oakland CA where I am and also it would be a bit of a hassle.

Let me know your thoughts. I am a long time lurker and this is a great forum!

mctrees02

southwesthotels.com is the fastest route I know to accruing large chunks of points outside of CC signup bonuses.

nsx

The 50k inflight offer can be emailed to you from anyone you know who is flying. Just ask your friend to click the offer ad and then click on the yellow "Email me this exclusive inflight offer".

NoStressHere

I am not a big MS type person, but do some of my own spend to get there.

Federal Taxes at 1.85%
Buy gift cards for the gas stations and grocery store where you know you will use it in the next few months - or longer if you are okay with it. Nothing fancy about that.
Property Taxes.
Hotels as mentioned.
Prepay TV/Cell/Insurance bills - assuming they take credit cards.

Good news is the personal card only needs $1000 in spend to get the bonus.

fluffyCat

Hotels.

I just booked a two night stay at a Westin in Dallas with a 15k Southwest point bonus. Yeah, the stay is more than I would otherwise spend (about $250 more than I had planned) but I look at as "buying" 15k points for $250.

synergistic

How much did you spend to get the 80k bonus? $5000? Shouldn't that mean you're getting 85k points? And as such will be over 125k with just a 40k signup offer?

Critterlynn

They didn't mention it but I'm assuming those points posted to 2019.

synergistic

Duh, of course they did. I think I just forget how many people risk that every year. $4500 in 2019 would have been well past my comfort level, and I certainly wouldn't have done it that way if I were scraping the bottom of the barrel for spend, but I'm glad it has mostly worked out for OP.

NoStressHere

Right there with you. I did a couple charges to make sure the card worked and generated a bill. And then put them away, especially the personal one what only requires a $1,000 spend. I have read too many stories about fraud hitting the spend, or mistaken charge by a vendor, or even buying something and forgetting which card it was going on.

nsx

Good for you. I hope and expect we will read fewer CP sob stories this year than any recent January.

flyer4512

Option E. There are TWO different Southwest Business cards, you said you have the performance card now get the Premier business card and another 60K SW points

https://creditcards.chase.com/small-...emier-business

Flyguyvf

4500 of the points were in year 2019, I did most of my spend in 2019 and just the final couple hundred on my last statement. I didn't think about that but I probably couldn't have spent 5k in one month anyway.

Flyguyvf

Great idea. I am not sure if chase will allow two business cards back to back, and especially for a new credit user. But that's probably the best path forward, and all they can do is deny it.

Flyguyvf

Yes, this was my first time even attempting the companion pass and I was worried about accidentally hitting the threshold early or fraud causing it to be hit early. But we did most of the spend on a trip to hawaii in november and then put the cards away. The weird this is the chase "spending summary" on the mobile app (curiously you can't find this on the desktop website anywhere) would show spending when we weren't spending, I couldn't tell if this was delayed or not, or due to a refund or two from earlier on.

I guess to be totally safe, I should have planned a ton of expenses between 1/1-1/23 (when my 90 days is up) but this ended up working out.

flyer4512

If the person has the credit , is under 5/24 and waits 40 days ( cushion ) between Chase business apps they should have no problem getting 2 Chase business cards in what will be about 3 months time for the OP.

I would advise paying off the entire balance on the current SW card, waiting a few days for it to clear and then applying.

My wife had never had a business card with any bank before and was approved for 3 Chase Bus cards (for her startup business) in about 4 months last year.