Congress Kills Our Free Travel on Southwest
The credit card companies need to clean up their act. But they will not change willingly so it takes an Act of Congress.
I think the last time the credit card companies acted like they really wanted our business, Rod Stewart was a Young Turk.
The last time the gummit got involved to big extent, they took away the tax deduction for all consumer loan debt, including credit card debt. Thanks Ronnie! Of course, we were head over heels in consumer loan debt, and that hit us pretty hard. We didn’t change our spending habits, so that amounted to a big tax increase.
We’re now free of credit card debt, but we still use our Southwest Airlines Visa card for EVERYTHING. Because we like to fly free on Southwest Airlines. After Toronto, Milwaukee was our next target.
Southwest still has the best plan when it comes to earning free travel. For every $1200 charged on Visa, Southwest Airlines awards one credit. Sixteen credits earns a free round trip ticket anywhere Southwest flies.
We earn about four free tickets a year, and have been averaging that for a decade.
I anticipate that credit card companies will begin charging interest from time of purchase, rather than giving us time to pay them off completely and earn those free rewards. After all Congress took away all those other fees and terms and conditions that they leveraged into gigantic revenue streams.
If that’s the case, our credit cards will go away and we’ll start using a debit card, and (sigh) start paying for airline tickets. Southwest will probably still get the bulk of our travel biz because the are the Low Cost Airline that flys in and out of NashVegas.
Bummer.