Mat Thompson, Author at Ditching Normal

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Free Flights with Southwest Airlines

July 21, 2016

The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is the best credit card reward we have earned so far. We booked $4,110.67 in free flights during the first 10 weeks of having the pass. Yep, for real. As of last Thursday, we are booked for 10 round trip flights on Southwest Airlines. You can do the exact same thing we did. Below you’ll find 3 simple steps to get a ton of free flights with Southwest Airlines.

If you missed our previous post on the Southwest Companion Pass, I’ll give you some quick deets right now. To earn the pass you need to earn 110k Southwest Rapid Rewards points in a single calendar year. Once you do, you’ll receive the Companion Pass. The pass lasts the rest of the year in which you earn it AND the entire next year. Now the fun begins. You can start booking your free flights with the 110k points you earned. When you do, you can add your companion to each one of your booked tickets for free. It’s pretty awesome.

Here’s how you can earn the 110k points to get your Companion Pass. While there are a few different ways you can stack these points with Southwest’s partner programs, I feel like the following route is the easiest.

Sign up for the Southwest Plus card, spend $2,000 before 90 days and earn the 50k bonus points.
Sign up for the Southwest Premier card, again spend $2,000 before 90 days and earn another 50k bonus points. (suggestion: wait 30 days in between sign ups)
With the points earned from spending $4k and the 100k bonus points, you’ll have 104k Rapid Rewards Points. Your final 6k points can come from some strategic spending through the Southwest Shopping portal. The portal will link you directly back to the online store you were going to shop at anyways, but you’ll earn 3 to 10 times the points per dollar spent when you link to it through Southwest’s portal.

The lovely people at Southwest Airlines are smart and realized that people are trying to time their sign ups to earn the Companion Pass in January. That being said, they don’t usually offer the above mentioned cards at a 50k bonus point level around that time. These cards are available now however and if you’re interested in getting a companion pass, make it easier on yourself and sign up while they’re easy to get. Lacey and I didn’t need anywhere near 2 years to fully utilize this reward. We only needed 10 weeks. …and honestly that was just time spent deciding where to go. The actual booking of the flights took an hour. Southwest now flies to the Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica, and everywhere in the United States. Deciding on where to go is maybe the toughest part of earning the Companion Pass.

With flights taken care of for the next year or so, there is suddenly way less pressure to keep signing up for multiple credit cards for free flights. All you’ll need to focus on now are free hotels. 🙂

Let us know if you have any questions. We can’t wait to tell you about our upcoming trips that were made possible with the Companion Pass!

Pack your bags! You’re about to get a ton of free travel!

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Travel

Our Weekend in Chicago

July 14, 2016

Chicago is quickly climbing up the ranks on our most favorite cities in the world list. The last 2 times we have visited, it seemed like the city, people, and weather have been teaming up to sweep us off our feet. Our most recent visit was no different. Again, with beautiful weather and friendly people, here’s how Lacey and I spent an early summer weekend in Chicago.

First off, I’m a big believer in managing expectations. If you’re expecting too much out of city, event, vacation, or anything else, odds are you’ll end up disappointed if it doesn’t live up to the hype. On the flip side, if you go into something with an open mind you have a greater chance of being pleasantly surprised. This was exactly the case with us and Chicago. We had no expectations. We just wanted to hang out and eat some pizza.

We stopped in Chicago this May on our way home from our 15 day Euro-Trip. The weather was absolutely beautiful at 65 degrees and sunny. We visited a few touristy locations such as the Skydeck at the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) as well as “The Bean” (Cloud Gate) in Millennium Park. Once again, we felt safe on public transportation and found everyone we were surrounded by on the streets and in restaurants to be welcoming and friendly.

We were lucky enough to stay at the historic Palmer House hotel during our weekend in Chicago. We had some Hilton Honors rewards to burn so we decided to use them in style. A funny thing I’ve noticed when we stay at fancy hotels for free is that the employees of the hotel react to us being there the same way Clark Griswold reacts when Cousin Eddy shows up for Christmas. All that aside, we enjoyed our stay and got back at the hotel a bit by “accidentally” sneaking into an executive lounge continental breakfast. Thanks for the free waffles Palmer House!

After breakfast, we walked over to Millennium Park to check out “the Bean“. While this has become a must see for travelers and instagrammers, we had actually never been there before. As with most pieces of art we’ve been lucky enough to visit recently, Cloud Gate (the bean) was much cooler in person than we expected it to be. We ended up hanging around it for about an hour. I snapped some funny pics of Lace rockin’ cheerleader moves in front of it that you can see below.

We left Millennium Park and hopped on a metro over to the Willis Tower where we had pre-purchased “Fast Pass” tickets to go up to the Skydeck on the 103rd floor. While pre-purchasing these tickets cost us about $20 more, it saved us at least 2 hrs of standing in lines. Totally worth it. The views of Chicago and Lake Michigan from the SkyDeck Lounge are crazy beautiful. While up there, we stepped out onto the “Skydeck Ledge” which is basically a glass cube that extends out from the building and over the city. It’s a pretty overwhelming experience. As an added bonus, the 30th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is this year, so there is a roped off area where you can stand next to Sloane Peterson and Cameron Frye mannequins and put your head on the glass in the exact spot Matthew Broderick (Ferris) did. Getting to do this was super cool for me as I grew up with that movie.

After our nervous stomachs calmed down from being in the Skydeck, we decided it was pizza time. Eating at Gino’s East has become a “must-do” each time we visit this city. Their super deep dish, sauce on top of the cheese, traditional Chicago style pizza is amazing. Gino’s has been around for 50 years and has multiple locations but we always go back to the original restaurant on Superior Ave. This graffiti tagged, celebrity memorabilia filled pizza joint makes for a fun and authentic experience while waiting the standard 1 hour of required baking time for the deep dish crust. If you haven’t been, you need to stop by on your next visit to Chicago. If you’re with a group of 2-3 people, believe us, a medium pizza will be plenty.

Our weekend in Chicago was once again awesome. The only thing missing was a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Unfortunately they were out of town 🙁 Next time Cubbies!

We’re becoming so fond of this city that we’ve already booked our next trip!

See you in January Chicago!

Let us know if you have any questions!

Click here to see our video edit from this trip.

Click here to see how we used rewards points to book this trip for free!

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Travel

You Need to Visit Malta

June 29, 2016

Ever heard of Malta? Neither had we until a few months ago. Our Barcelona buddies suggested we meet there this May. Being that we had some reward points to burn, we booked it no questions asked. After booking, we finally did some Google searching to discover that this tiny Mediterranean island looked amazing! From beaches to cliff diving to ancient temples and cities; we’re going to show, and tell you a shit load of reasons for why you need to visit Malta.

If you are like we were, then you have no idea where Malta is or how to get there. Picture the map of Italy. You know how it looks like boot? Picture the island that “the boot” is kicking. That’s not Malta, it’s Sicily. Right below Sicily, you’ll find Malta. You can fly to Malta from many of the major European airports on Air Malta or AlItalia. From many locations, a ticket on these airlines will be less than $100. Lacey and I traveled to Malta from Rome for $70 a ticket.

What’s so cool about Malta? Literally everything, and I don’t use the word “literally” as loosely as some. Malta and it’s neighboring islands Comino and Gozo, are responsible for some of the most amazing geographical features in the world. Places like the Blue Lagoon, Azure Window, and St. Peter’s Pool are just a couple featured spots off the top of my head. As if the beauty of the island weren’t enough, the history of Malta is even more incredible. Ancient cities, megalithic temples (older than the Pyramids), and the roots of Christianity can all be found and explored here. For all of you Game of Thrones nerds out there, Malta is also responsible for numerous breathtaking backdrops in the earlier seasons of this show.

We felt pretty overwhelmed at first while planning this trip. There was so much to explore and there were only 4 days to do it. We couldn’t afford to lose time relying on public transportation to trek us around. We decided to reserve a rental car. Renting a car was trickier in Malta because I needed an international driver’s permit and oh yeah, they drive on the other side of the street. Yikes!

Our first day was spent cruzing around St. Julian’s Bay which was a block from our hotel, the Hilton Malta. We would definitely recommend staying in this area as it is very close to a ton of restaurants and night life while also being a central take off point to all of the sites you’ll want to visit.

Day 2 got off to a quick start as we were touring the capital city of Valletta before noon. We popped into St. Paul’s Shipwreck Church, took some pics of Ft. St. Elmo, and grabbed some lunch before taking off toward the city of Marsaxlokk. Yeah, try to pronounce that…Marsaxlokk. Just outside of this city, Lacey found St. Peter’s Pool, which ended up being a major highlight of the trip. After a few hours of cliff jumping and swimming, we made our way back to St. Julian’s for a lot of pizza and wine. This day was so much fun!

The next day was, to this point, the best vacation day of my life. We caught an early morning ferry to the Blue Lagoon on the island of Comino. Words can’t describe the beauty of this place. It’s probably easier to just check out our pics below. The Blue Lagoon is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

After the Blue Lagoon, we loaded up our rental car on a giant ferry and headed for the island of Gozo where the Azure Window is located. This landmark is so grand and spectacular. Unfortunately it’s rapidly eroding away so you better get over there and see it soon! After a couple hours of hiking around and eating a late lunch, we headed out. On the way back to the ferry we realized that there were some megalithic temples along the way, so we stopped to check ’em out. I would recommend anyone interested in Aliens and the Ancient Astronaut Theory, to read up on these temples. There were a bunch of elongated skulls found there as well as other locations in Malta.

Our final day was relatively mellow as we spent the day at the ancient city of M’dina and then at the Golden Sands Beach. I think we were all still a bit tired from the action packed day before. It was nice to finish up the trip with a relaxing beach day with friends.

Malta is incredible! I would recommend it to anyone.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Click here to see our video edit from this trip.

Click here to see how we used rewards points to book this trip for free!

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Travel

3 Days in Florence, Italy

June 9, 2016

The second stop on our 15 day vacation extravaganza was Florence, Italy. Still riding the momentum gained from the 2 previous days in New York City, Lacey and I were ready to start the international leg of our trip. With our pre-purchased museum tickets in one hand and vouchers for a Vespa tour in the other; we were ready for Florence!

The last 2 times I’ve flown to Italy, I didn’t sleep a single minute on either flight. This results in a hyper-delirious first day as I end up being awake for about 20hrs straight. Luckily, Italy has the best coffee on the planet (yeah, I said it! Whatchu got Colombia!?), so I’m usually still somewhat functional that first day.

We landed and were settled in our Air BnB in Florence by about 3pm. We were set up in a beautiful 1 bedroom loft a block away from the Piazza del Duomo. We’d highly recommend staying there if you’re planning a visit. Tell Frederica we said hello!

After dropping our bags off and doing our best to avoid passing out, we met a few of our friends at a nearby cafe. We quickly hammered a couple of cafe Americano’s before hopping on some bicycles to check out the Ponte Vecchio, and the Piazza Michelangelo where we had some gelato while enjoying the views of the city. After a fun downhill bike ride from the piazza we had some delicious pizza and wine from GustaPizza before passing out for the night. It was a pretty successful first day considering how tired we were.

Day 2 in Florence got off to a quick start, literally, as we hopped on some Vespas and took off for wine country! The scooter tour was Lacey’s idea and I’ll hand it to her, I originally thought this was a lame idea but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip. Well done wifey, well done. Not only was the simple act of hauling ass on a Vespa in Italy super fun, but we saw so many amazing views of the city and country side. We made quick stops at a gorgeous church and private vineyard before making our way to a private estate where an authentic Italian meal was prepared for us. The meal was accompanied by some tasty wine grown from the vineyard we had visited. This was so much fun, as you can see from our trip video edit.

Later that day, we climbed to the top of the historic Duomo in Florence. The views from the top are unbelievable! Be careful though as there is only a waist-high fence in between you and certain death at the top of the dome. Other than that, it’s a really good time! 😉

Our third and final day was spent touring the amazing art galleries of Florence. After all, Florence was the heartbeat of the Renaissance and we owed it to the city to acknowledge it’s beautiful art. We swung by the Galleria dell’Accademia to check out Michelangelo’s statue of David before heading over to the Ufizzi Gallery to take a look at Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. While we may not know much about art, we still appreciate how important these pieces are to the history of this region. People treat famous artwork like celebrities nowadays. Everyone pushes and shoves to get close enough to take their all-so-important selfie with the painting or statue. Somehow that factor makes seeing pieces like these in-person both better AND worse somehow.

Our final night in Florence was a mellow one spent at our cozy BnB as we watched Netflix (The Office) on my cell phone as we fell asleep. There couldn’t have been a more perfect ending to a great 3 days in Florence.

Rome was up next! More details from that trip to come shortly!

For details on how we used reward points to book this 15 day adventure for free, check out our previous post.

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Travel

GoPro Vacation Video Edit

May 28, 2016

Lacey and I recently returned from what will be our longest trip of 2016. We visited 9 locations in 3 different countries over 15 action packed days. While we fully intend on sharing all of the location specific details with you from our trip, we wanted to start you off with a video edit that summarizes a large portion of what we did during this travel adventure. Plug in your headphones, turn the volume up, and enjoy our very first GoPro Vacation Video Edit!

Additional Info:

Keep in mind while watching this that Lacey and I booked this trip for next to nothing. We saved over $10,000 by utilizing credit card rewards points to book this 2+ week adventure. There is no way we could have afforded flights to these places, stayed in the luxurious hotels that we stayed in, and participated in all of the adventures you see in the video if we hadn’t gotten the majority of it for free. If you love to travel, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be doing the very same thing. Check out this post for the details on how we booked this specific trip with points and let us know if you have any questions.

Stay tuned in the coming days for more details and beautiful pics from this trip!

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Reviews

Payette Brewing – Boise

May 4, 2016

Ever since Lacey and I moved to downtown Boise, we’ve been looking for a coffee shop, pub, or restaurant to adopt as “our place”. You know, similar to how on TV shows like Friends, Seinfeld, and How I Met Your Mother, the main characters always have their established hangout? We so badly want that! Well, after attending Payette Brewing’s soft opening last weekend, we feel like we might be a step closer in achieving this goal.

Payette Brewing was founded back in 2010 by Mike Francis after he decided to ditch his corporate gig as an industrial engineer to pursue a career that lined up more with his personal interests. We love hearing stories that include the line, “… left something they didn’t enjoy, to do something they love.” Especially when it results in a success story. Well this one sure did as Payette has rapidly become one of the most, if not the most, successful Idaho born brewing companies ever.

We have been excited for this new location to open ever since the construction began months ago. While it’s in a kind of a subtle, hard to notice area off of River St., I think the location is absolutely perfect! For all of you Boise River floaters and Greenbelt bike riders, Payette’s new place is about 200 yards from the river take-out point across from Ann Morrison Park. Genius business move if you ask me. They are going to absolutely kill it during the summer months. Who wouldn’t want to get a beer and some delicious food truck grub after floating the river?

The building has an industrial feel to it with a lot of wood and steel furniture filling up the open warehouse space. Up near the large wooden bar top, is a giant cooler full of Payette’s products that you can purchase to-go. There are a few garage doors that slide up on the west side of the building allowing for the river breeze to creep in. While it hasn’t been built yet, we got the feeling that there will be large patio area outside the garage doors. There is a really big yard that would be perfect for horse shoes, corn hole, or any other park game Another feature is the “brewing view” area where you can watch the beer being made. It is located on the far south side of the building through a door and up a stairway leading you to a 2nd story viewing platform.

Payette Brewery did a fantastic job with their new space and we couldn’t be more excited for them to be in our neighborhood. We’d highly suggest checking it out once they officially open.

Can you spot Payette’s founder in this pic?

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Lifestyle

Get Free Stuff for Paying Your Bills

April 21, 2016

I’ll admit it. At this point, I feel super entitled to free stuff. I’ve put in a lot of time learning how to capitalize on credit card rewards points and now I can’t wrap my head around why I would ever pay for something, ANYTHING, and not get something in return for free. Lacey and I pay with credit cards for literally every bill and expense we have. Yes, this will now include mortgage payments. I’m going to tell you exactly how we do it because you should be getting free stuff for paying your bills too!

Before jumping right in and signing up for random credit cards to start paying your bills with; think about what your end goals are. What do you want to get in return? Look back on a previous post or two of ours that should help you decide on what card to sign up for to get a certain reward in return.

Once you select and receive the credit card that is going to get you the awesome reward you’re going for, you’ll want to create an online account with the bank that sponsors your new credit card. For example, if you signed up for the Chase Sapphire card, you’ll create an online account at chase.com . While logged in to your account, find where you can set up auto-pay. It’s usually under a tab titled something like “manage payments”. I would highly recommend you set auto-pay to pay off your entire balance each month. This is an important step to make sure you don’t miss a payment and completely jack up your credit score (35% of your credit score is your payment history).

Now, take your new card and link it to every reoccurring monthly bill you have. Login to all of your online bill pay accounts for things like cable, internet, electricity, gas, water/sewer/trash, Netflix, iTunes, and anything else you can think of. If you’ve never setup AutoPay for things like these don’t worry, it’s really easy. Similar to how you setup your online account with the bank that provided your credit card, you’ll create an online account and set up auto-pay for each service you subscribe to. Set your credit card as the payment source for every monthly bill you have. By doing this along with putting all of your day to day expenses on your card (groceries, gas, meals,etc), you’ll be shocked at how easily you’ll hit your spending requirements.

At this point, you may have figured out that your mortgage company and the bank you make your car payments to won’t allow you to pay with a credit card. This totally sucks because these are likely your 2 biggest monthly bills and now you’re missing out on tons of reward points! While most banks won’t accept credit card payments, they will accept checks. There is an awesome service called Plastiq that will let you set up your credit card as a payment source while they will, in turn, send a check to whoever you need to pay. Boom goes the dynamite cuz you’re back in business! While the Plastiq service does charge a 1-2.5% fee per transaction, if you sign up through our referral link you’ll get $200 of fee free payments. Pretty cool of them to do that.

Is it worth the % fee that Plastiq charges for making your payments? Well, that’s up to you. To put it in to perspective, let’s say your monthly mortgage payment is $2,000. You’ll get charged about $40 to make the payment through Plastiq. Let’s say in this example that you’re using the Southwest Premier card to make your payment. For the $40 you spent to put $2000 on this card, you’ll reach the spending requirement and will get an estimated $650 worth of free flights within a matter of weeks after receiving the card. You’ll be headed to Cabo, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Aruba, or any of the other awesome new locations Southwest now flies to. So if you’re in a rush to hit the spending requirements on a credit card to get the bonus, it may be worth a few bucks to do it through Plastiq.

I hope this gets you started on a path that earns you awesome free stuff for every dollar you spend. The next time you get an unexpected $1,000 bill…turn that around and get a free vacation out of it! Good luck! Let us know if you have any questions.

Turn your next unexpected bill into an unexpected vacation!

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Rewards Points Travel

Go to the Final Four for $200

April 7, 2016

For as long as I can remember I’ve dreamed of going to the men’s NCAA basketball Final Four. Maybe it’s due to the fact that these games are always crazy exciting, or maybe it’s because my dad and I always had such a good time busting each others chops over whose bracket was better. Whatever the case, this year I was able to finally check ‘attend a Final Four’ off of my bucket list. I’m going to tell you how you can do the same next year for $200.

I always had the impression that only super rich and famous people could afford to go to events like this. It wasn’t until this time last year when I discovered how we could fly to the Final Four, stay in a nice hotel, and go to all 3 games for only $200 per person. You can take the same exact steps we took to get yourself to the 2017 Final Four in Phoenix, Arizona.

First things first…this year’s championship game…are you kidding me?!?!?! Unbelievable! I can’t tell you how lucky we feel to have experienced in-person one of the greatest championship games of all time. The crowd absolutely exploded when Marcus Paige for North Carolina tied the game with 4 secs left. Then the roof almost blew off when Kris Jenkins hit the game winning buzzer beater shot to win the National Championship for Villanova. I caught both shots on video with my cell phone. Check them out below this post. Don’t mind all my screaming 🙂

Ok, back to how you and yours are going to go to the 2017 Final Four for $200 a person.

Get your tickets
- Go apply for the 2017 Final Four ticket lottery on the official NCAA site here. You only have until May 31st to apply, so hurry up! You will pay $200 per ticket in advance. But wait Mat, that still sounds expensive. Well, it breaks out to be $66 per game since you will get to see all 3 games of the Final Four. Very good deal considering an average regular season game would cost $40ish per ticket. Also, your odds of getting selected are better than you’d think. It’s not guaranteed, but every person I know that has applied for the lottery has been selected. If you don’t get picked, your $200 will be fully refunded, so you have nothing to lose.
Get points for free flights to Phoenix
- I’d recommend using Southwest Airlines to get to Phoenix. They have nonstop flights to Phoenix from numerous cities. You can use our referral link to apply for the 50k point offer on the Southwest Premium card. The public offer is only 25k points right now. Once you get the 50k points from this card, you should be able to book 2 round trip flights for free (depending on where you’re flying out of). Let us know if you have any questions on how to get and use these points.
Get free nights at a hotel
- There is currently a 100k point bonus offer for the Hilton Surpass card. This offer is being referred to as Hilton’s “best offer ever”. With these points, you could book your free stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Phoenix which is right down the road from the location of the 2017 Final Four. (we’re not getting compensated for promoting this card…it’s just a rad offer that we recommend).

So there you have it, by signing up for the ticket lottery and the 2 credit cards mentioned above, you should be well on your way to the 2017 NCAA Final Four. Lacey and I would definitely recommend attending! Not only are the games themselves awesome, but all of the free festivities outside of the games are tons of fun as well! Check out the pics and vids below from our trip last weekend to the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Final Four 2016 Fan Fest BareNaked Ladies

The Barenaked Ladies performed outside the stadium during Fan Fest.

Ferris wheels are always more fun than we think they’re going to be.

This pic was on our custom lanyards that we wore around our necks.

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Rewards Points Travel

Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. The Golden Ticket!

March 27, 2016

I know Lacey and I are relatively new travelers, but I still can’t believe that we just recently found out about what I am now calling the Golden Ticket for couple’s travel. A ticket so magical that not only will you have 110k miles to use yourself for free travel, but you will also be able to book a free flight for your travel companion at no extra cost EACH TIME you book a flight for yourself…drum roll…for up to 2 YEARS!!! Yeah, you need to check this out.

The Golden Ticket is actually the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. Earning this reward is a bit tricky but it IS doable and it will be worth every bit of effort you put into it. You will be eligible for this perk after completing 100 Southwest flights in a single year (which no one will do), OR by earning 110k Southwest Airlines miles in a single calendar year (which I’ll tell ya how to do). Once you qualify for the companion pass, you will be able to book a free flight for your wife, husband, buddy, or whoever you deem as your “companion” for the rest of the year in which you earn the pass AND the entire next year. Pretty huge right?

So here’s how you can earn the pass…

Assuming you won’t take 100 Southwest flights in a year to earn the pass, you’ll need to sign up for at least 2 of Southwest Airline’s credit cards at a 50k points offer for each card. By going this route, you’ll be on your way to 104k points in no time (50k for each card + the points earned from the spending requirements).

As you can see here, Southwest’s public offer is only 25k points for both of the personal cards right now. Don’t worry, there are still ways you can get 50k points for each of these cards.

For the Southwest Premier (personal) card, send us your email address and I’ll personally send you a referral that will allow you to sign up for the 50k card. Send your email address to [email protected] and we’ll send it your way! Sometimes it takes a couple of days, but nonetheless, you’ll get it!

For the Southwest Plus card 50k offer, UPDATED: we now have a referral link to this card! Here is our referral link to the 50k Southwest Plus card. it’ll be a little trickier. Since we don’t have the offer to email you for this one, you’ll have to find someone that does. However, people are stoked to give out referrals to this as they will receive some bonus miles when you sign up. Here is a site where people seem to be constantly posting referrals for this card. Just scroll down to the comments on that site and make sure to look for people that have the 50k offer for the “Plus” card. …this is actually how we received the 50k offer for this card.

So there ya go, you’re like 98% of the way there. But wait, what about the other 6k points you need? While you can sign up for the Marriott card or Hyatt’s card, receive their bonus points and transfer them into your Southwest account, I don’t think this is the best way to go about it. What Lacey and I did was utilize Southwest’s online shopping portal. You can quickly earn tons of extra points just by linking through their portal and shopping for stuff you were going to buy anyways. We got an extra 5,500 points in 2 weeks by linking through the shopping portal to do our taxes and then to purchase a couple of other things for our bedroom at a 6 points per $1 spent offer.

Wrapping up, this is by far the best rewards offer that I am aware of at this point. Depending on how much you utilize the Companion Pass once earned, it could be worth thousands of dollars in free flights. Just think, all of your flights will be taken care of for up to 2 years! You can switch your reward travel focus to only hotel points for a bit.

Some initial questions you might have…

Do I get to keep and use the 110k points I earned once I receive the Companion Pass? – YES!

Can I book my companion’s free flight even when I am booking my own flight with my points? – YES!

Can I use my companion pass with more than 1 companion? – YES! You can change your companion’s name up to 3 times.

Can I sign up for both credit cards at the same time? – from what I’ve researched, more often than not, it won’t work. I would recommend waiting at least 30 days in between applications. Keep in mind that Chase bank will no longer approve you if you have received 5 new credit cards in the past 24 months.

Southwest's Golden Ticket for Couples Travel

Southwest flies to some international spots now!

Best of luck everyone! Hit us up with any questions and if you’d like to receive the 50k Southwest Premier card referral!

We’re going to use our companion pass to get back to Cabo this fall!

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Travel

2 Days in San Diego

March 10, 2016

February is typically one of the tougher months to get through when living in Boise, ID. It’s usually super cold, dark, and the valley can get blanketed with inversions for days at a time. With some help from the Alaska Airlines credit card rewards program, we were able to say “eff that noise” and blow this Popsicle stand for a couple days. For the cost of a tank of gas, we whisked ourselves away to sunny California where we spent 2 days in San Diego.

With risking you not reading the rest of this post, you can jump over to our previous post to see our step by step instructions on how to get a free flight on Alaska Airlines…which is how we were able to afford this trip. Their latest offer includes a $100 statement credit which will wipe out the $75 annual fee the card has and leave you with $25 extra in credit to use. We don’t get paid to promote this offer FYI. I just genuinely think it’s a cool option to save on a quick trip.

Back to San Diego…

Lacey and I initially planned on going to a Rihanna concert while we were in San Diego, but found out at the last minute that the show was rescheduled for May. Anyone wanna buy our tickets? 🙂 Once we wiped the concert off of our itinerary we realized that it was the ONLY thing on our itinerary. This realization was followed up by a conversation that went something like this…

“So what should we do in San Diego now?” -Mat

“I’m down for whatever. I’m not even sure what’s there.” – Lacey

“Wanna hang out in downtown on Friday and then the beach on Saturday?” – Mat

“Sounds good.” – Lacey

After this intense and lengthy conversation, our trip was planned. I’m not kidding, that’s all that was said before we left.

We landed in San Diego on a Friday morning at 10am, got an early check in at our hotel (Hampton Inn), and were drinking Coronas while eating nachos at the Waterfront Bar and Grill by 11:15am.

Lacey and I immediately fell in love with San Diego. Not only was the weather absolutely perfect (73 degrees with a very light breeze), but I personally just felt like I fit in right away. The city is super casual. All of the guys wear t-shirts, longer shorts, flat billed baseball hats, and have tattoos. Sound familiar? I love it when I can visit a new city and not worry about standing out like a dorky tourist.

The food options in San Diego are right up our alley as well. There is a ton of delicious Italian food (check out Sorrento in Little Italy), as well as some of the best Mexican/American food you can get. Lacey and I are both suckers for anything that comes in a tortilla. We also drank some of the biggest/best margaritas of our lives at a place down by Mission Beach. I wish we could remember the name of the place, but that again speaks to the fact that they were awesome margaritas.

Friday, we spent time cruzing around Little Italy and the Gas Lamp Quarter. After a quick shower we hopped on an 8 minuted train to get to the Top of the Hyatt for dinner. We’d definitely recommend you check this place out as the food and views from the 40th floor are great!

Saturday, we jumped on a train that took us to a large bus station that ultimately took us to Mission Beach (we spent $10 total on getting around San Diego during this trip). Mission Beach is beautiful! There is a 3 mile oceanfront boardwalk that Lacey and I strolled around on for the first hour when we got there. After working up a thirst, we stopped in the Lahaina Beach House for a couple drinks. The place has a really cool view of the boardwalk allowing us to continue with some great people watching. We walked around a bit more, had some margaritas, got some delicious ice cream, and then headed back to our hotel. After another quick shower, we finished up our San Diego trip with a delicious dinner in Little Italy.

While our visit was super brief, we both fell in love with the food, weather, and overall vibe of San Diego. I’m not sure why everyone in the world isn’t trying to move there in all honesty.

Let us know if you’ve ever been to SD and have additional spots we should check out the next time we visit!

If you haven’t been yet…go!