How to Fly for Only $5.60 — Happy Little Traveler

Yes, you read that right! This past year my family of 7 have taken 16 one way flights together and we have paid out of pocket a WHOPPING $5.60 for each person, each way. How is this even possible? Is it too good to be true? Keep reading and I’ll spill the tea on everything!

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

It all begins with understanding that Southwest Airlines is the MOST family friendly airline to travel for several reasons. Yeah, it’s not the fanciest and has some flaws but by and large, they provide the best value and best programs to make flying with a large family affordable.

When you earn Southwest Points (through several ways I’ll get into down below), you can book award flights using points, and you are only responsible for paying the associated fees on each flight which is most often $5.60 per person, each way.

ALL ABOUT EARNING POINTS

Accumulating Southwest Airlines points is actually much easier than most people may think! No, you don’t have to spend $20,000 to get 20K worth of points. That’s just nuts!

The easiest way to earn SW points is by taking advantage of credit card welcome offers. (Gasp! Credit Cards!!!!…. yeah, I know!). We all have expenses we make monthly from groceries to utility bills, medical expenses, kids sports or activities etc, and we might as well reap some rewards from these unavoidable expenses. Instead of putting all your monthly expenses on the same credit card (earning 1 point per $1), you apply for the RIGHT credit card, put your expenses on that new card and once you hit the minimum spend… voila! You have a nice stockpile of points in the way of the ‘Welcome Bonus’.

Here’s an example: Apply for ABC credit card and spend $4,000 in the first 3 months to earn 75,000 travel points. If you average $1,334 in expenses monthly, then you can see how easy it would be to hit that minimum spend.

EARNING SW POINTS

My 2 favorite ways to earn Southwest Airlines points specifically is through a SW credit card and through Chase Ultimate Rewards Points. Chase points are considered “flexible or transferable” points so you can easily transfer them directly to Southwest and then book the travel you’d like. Easy Peasy!

The two cards I’d recommend for beginners are the personal Southwest Chase Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card.

The standard offers on these cards aren 50k points and 60K points respectively. So just by signing up for these two cards, you could have over 110k points to use for Southwest Flights! But wait, it can get even better!

DOUBLE YOUR POINTS

If you really want to go all in and get some amazing nearly FREE travel for the family, you could have your spouse, partner or even a grandparent sign up for the same two. cards and then you’d have more than double the amount of points.

It all has to do with using the REFERRAL links in your credit card account and Chase will give you a nice referaal bonus in exchange! So if you sign up for the SW personal card, then send your unique referral bonus to your spouse and they sign up for the same card, you’ll get an extra 20k extra SW points.

If you did the same with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you’d earn 10k extra points as a referral bonus as well.

HOW MANY POINTS COULD YOU EARN?

So let’s take a look at how this could look:

You: Southwest Card 50k points + 20k referral points = 70k SW points

Chase Sapphire Preferred 60k points +10k referral points = 70k points

Total: 140k points

Spouse: Southwest Card 50k points

Chase Sapphire Preferred 60k points

Total: 110 points

You + Spouse = Over 250k points

That’s a lot of points to travel with for nearly free! All you pay for is the $5.60 fee and you’re all set!

WHY WE LOVE SOUTHWEST

Southwest has some great perks for families which is why we are such fans! Here’s a few to note

Family Boarding:

SW has open seating and assigns you a boarding position (A-C) and if you have a lower boarding position in B or C, you are allowed to board with ‘family boarding’ after all the A’s board. We do this every time and always get rows together and have never had to sit apart.

Companion Pass:

If you earn 135k Southwest points (through 2 credit card welcome offers or by taking enough flights), you can earn a companion pass for the remainder of the year you earn it and the following year. Someone can fly for FREE with you every single time you travel (again, you just pay the fees of $5.60). My husband and I both have earned companion pass so each time we fly Southwest, we use our points to cover 5 tickets, and then 2 fly for free because of our companion pass. This is seriously the best travel tip for famililes and saves you tons of points/ money!

Easy Cancelation Policy:

Southwest has one of the best cancelation policies in the industry. You can cancel your SW flight in as little as 10 minutes before your flight time. So if kids get sick or something else prevents you from taking your trip, just cancel and you’ll get your points deposited back in your account or get a voucher to use in the future if you paid cash.

Frequent Sales & Always Get the Best Price:

Southwest has various sales throughout the year where you can get some truly killer deals! As I write this post, there’s a sale going on and I could fly from Las Vegas to New York City round trip for only 13K SW points! That’s bananas! If you’re patient, wait for the deals and can be a little flexible on your timing, you can find some real gems. And even better, if you have already booked a flight and a sale comes out, you can check to see if your flights are less points/money that what you paid. You simply ‘change’ your flight to the same flight with a lower cost and you’ll get the difference back in your account as points or a voucher for cash flights.