SAPMAN

I sometimes book hotel stays thru SWA portal that give me Points toward CP. . My questions:

1. Do I need to use the Chase SWA credit card to get these "bonus points" posted to SWA that also qualify for CP?

2. If I book these on, say 1 DEC for a 25 DEC two day stay, will they post and count for CP in January the next year? Not talking about a non-refundable rate that I think is charged as soon as booking.

Thanks. Planning for my 2022 CP.

NoStressHere

Remember - your YEAR will end on the date of your last statement in December. So, I would GUESS a stay that posts sometime after Dec 27th is not gonna hit your card until January.

I can not help on NORMAL posting time from when you actually pay for something and when the bonus posts to your account. I would guess you could look at past stays and see.

synergistic

My points typically post 3-5 days after checkout. Once, recently, it took nine days. In my experience, they are backdated to the checkout date, regardless of when you booked and whether or not it is prepaid - you cannot check out in 2021 and have the points count towards your 2022 companion pass. You can use any credit card to book - these points have nothing to do with the credit card. It is simply a hotel booking portal and will have no relation to your credit card statement cycle.

NoStressHere

EDIT - I think I am wrong in my post as the next poster has pointed out.

I might correct... you can have points in 2021 count for 2022. I do not have hotel experience, but on our 3rd CP, all earned in Jan/Feb each year. Once your December close date hits, everything else goes into Jan 2022. For example, if the poster normally has an account closing on Dec 10th, all the charges that hit the card AFTER Dec 10th will be on the Jan 10th bill. So, even if they backdate the stay to the actual date he checked out (Dec 27th), it still goes on the January statement.

Open to correction if this is wrong.

synergistic

I might be mistaken, but I think the poster is talking about the Southwesthotels.com portal, which has absolutely nothing to do with Chase - it's just a Southwest flavored portal for booking.com . The points accrue directly to your Southwest account - I actually did this a couple times before I ever even had a Southwest credit card. The process did not change once I got the Southwest credit card. Booking.com has no idea that I have a Southwest credit card, I have only ever used my CSR to book. If the OP is talking about something else, you're likely correct - and I'd be VERY interested in learning if there's some sort of Southwest credit card related portal with similarly attractive earnings.

I don't think that's the case, though - it's just that booking.com portal and the Southwest credit card is not required nor related in any way. I guess, technically, if you used a Southwest credit card to make the booking, you'd get the 5000 portal points awarded on (say) December 25th and the ~300pts for the spend after statement close in January. I doubt that would accomplish what the OP is looking for, though.

NoStressHere

I stand corrected. Hotel points apparently do not go through Chase but direct from hotel to WN.

SAPMAN

You are correct. Bonus points post indepently from the Cr Card, so can post earlier than one expects and maybe in late Dec vs. early Jan.

jerryfreak

so if you use a better travel card with 5-10X points on travel i imagine it counts booking.com as a travel site and you get that multiplier, in addition to your SW bonus points?

do the SW cards consider that a SW purchase for 2-4X?

synergistic

I sadly don't have any cards that lucrative - please point me in that direction! It does code correctly to get the 3x on the CSR, which is what I have used for every southwesthotels.com booking I've ever made - if you have a card that gives you 5x-10x on any travel charge, you would be golden. I'm VERY interested to know what cards you're referring to, I have some slots ready and waiting!

All I've ever put on a Southwest card were the credited back $75 a year, the credited back upgraded boarding fees, occasional internet charges, and a handful of other promotional purchases. If you decide to forego your 10x option for a chance at 4xRR, please report back!

HPN-HRL

I recently got the (no AF) Citi Custom Cash card, which earns 5% on up to $500 of spend each month in whichever of their bonus categories you spend the most in that month; the travel category includes airlines, so you could earn up to 2500 Thank You points per month on SWA tickets this way. (Spending above $500 in your highest-spend category only earns 1x.). I am planning on using it for cruise payments, as I don't think there is any other currently-available card giving 5x on cruises.

synergistic

I get 5x on airlines via Amex, so that's $6k in 3rd party hotels per year - not too bad! I don't have any Citi products currently, seems like a decent one to start with. Thanks!

With the cruise ship struggles, there have been some pretty incredible cash back deals on Chase and Amex. I have a $400 off $1500 Amex offer tempting me right now. Worth checking your offers if you're in the market.

HPN-HRL

Thanks! I got a $500 off $1500+ AMEX 0ffer on Royal Caribbean. A family member got the same offer, another got the $200 off $500+; they are letting me use their offers on a cruise I booked for next year. We also got a few Celebrity offers to get either $150 or 15K MR for $500 spend. But when there are no good AMEX offers, I think I would prefer 5x Thank You points vs. 3x UR via CSR.

synergistic

Whole I imagine the timing matters less than to folks looking at attempt this right at the beginning of the year, I wanted to let folks know that the hotel booking points have been greatly delayed recently. I still have not received points for either my 22 Apr or 27 Apr checkout. The booking portal says it will take 64 days to pay in one place, and '64 or more' days in another, so I have a bit of time before I can ask them to look into it for me. I'm not desperate for the points right now, but it's still frustrating to have to keep track for so long - I hope it returns to the normal handful of days soon.

Edit: the points for the 22 Apr checkout posted today, twenty days later. I'll add the 27 Apr checkout datapoint when that posts.
Edit again: points for the 27 Apr checkout date posted today, 17 days later. I don't have any more pending for awhile, but I'll post what happens next time. It was certainly convenient to be able to get CPQP to post in a handful of days, but a few weeks is a much more reasonable amount of time to have to keep track than 64+ days.