How much did I spend to get a free ticket on Southwest?
A piece of junk mail arrived Saturday that for some crazy reason I decided to open. Smartest thing I did all day. Inside was a letter from Southwest saying I had earned a round trip ticket anywhere the airline flies. Hawaii, here I come!
Oh wait, does Southwest fly to Hawaii? Lemme check...Doh! They do not, at least not from any of the Los Angeles area airports.
Oh well. Back to the original point of this post - to figure out how much this "free" round trip ticket cost me. The Southwest Rapid Rewards page says that flyers like me earn a free RT ticket when they buy 8 RT tickets in 24 consecutive months. Wow, that's a lot of flying!
I went back over my credit card receipts and found I did indeed take eight trips within the past 21 months (all to see my family in the Bay Area). My Southwest tab came to $1,363.20 and the scary thing is, that does not include a handful of trips on other airlines. Hubby and I fly way too much!
If I try to max out my free ticket with a pricey flight to NYC or Portland, I may be able to snag a $250 ticket for free. That means I would get $1,613.20 worth of air travel ($1,363.20 + $250) for $1,363.20, a 15 percent discount. Not too shabby!
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About The Bargain Hunter
Daily News staff writer Julia Scott loves to find bargains on everything from groceries to Gucci. Her tips will help keep your hard earned cash where it belongs - in your pocket.
You would probably save more than that on an east coast flight--a ONE WAY ticket to New Hampshire (SW doesn't fly into Boston) that I just checked on was in the $250 ballpark...a $250 R/T ticket to NYC sounds like a steal to me!