We’ve talked about the Southwest companion pass extensively before. It lets a companion fly for free (apart from a small 9/11 security charge) for the rest of the calendar year, plus an additional calendar year when you earn more than 110,000 qualifying points.
The easiest way to get this many points is by signing up for two Southwest credit cards when they have a 50,000 point sign up bonus. The minimum spend is $2,000 on each card and they earn 1x points per spend, this means that you’re still going to be 6,000 points short.
There is a few different ways to earn these 6,000 extra points, but I was recently told about another way that is free and easy and should work for most people. Basically what you do is simple:
- Wait until you’ve been approved for at least 60 days
- Call up the number on the back of your credit card
- Ask to be transferred to the retention department
- Be polite and respectful
- Make a bit of small talk
- Ask the retention specialist if there are any retention offers on your account
- They should be able to find an offer for 3,000 points on each Southwest card
This doesn’t work every time, but the people I spoke to that have tried it have all had some level of success (a few were only able to get 3,000 points on one card and not on the other). PedroNY shared this tip in his awesome post titled “Retention Bonus Rules & Tips For Each Card Issuer – Get More Than One Bonus Each Year“. I’d strongly recommend reading that post and putting the tips into action, I personally had no idea that it was worth calling so often but I’ve been able to get a lot additional bonuses because of it.
Make sure you stay polite, don’t forget your please and thank yous and remain friendly even if they come back with no offer. Just because an offer shows up on your account, doesn’t mean the retention specialist has to extend it to you. The easiest way get somebody to do something nice for you, is to be nice yourself. If you try this, please share your experiences in the comments.
This post is clickbait, in my opinion. Someone who sees the heading opens it up expecting to see a link to a portal to sign up for the WSJ for a week for free after a five question survey and get 6000 bonus SW points or something. A directive to call retention and see if there are any offers on the account are definitely not what you expect to see. This is an MMS worthy post, not DoC. You know better than this. Retention is a game unto itself. It’s not a quick and simple method. It’s a call, knowing how to talk the the rep, HUCAing, and wording your request and insinuation perfectly, putting words in their mouth without them noticing.
Is their a way to block morons like 2 stupid from posting????
Based on what I’d read I tried to get retention bonuses on both my SW cards a couple of weeks before the annual fees were due and politely statet that I was “just calling because I see my annual fee is coming up and am thinking about cancelling, is there anything available”–answer–“no”
“may I speak with a retention specialist” -“there are no offers on your account, they will tell you the same thing I did”
It definitely does not always work, and yes I was polite and friendly.
Ive had the personal plus and premier since Oct. and put over $10k on each. Ive earned the CP and the some, but I had no bonus on my account at this time.
I tried twice for a retention bonus and it was a no go both times. I have the Premier and the Business card. Both cards were used to meet minimum spend and pay for fees on SW flights. I waited till my annual fee posted and asked for a retention bonus and was denied both times. I tried three different times and I was courteous. One of the reps I spoke with on my business card said to try back in a month, but again, nothing. The 6,000 yearly points did post to my rapid rewards account and I was able to get my annual fee refunded.
This doesn’t work when everyone hits the phone on the same day. Posts like this are irresponsible. Yes retention offers have a place. But that place isn’t a blog post concentrated on a single card/program.
I got $50 on premier (opened 10/15), no points. Will try for plus next month.
Can confirm this still works. I had no retention offers for the Plus card, but when I asked about the Premier card they offered me 6,000 RR points.
I was told that you already got your 50k promotion offer. What else are you asking? For me, it was rather blunt. Btw, did you say – ‘connect me to retention department please?’ to the rep? Some reps don’t like that…
The guy on the phone laughed at me and asked, “do you need the miles for a flight or something?”
I called back.
A girl with a Fargo accent answered (you know these people don’t lie) “no sir there is no offer associated with your account, but they do come up sometimes.”
I gave up.
Save your time on this one folks, Chase isn’t Amex where you can curse the Middle-Eastern CSR out until they give up 5k points, save your time and breath and call them instead.
I did pursue expediting my annual fee but to no avail. I will call back at some point this weekend to speak to a manager to see if this is possible.
If you’re even thinking about cursing, you’re doing it wrong. The key is to be nice, polite and make a bit of small talk. If the CSR said “they do come up sometimes” then surely it’s worth a call.
I think you misread it, I’m not new to this game pal I get the gig.
You curse out the amex CSR so they give you free points. Works like a charm every time.
the name checks out
Wow, Too Nashty, morons like yourself give the rest of us a bad name.
More power to you if it works for you, but I can’t imagine cursing someone out wanting to make them do anything for you.
For me, the key was always being polite and persistent WITHOUT being nasty.
You can refuse to accept no, keep rewording the question, keep on it, even say you’re unhappy with the it.
But as soon as you give the person a reason to dismiss you as an angry asshole, you lose.
Concur very much with you on this William (& awol Drew M @ TIF), re. tone, attitude, and good old golden rule…. Oh sure, crusty bronx rules would say be nasty, be fumpy, pour out the nasty bile. (and there are times when the blood boils) But even if it works, you end up feeling even more miserable….
Had a similar recent experience with a Barclay’s Frontier card. (legacy holding– and because they have frequent 18 mo. 0% balance offers with 1% transfer fees) For several years, I’d call up to see if there were any retention offers. First line reps (usually overseas) were rarely helpful. Yet I’d wait a bit, call back and seek out, yes, a retention specialist….. and I’d get forward to the real stateside retention department and get a creative soul — who not only would find a way to wave the annual fee, but come up with really good spending/miles spending offers. (ps, and I rarely fly frontier anymore since they were “spirit-ed” away….. transferring the miles for free night certs 🙂
So unless you’re an inveterate darwinian (survival of the nastiest), skip the vicious bile, call back, and try the golden rule.
I hope you get financial reviewed every few months by AMEX
No go here. I had my SW RR account for a little over 60 days.
What did they say?
He said, “umm…sure, let me check for you……Nope nothing available right now. Sorry”