The Easiest Way to Get Free Airline Miles. For Real.

Many blogs touch on this subject but this way is for sure the easiest.  

STEP ONE:   

Join Southwest Rapid Rewards program. (www.Southwest.com). Southwest is my preferred airline because it has the best miles to dollar ratio. Don't worry, I won't make you do any math. I did it for you, and believe me, Southwest is the best bang for your points.  (sorry Canadian friends and fam, it's a US airline. But maybe for future articles I'll check out the ratio on some Canadian airlines ;)

STEP TWO: 

Ok, for this one you need to be willing to use a credit card responsibly. If you cannot then you may need to wait for my next post about tips for getting points without using a credit card. It will take a heck of a lot longer but I know credit cards aren't for everybody. If you can use a credit card responsibly and have decent credit (700ish and up. If you don't know, or want to improve your score, I highly recommend CreditKarma.com), on to step two! 

Get the Chase Sapphire Preffered.  

To start, you get 50,000 bonus points for charging $4,000 in the first 3 months. That is roughly $800-$900 in Southwest flights (more on how I got that number later). Are you thinking you can't charge 4K in 3 months? Think again. That's about $1,200 per month. If you charged everything you pay for (dinner out, groceries, gas, beer money, impulse buys, clothes, candy, lunch at work etc.) for a month, would it be over $1,200? For most middle class couples, YES. For many middle class singles, PROBABLY. Or do you have a large purchase you have to pull from your savings for soon? (Car repair, furniture, new washer-dryer etc.) Can you charge it to get to 4K? There are many ways to hit the bonus. But...  you need to do it responsibly. DO NOT CARRY A BALANCE ON YOUR CARD. PAY IT OFF EVERY MONTH. PAYING INTEREST DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF FREE FLIGHTS.  You want the credit card company to pay for the flight, not you.  

A $200 Southwest flight is  roughly 12,000 points. So about 4 flights is $800. YOU GET $800 FREE DOLLARS FOR USING A CREDIT CARD TO BUY THINGS YOU WERE GOING TO BUY ANYWAY. 

 STEP 3:

Get your bonus and apply your points directly to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account. It has a 1:1 ratio meaning one chase point is one southwest point. That's amazing! 50k points for just swiping your card for things you buy anyway! The transfer is pretty much instant. You can book your flight the very next day. 

STEP 4 

Continue using your chase card for every single thing you purchase (when able). Literally everything. I never use cash because cash doesn't pay me back with rewards. If my total for a coffee is $2, I still charge it. Every dollar counts. Every dollar spent at a food or drink establishment (Starbucks members, anyone?) counts as 2 points. I haven't paid for a flight since I opened my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Once I'm ready to book a flight I just go into the Chase app and in a few clicks transfer my points to Southwest. 

Whats the catch? There isn't one. I mean, I guess if you consider the fact that Southwest only flies to the continental US and the Caribbean a bad thing then that would be it. However, Chase has a travel booking center where you can book with your points and save 20% on any airline! So, there ya go. Another potential catch is the Chase Sapphire Preferred costs $95/year. However, you get $800 free as a signup bonus so c'mon now... so worth it. Plus you get free trip insurance and many other awesome perks that will save you money. 

So go on and get those free flights!