Scott

Another great window has arrived to get the Southwest Companion pass with the return of 50,000 point offers on the Southwest Plus and Southwest Premier cards.  The catch is that you need special referral offers to get the 50,000 point bonuses.  If you apply through the regular links on the Chase site you’ll only receive 40,000 point offers.  Lucky for you, I have referral links here!

Southwest Plus card 50,000 point offer after $2k spend referral link: CLICK HERE

Southwest Premier card 50,000 point offer after $2k spend referral link: CLICK HERE

The Southwest Business card is still offering 60,000 points after a $3k spend (no special referral link needed).

The most efficient route to the Southwest Companion Pass would be to open the business card and one of the personal cards (plus of premier) through one of the above referral links.

Alternatively, you could open both personal cards through the links above and complete the minimum spending which would give you 104k points (50k + 2k from spend on each card).  You would then need to collect 6k more points through spending or flying Southwest flights to get the required 110,000 points to qualify for the companion pass.

Remember, the companion pass allows you to add an additional flyer (that you designate when you receive the pass) to every Southwest flight you take for only the cost of taxes!

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American Airlines reward flights make for easy travel to Hawaii, Alaska or Europe!

Thinking about a Euro-trip in the near future?  Want to visit the Islands of Hawaii or the mountains of Alaska?  There is one offer right now that will let you choose any of these options!  This offer is still good but act quick before it disappears.

Some deals are just too good to pass up.  Thank you Barclay Bank for providing us with the Advantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard 60,000 point offer!

This card will give you 60,000 American Airlines reward points after paying the annual fee ($95) and making one purchase on the card.  That’s it!  This is so easy it’s a no brainer.  60,000 points to use on an American Airlines reward flight have some serious value and can get you to some awesome places.  In addition, this card will give you one free checked bag any time you fly American, helping you save even more on your travel.

Let’s check out where you can go.

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With multiple different banks dishing out ever changing credit card bonuses, it can be confusing!  How often can you get a bonus? How many cards can you apply for?  If you are aiming for a specific trip and need points, it’s important to know the credit card bonus rules that will dictate what you can get and when.

This post will serve as a summary of the various rules and polices that govern how credit card issuers approve and distribute bonuses.  As long as you play the system correctly, smartly, and know the card bonus rules, you can get tons of free travel for almost nothing.

Check out this post to see some of our favorite cards for free travel.

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Just announced last night (although widely expected), Southwest Airlines will be flying to Hawaii starting in 2018!  Your Southwest to Hawaii dreams are finally coming true!

Here at Escape on a Dime, we are huge fans of Southwest for the amazing value of Southwest points coupled with the Companion Pass.

Now, those perks are even more valuable with the addition of Southwest to Hawaii flights starting in 2018!  Here’s what we know so far about Southwest to Hawaii service.

Southwest to Hawaii: what we know

• Travel will begin sometime in 2018 (schedule and dates have not yet been announced).
• Southwest will fly their new 737-MAX planes just delivered to the fleet in October 2017.
• Southwest recently restructured their contract with employees allowing for red-eye flights.  It is very possible they will offer red-eyes to Hawaii but nothing is for sure until the schedule is announced.
• Non stop departures will be from California.
• They have not announced which Hawaiian Islands they will fly to (speculation is the 4 major airports on the 4 main islands).

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As we all know, traveling can be expensive!  So much time is spent focusing on finding a cheap flight that the costs of hotels are overlooked.  Often times the total cost of housing on a trip will easily equal or surpass the cost of the flight (especially if you use these methods to fly for free!).  Below is a simple “hack” using Priceline’s search interface and their Priceline Express Deals feature that can save you money with very little effort!

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Often times here at Escape on a Dime, we refer to an “escape” as a happy vacation to a nice tropical beach.  Sometimes however, you just need to escape from a stupid category 5 hurricane with more possible landing sites than a North Korean missile (too soon?).

Irma Spaghetti Model

This hurricane season has been crazy so far and its only half way over.  With historic rainfall from Harvey to terrifying power and size from Irma.  We have been keenly reminded of the threat of catastrophic damage and loss of life from a hurricane.   Now, Jose meanders off the East Coast and Maria rapidly turns into a monster bearing down on Puerto Rico.  Having an effective hurricane evacuation plan is paramount: your stuff is important, but not as important as your life.

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Previously, I’ve written about how amazing the Southwest Companion Pass is.  Kim and I have been using it (along with points) to travel for (almost) free for the last 4 years!  Also, I just posted on some other quick tips when getting the Southwest Companion Pass.

As it turns out, the optimum time to get the Southwest Companion Pass and have it for a full 2 years is coming up!  For those of you that don’t know, the companion pass allows the holder to book an additional flier any time they are booked on a flight, for only the cost of taxes ($11.20 round trip on domestic flights).  The companion pass will be valid for the remainder of the year it is earned, as well as the following year.  You can earn the companion pass by flying 100 one way segments in a calendar year or by earning 110,000 Southwest points in a calendar year.

Getting the Companion Pass FAST!

UPDATE: The 60,000 point offers for the plus and premier cards have ended.  Currently, Southwest is offering 40,000 points for these cards.  

To get to 110,000 Southwest points quickly, you can open 2 (of the 3 available) Southwest credit cards.  All three cards are currently offering 60,000 point bonuses after the minimum spending is met ($2,000 in the first three months for the plus and premier, $3,000 for the business premier).   However, this offer is ending on October 4th!

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