Insider Trick to Prevent Your Southwest Points From Expiring

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I find it mega-frustrating that Southwest points expire after 24 months of “inactivity.”  Sure, I aim to use my Southwest points as soon as possible but sometimes life happens and you can’t.  Well, if you’re in a tough spot — do NOT let your Southwest points go to waste.  Do this:

Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points into your Southwest account.  This will reset the clock.  To be allowed to transfer Chase points into Southwest’s program, you need one of the following cards:

• Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card – bonus is worth ~$1,200 on Southwest Airlines
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – bonus is worth ~$750 on Southwest, no annual fee in year one
• Chase Sapphire Reserve® – bonus is worth ~$750 on Southwest

You earn the bonus when meeting the minimum spending requirement.  I love my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and everyone on our team has at least one of the cards above because they’re amazing travel credit cards.

Don’t Let Your Southwest Points Expire

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer instantly to Southwest.  So if you find that your Southwest points are about to expire, this is a very useful trick.

You can transfer a minimum of 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points over to Southwest and they’ll instantly become 1,000 Southwest points.  There’s no cost to do this.  So this is obviously cheaper than having to buy Southwest points just to keep your old points from being wiped out!

Bottom Line

I’ve got the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and I like to transfer those points to Southwest.  This also keeps my Southwest points account active.  Many folks here at Million Mile Secrets also have the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card.  With that card you get a great sign-up bonus and you’re also able to move your points to Southwest for free flights!