Another year, another AMEX airline fee credit

One great benefit of having an American Express Platinum card or Premier Rewards Gold card is that you get an airline fee credit every calendar year.  With the Platinum card, you get $200 airline fee credit and with the Premier Rewards Gold card, you get $100 airline fee credit.

According to AMEX, eligible incidental fees include:

·                Checked baggage fees

·                Itinerary change fees

·                Phone reservation fees

·                Pet flight fees

·                Seat assignment fees

·                In-flight amenity fees (beverages, food, pillows/blankets, headphones)

·                In-flight entertainment fees (excluding wifi fees)

·                Airport lounge day passes & annual memberships 

Different airlines you can choose include: Alaska, American, US Airways, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, Jet Blue, Spirit, United, Southwest and AirTran.  You select an airline here; you can select a different airline every calendar year.  

In the past, I’ve used this airline credit to get a $200 Amazon gift card from my previous Platinum card ($200 Amazon gift card loophole has now been closed) and multiple Southwest Airlines gift cards from my Premier Rewards Gold card.  Since you can no longer get an Amazon gift card with the airline fee credit, I decided to get another $100 Southwest Airlines gift card with my Premier Rewards Gold card.  I closed my Platinum card last year; if I still had it, I would have used it to buy $200 worth of Southwest Airlines gift cards.

I first made sure that I had Southwest Airlines gift card purchases were still being credited by American Express.  I went to this Flyertalk thread to confirm that Southwest gift card purchases were still being credited.  Then I made sure that Southwest Airlines was selected as my airline of choice here.  Finally, I went to purchase a Southwest Airlines gift card here.

2 days after my $100 Southwest Airlines gift card purchase was charged, I received a $100 statement credit.  Woohoo! 

Two free round trip flights to Portland on Southwest

Last night, my wife reminded me that we should look into booking flights to Portland, Oregon to visit her family for Christmas.  We usually fly Southwest Airlines because they offer direct flights, free baggage check, and we can transfer our Chase Ultimate Rewards points into the Southwest Rapid Rewards points program.  Our son will be less than 2 years old so he gets to fly for free.

First thing I did was log into my account at Southwest.com and search the flights we wanted.  Total cost for 2 round trip tickets in points was 36,268 points and $22.40:

In order to book the tickets, I needed to transfer 36,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points into my Southwest Rapid Rewards account.  I went to ultimaterewards.com and requested the points transfer.  Then I logged out of and back into my Southwest account and the points were instantly available. 

We still have Southwest gift card credit from the American Express Airline fee credit offer and the gift card balance covered the cash portion for our flights.  And just like that our two free round trip flights to Portland were booked in less than 5 minutes.

If we were to pay for the same 2 round trip tickets with cash, it would have cost us $597.92! 

Booking flights with points is so fun and easy. 

Free round trip flight to San Francisco on Southwest

One of my friends is getting married in San Francisco in November.  This time I am attending the wedding solo, while the wife and baby stay behind.  Time to book another free flight!  Since I don't want to be away from the family too long, I'll only be spending one night in San Francisco. 

I like flying Southwest Airlines because they offer very reasonably priced (cash or points) flights and also include 2 free checked bags.

I simply logged onto my Southwest account and picked the flights that I wanted.  Luckily for me, Southwest was having a sale.  My flights cost me: 3,408 points and $5.60 to fly from SNA (Orange County / Santa Ana) to SFO (San Francisco) and 5,685 points and $5.60 to fly home from SFO to SNA. 

I did not need to transfer any Chase Ultimate Rewards points since I already had enough Southwest Rapid Rewards points in my account.  To make the deal even sweeter, I did not have to pay any cash for the flight either, since I still have plenty of Southwest Airlines gift card credit from my American Express Premier Rewards Gold card airline fee credit.

The total cost for my free round trip flight was 9,093 Rapid Rewards points and $11.20.

If I were to book the same round trip flight with cash, my total would have cost $163.96.  

$163.96 doesn't seem too bad for a round trip flight, but I'd rather save the money and use my points instead.  I just love having points available to use towards free flights!

Two free round trip tickets to San Jose, CA on Southwest

We have a wedding to attend in July 2016 in San Jose, California.  Weddings are a joyous occasion where you celebrate the beginning of a new chapter for the couple.  The food and entertainment are a plus also!

This is another opportunity for us to use our points towards free airline flights! First, I went to Southwest Airlines to check the cash price of the flights.  The cost for one round trip flight to San Jose came out to be $245.96 per person.  If we were to pay for both flights with cash, we would be paying $491.92.  That’s quite a bit of money. 

The cost for one round trip flight using Southwest Rapid Rewards points was only 14,180, or 7,090 points per person each way.  We used our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to transfer Ultimate Rewards points into Southwest Rapid Rewards points at a 1:1 transfer rate.  I booked one free round trip flight for my wife.  The total came out to be 14,180 points and $11.20.

Then I booked one free one-way flight for myself from SNA (Orange County) to SJC (San Jose) for 7,090 points and $5.60.

Earlier in the year, I earned a $100 airline fee credit from my AMEX Premier Rewards Gold card by purchasing a Southwest Airlines $100 gift card.  My mom also gave me her $100 airline fee credit from her personal AMEX Gold card.  This was the perfect time to redeem its value in combination with using points for our flights.  I booked a one-way return flight for myself from SJC to SNA and paid $122.98 using gift card balance.

By using a total of 21,270 points and paying $139.78 with Southwest gift cards ($11.20 + $5.60 + $122.98), we were able to save $491.92 for our flight.  We will use the savings towards hotel stay, food, wedding gift and entertainment!  

Where will your points take you?

Two free round trip flights to Portland on Southwest

With the Christmas season coming up soon, I just booked us 2 free round trip flights on Southwest Airlines to visit my wife’s family for Christmas in December 2015.  As usual, we prefer flying on Southwest Airlines because they offer direct flights and free baggage check-in.  Our son gets to fly for free because he is less than 2 years old and will not take up an extra seat on the plane. 

The whole process is so easy. 

First I logged into Southwest Airlines to see the cost of the flight: $717.02.

Next I check how many points I would need to book the tickets: 48,000.

Then I transferred over 48,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

Finally, I booked the flight!

By redeeming 48,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and paying $22.40, we saved $694.62 ($717.02 - $22.40)!  I'm really glad we were able to book these flights with points instead of cash.  I don't think we have any other plans to fly anywhere in the near future, so it will be a good time to stock up on some more points!

Free round trip flight to San Francisco on Southwest!

Another month, another wedding
It seems like we have been attending weddings every other month.  It’s fun seeing couples so happy and in love.  It’s a great time to catch up with people, eat great food, dance, and celebrate.

I just booked myself one free round trip flight on Southwest Airlines for a wedding that I will attend in San Francisco in December 2015.  My wife has other plans that date, so I am attending the wedding solo.

Using Chase Ultimate Rewards points converted to Southwest Rapid Rewards points gave me the best point redemption value.  The cash price of a flight from Orange County (SNA) to San Francisco (SFO) would have been $102:

The cash price of a flight from San Francisco home to Orange County would have been $119. 

I’m glad that we have enough Chase points to cover this flight.  The total Rapid Rewards points needed for this flight was 12,555 with a fee of $11.20.   Since I already had 1,963 Rapid Rewards points in my account, I needed to transfer 11,000 Chase points into my Rapid Rewards account to complete the award booking.  You can only transfer points to Chase travel partners in 1,000 point increments.

The points transferred instantly and I immediately booked my flights.  By redeeming 12,555 and $11.20, I saved $209.80 ($221 - $11.20)!

The whole process of booking this flight took less than 5 minutes.