Get up to 7 Flight Points per Dollar Every Time You Buy Something Online.
Get This. You could be getting way more free flights than you think.
If you are a Southwest Rapid Rewards member, you could shop online and earn points for every dollar. There are several airlines who are participating in this program now, but it wouldn't be beneficial to spread your points out through different airline programs. You need to pick the airline you would use the most.
Southwest has the best dollar to point ratio, so that's what I use (or, at least I used to, until Chase made an announcement...). Now, if you read my post about how to get the the most free flights, you know I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card for everything I buy. Chase now has an online shopping portal that offers points on every dollar you spend that can be transferred to Southwest on a 1 chase point to 1 southwest point ratio (If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve) . Chase shopping offers a better dollar to point ratio than Southwest and since the points are transferable, pick the Chase shopping center if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. If you don't do credit cards you can still take advantage of Southwest's shopping portal for 2 points per dollar (sometimes more!) on hundreds of sites. You do at least need a debit card for this.
From the Chase or Southwest shopping portal you can go to Groupon (additional 4pts per dollar on Chase portal, 2 pts on Southwest) and book a getaway at a reduced price and earn the 2 points per dollar for travel if you use your Chase card, and an additional 4 points for booking through Chase shopping.
[How do you access these portals? Checkout Southwest Shopping portal here. And Chase's Here.]
That turns a $1,200 all-inclusive vacation in Cancun (That was probably 20% more originally, since you bought it on Groupon) into 7,200 Southwest points. That's worth a free roundtrip flight from Nashville to Boston. Seriously, why do people pay for flights anyway!?
Disclaimer: I need to get verification on if Groupon counts as a "discount travel site" according to Chase's terms. If it doesn't count, you would get 5 pts per dollar instead of 6. Oh darn... still a good deal. ( I would LOVE to hear from someone who has booked off of Groupon with your Chase Sapphire and if it got rewarded as a travel purchase).
You can buy goods and services this way too! Groupon has deals for everything from Pest Control to Laptop computers and there are hundreds of other retailers online you can shop too through the Chase shopping portal. Each retailer earns you anywhere from 1 to 5 points per dollar plus the 1 or 2 points you earn for charging it to your Chase Sapphire. If you aren't earning 5-7 points every time you buy something online then you are missing out on free flights!
