This is a news recap from last week, tailored to regular families. For faster updates, follow Miles For Family on Twitter or check the feed on the right side of the blog.
1) Unbelievable…in a good way! According to TPG, Southwest decided to extend Companion Pass hotel points’ transfer eligibility to March 31st. This company rocks, but you know who nudged them in the right direction? Yes, the evil bloggers! The ones who wrote about this amazing opportunity in the first place, and who held Southwest accountable by posting about this sneaky maneuver.
2) Major (in a bad way) development with the offer on Chase Sapphire Reserve. I’m not surprised at all that the sign-up bonus will be reduced. In fact, I thought this would happen sooner. I am puzzled that Chase didn’t decide to reduce it to 70K or 60K points in order to counter balance the huge annual fee, but they obviously did their research and feel differently. Something tells me this decision will bite them in the behind. In-branch applications will presumably live on for few more months, but for those of you who don’t have a Chase branch nearby, the clock is ticking.
3) If you haven’t yet made Spring Break plans, check out this Southwest sale. As always, you have to be flexible in order to find super deals, but they do exist. And of course, fares are fully refundable and bags fly free. Love Southwest! Book by January 26th. (hat tip DoC)
4) File this one under “developing,” but there is a link out there for Citi AA card that doesn’t contain 24-month language. I’ve updated the links in my Hot Deals page awhile back. See this post on Doctorofcredit for details. Nobody has actually received the bonus yet, but the data looks encouraging.
5) I believe Nancy was the first one to blog about Southwest schedule now being open through August 14th. Several readers told us they appreciated the heads up.
6) Why I mostly ignore point valuations by Asthejoeflies. I feel pretty much the same way.
7) Several readers have recently asked me about an update on my Amex 200K points clawback debacle I am working on hopefully reaching some sort of a resolution, and will have a post published once everything is settled. However, I feel it’s best to leave it off the blog for now.
Have a nice weekend!
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Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
Hello Leana, I need your help.
How can I extend the due date on funds I have in Southwest? They expire on Jun 2017 but I don’t have any plans to fly before that date. Can I create a “refundable” reservation, let’s say in Marc 2017, and pay with funds and credit card… and then cancel that reservation? The credit card money will come back and the funds will have a new expiration date?
Thank you in advance.
@Sebastian There may be a workaround but unfortunately, I’m not aware of one. I just booked a new reservation with Southwest funds that are due to expire in July, and the same expiration date carried over to the new booking. So, if I canceled it now, a portion of the funds would be valid longer, but the old one would still expire in July. I know there were various tricks to extend validity, but I don’t believe they work now. I actually searched this topic myself and came up with nothing. Sorry! If you find different info, let me know.