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Southwest Companion Pass is back. Get it quick. [Deadline 3/31/17]

AlmostRetired

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Any thoughts on upgrading from Cat 5 to Cat 9?
I was thinking of using the 5 night certificate for Grand Cayman but MCVI St Thomas is also Cat 9 and all 2 bedroom units, where as GC would be a room with 2 double beds for hubby and I and 2 teenagers.....

While GC is closer I think I would prefer STT to have a 2 bedroom with the certificate.
Am I missing something here?

Thank you.

I just upgraded my 5 night, cat 5 to a 5 night cat 8 1 hour ago. It cost me 65,000 MRP. They cancelled the cat 5 and reissued a cat 8. It extended the use date until a year from today. I asked and was told if I need to downgrade to the cat 5, the 65K MRP would go back into my account.
 

hhoope01

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Maybe we should do Grand Cayman since Gold Status would get free breakfast but not at STT since MVCI property.
Just in case you didn't know, the Cayman Marriott is considered a "resort". Thus no free breakfast even for Plats. But if you were Plat, with the status match to SPG, your SPG Plat would get you free breakfast at the Cayman Westin though.
 

Quimby4

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Just in case you didn't know, the Cayman Marriott is considered a "resort". Thus no free breakfast even for Plats. But if you were Plat, with the status match to SPG, your SPG Plat would get you free breakfast at the Cayman Westin though.
Really? I didnt read that in the Gold Elite Benefits, I must have somehow missed that

I am not Platinum, I dont have enough status to do much :(
Ritz/Marriott = Gold
SPG Gold Preferred
Hyatt Gold/Explorist
 
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Quimby4

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I just upgraded my 5 night, cat 5 to a 5 night cat 8 1 hour ago. It cost me 65,000 MRP. They cancelled the cat 5 and reissued a cat 8. It extended the use date until a year from today. I asked and was told if I need to downgrade to the cat 5, the 65K MRP would go back into my account.
Nice! Where are you planning on using you Cat 8 certificate?
 

AlmostRetired

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Nice! Where are you planning on using you Cat 8 certificate?
We are thinking about the Key Largo Resort and SPA AC during Christmas Week. It is 160k points for the 5 nights with a daily rate of 799. I would never, never (can't say it enough) pay that for a hotel room. Just waiting for Southwest to open up for December.
 

Quilter

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The estimated value of Marriott Rewards Points at 0.9 cents each point (just for value comparison).
The estimated value of Rapid Rewards for a Wanna Get Away is 1.43 cents each point
In your example using 15,631 points each point is at 1.78 cents per point. I would use points and forget about Chase since you are getting a good cent value for your points.

I was wrong for subtracting the early bird cost. If you do it or not, has nothing to do with how you paid for your tickets.

Saving seats are allowed since there is no policy disallowing it but if an issue comes up, it is up to the flight attendant to address. He/she could go either way.

I'm booking on Southwest again. This time the roundtrip cost is $540. SW points 37,119. I figure the high cost is because it's Christmas week. That comes to 1.45 cents for each point. Should I pay, or use points?
 

AlmostRetired

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This seems to be near par of the value given to RRP's. Never feel comfortable spending anyone else's money
 

Quilter

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Thank you.

I was using the figures you gave me back in April. When you say "The estimated value of Rapid Rewards for a Wanna Get Away is 1.43 cents each point" what is it you are trying to convey? Are you saying it's an understanding a paid ticket will have a comparable demand of points with a value of 1.43 cents per point? And if I get anything better than that I should feel lucky?

I booked another ticket today. The point value came out to over 1.6 cents per point so I used points.

To get a better understanding how the SW system works, I tried a similar search as my Christmas week flights (DTW/PHX) only this time I used 1/2-1/7 as the dates. The paid amount was $100 less, which is to be expected since it's not a holiday week. Points came to 1.51 cents per point. I'm looking only at the 1 nonstop/day each way.
 

AlmostRetired

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Thank you.

I was using the figures you gave me back in April. When you say "The estimated value of Rapid Rewards for a Wanna Get Away is 1.43 cents each point" what is it you are trying to convey? Are you saying it's an understanding a paid ticket will have a comparable demand of points with a value of 1.43 cents per point? And if I get anything better than that I should feel lucky?

If I didn't make clear, I got this from some point guru who has a blog. It sounded reasonable. I am not smart (in general) or experienced ( on SW) to know this yet. I am getting there... I did Punta Cana and will be doing New Mexico, Charleston, Aruba and 2 x Fort Lauderdale by years end. We are planning Puerto Rico (most likely) or Cuba in Feb.

I have been using points and funds from the Chase Reserve card that get 1.5 cents per point when used for travel. If you call up the travel number for chase they can book Southwest. The prices are exact to the penny of the Southwest website. Once they book you, you can add the companion on the southwest website (you need to make sure they put your RR number in the record). Onetime I booked using Chase and needed to cancel... the price of the ticket became a dollar credit on Southwest.
 

Quimby4

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If I didn't make clear, I got this from some point guru who has a blog. It sounded reasonable. I am not smart (in general) or experienced ( on SW) to know this yet. I am getting there... I did Punta Cana and will be doing New Mexico, Charleston, Aruba and 2 x Fort Lauderdale by years end. We are planning Puerto Rico (most likely) or Cuba in Feb.

I have been using points and funds from the Chase Reserve card that get 1.5 cents per point when used for travel. If you call up the travel number for chase they can book Southwest. The prices are exact to the penny of the Southwest website. Once they book you, you can add the companion on the southwest website (you need to make sure they put your RR number in the record). Onetime I booked using Chase and needed to cancel... the price of the ticket became a dollar credit on Southwest.
Yes, this is good use of your Ultimate Rewards however there are 4 different SW cards at 60,000 points each, so it is pretty easy to get SW points. I prefer saving my UR to use for difficult partners like Hyatt. Hard to get points for Hyatt and a few others...just another perspective :)
 

AlmostRetired

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Yes, this is good use of your Ultimate Rewards however there are 4 different SW cards at 60,000 points each, so it is pretty easy to get SW points. I prefer saving my UR to use for difficult partners like Hyatt. Hard to get points for Hyatt and a few others...just another perspective :)

I got 100,000 points when I signed up for the UR card. Points convert 1 for 1. $ 1 for $1.5. I am going to save the SW cards/points for when my companion pass runs out with the hope of getting it again.
 

AlmostRetired

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If I didn't make clear, I got this from some point guru who has a blog. It sounded reasonable. I am not smart (in general) or experienced ( on SW) to know this yet. I am getting there... I did Punta Cana and will be doing New Mexico, Charleston, Aruba and 2 x Fort Lauderdale by years end. We are planning Puerto Rico (most likely) or Cuba in Feb.

I have been using points and funds from the Chase Reserve card that get 1.5 cents per point when used for travel. If you call up the travel number for chase they can book Southwest. The prices are exact to the penny of the Southwest website. Once they book you, you can add the companion on the southwest website (you need to make sure they put your RR number in the record). Onetime I booked using Chase and needed to cancel... the price of the ticket became a dollar credit on Southwest.

Kudos to Southwest. As I posted previously, we have been squeezing in a lot of vacation travel this year taking advantage of the companion pass through the MRP exchange. Not posted was this was driven by my wife's decision to finally have knee replacement surgery she has been delaying for 4 years. She has it planned for the first week March 2018. At times, her bad knee required a few last minute cancellations this year so when this happens, we take Travel Fund Vouchers knowing we are moving not challenging the plans. Our next two major trips are December at the Courtyard Marathon Florida Keys during Christmas and The Ritz Carlton San Juan during February break. It is highly unlikely either will be open. If they are, I wouldn't feel right vacationing in an area while there might be widespread devastation all around. Once these weeks are cancelled, we will have close to $1200 of travel funds that will expire May of 2018.

Via email, I asked Southwest if they would extent the Travel Funds for one year but if that isn't reasonable 6 months would be fine. I told them I have hotel confirmations and a letter of approval from the insurance company for the surgery that I offered to send in to support of my request. 48 hours later, I got an email reply stating that I may qualify for a refund if I send in the documentation. I was not asking for a refund so I called believing this was an auto reply. Sure enough, when I spoke with someone, he explained that if they extend the Travel Funds, it could only be for 6 months and it would cost 100 per confirmation (each leg is on a separate confirmation) . Since this is due to a medical issue, they will refund my money to the form of payment it came from (Chase reward dollars from points). I did not need to send in the documentation to support the medical issue.

This took about 50 minutes on the phone with 30 being spend waiting to speak with someone at the executive customer service office (regular customer service told me who to write and call after I write). This is a great example of customer service.
 

rickandcindy23

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The current offer from SW for 60,000 points is a great way to get the CP for 2018 and 2019. You can get two cards for the CP, one personal and one business, but both cards have to be the same name and same RR#.

I have never seen an offer higher than 60K for the SW card.

You would need to complete your spend for the statement that closes in January. That is the only issue with doing it now. It's not even October. So keep watching for the 60K offer in later October. I don't know how long they will be doing that.

I messed up when I did it a few years ago. I didn't get the CP because I missed the statement closing date by 3 days. In other words, I completed the spend TOO early. I was so disappointed to have one card that qualified, and the other that didn't qualify in time.
 

Ty1on

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We did a new card for 50K and a new card for 40K, earned the rest of the points with some spend, to get the CP for this year and next. Something we will never see again after next year ends.
 

rickandcindy23

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We did a new card for 50K and a new card for 40K, earned the rest of the points with some spend, to get the CP for this year and next. Something we will never see again after next year ends.

Have you spouse do the same thing after that next year is about over. Are you saying the pass is going to stop being available as a perk?
 

Ty1on

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I'm saying we're never going to earn 110K points again LOL
 
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