re: Another good CC option?

You don't want to get cash back on the arrival card. The sign up bonus is only worth half as much if you do that. You have to use your "cash back" redemption on "travel" to get the full 2.2 value.

Not sure if we're talking past each other, but how the arrival works is you buy the airline ticket(or hotel, etc) with the card, wait for it to post, THEN request a balance reduction through the website on that transaction. If you request a reduction for a non travel transaction it takes more points per dollar to do that.

You could do that. I would assume sandals counts as a hotel. Put 1k on Barclay card and then redeem 40,000 points bonus which would reduce that balance to $600.

Put 2k of your honeymoon (or 2k of your usual monthly expenses since they are interchangeable) on the southwest card. Southwest points devalue a little bit after March 31st, so if you can manage, book before then and try to redeem for Wanna Get Away fares. If you book before the date you'll get the better point value even if the flight is in August, for example.

You may decide to put your remaining 2k of your honeymoon on a different card such as your CSP to take advantage of 2x travel but that is your decision to make since i can't really see all your expenses etc.

You have to have a strategy, do a little math, look at your future plans to do what works for you.

I'm going to answer this in two parts.

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Yea but putting the remaining $2k on my CSP wouldnt get me the 40k points like the southwest card.

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(the bonus is 50k points FYI)

That is correct, BUT look at this way. (Note: these are broad generalized examples)

Let's say you have $2,000 in monthly expenses every month that you can put on a credit car (Groceries, utilities, etc.)

Let's say, you now have a one time charge of $2,000 for a honeymoon.

Let's say you have a CSP and a Southwest card. You need to spend $2,000 on the SW card to get the bonus. If you put the HONEYMOON on the SW card, you will earn 2,000 points plus the 50,000 bonus for 52,000 points total on Southwest Airlines. If you put the $2,000 of monthly expenses on your CSP, you will have 2,000 more UR points on that card since you earn 1 point per dollar with that.

If you do it the other way that I'm trying to illustrate:

Put your $2,000 of monthly non-category bonus spend on the SW card, you STILL have 52,000 points on Southwest. If you put the remaining $2,000 of the HONEYMOON expenses on the CSP, you now have 4,000 (2x travel bonus) on your CSP Ultimate Rewards account instead of just the 2,000 like the previous example.

That's what I'm trying to say to you.

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If I put the 2k on my Southwest card can I do the balance reduction like the barclay card?

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It doesn't work like that. Once you spend $2,000 on your Southwest card, your balance will always and forever remain at $2,000 and you need to pay it off. What you'll have is 52,000 points for future travel where all you will pay is the taxes on the flight.

The above assumes CSP is a part of your mile earning strategy going forward.

Your ending statements would read:

Barclay's: 1k in spend on HONEYMOON gets you 40,000 points. Redemption leaves you with $600 balance.

SW: $2,000 balance (spent on every day expenses) with 52,000 points to use on future flights.

CSP: An additional 4,000 UR points (for spending 2k on HONEYMOON) to your current UR balance and of course, you need to pay your bill.


There is an "opportunity cost" of using one card over another card for any given transaction. I also have no idea which cards you plan to keep or cancel.

Assuming you book for Wanna Get Away fares (which you really should do), each point would be worth 60 cents for every dollar of that flight cost, but devalues to 70 points per dollar on March 31st.

At the 60 mark 50,000 points is roughly $800 to $900 in flights.

It's fairly easy to do this on the website, so go there and play around with it. There is a bubble to convert the dollar price into points so you can get an idea of the total before you purchase or to play around with itineraries.

You're 50,000 bonus should cover just about any fare for two people so I don't think you'll need to worry about it. I'm not sure how Southwest works if you don't have enough (I had enough when I booked and haven't played around with it), but airlines do offer the option to buy points but that is usually a bad deal. I really don't think you'll have an issue for at least one roundtrip for two passengers.

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How does the Wanna get Away work? Is it for only places in the US? And is your flight and time guaranteed?

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"Wanna get away" fares are just the cheapest ticket on a given flight. There is nothing inherently special about them besides their price. Southwest only makes a certain amount available per flight.

Do a practice booking on their website.

I just went and did this, I see what youre saying. The reason I asked if it was only for US flight is because when I went and tried and put other cities in there it would say "no airports found"

Southwest has very limited international exposure. I believe they only fly to Canada and some Latin America/Caribbean countries. I think they are adding a South America destination soon if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the map, Jeep. Ya, applying for cards can get out of hand quickly

Southwest International Expansion plans

Thanks guys yall are a lot of help. I have 3 of these CC now, but the rewards are hard to miss out on.

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but how the arrival works is you buy the airline ticket(or hotel, etc) with the card, wait for it to post, THEN request a balance reduction through the website on that transaction. If you request a reduction for a non travel transaction it takes more points per dollar to do that.

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Teddy, I got the Barclay's card on your suggestion, , and have already gotten the 40K in my account.
One question I am unclear on, when you book your airline to redeem the points, what does Barclay base their balance reduction on? Is it the points value of the flight you chose when you go to redeem, or does the cost you pay have something to do with it?

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Barclay card

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Barclay card

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Would you recommend the Barclay or Capital One Ventures reward card?
I've done SW Visa, Marriott, and Hilton cards in the last year or so. Currently using a Delta Amex, mostly because I needed an Amex for costco and costo gas.