Earn 1,200 Southwest Points with Thrifty and Dollar Car Rental


This post may contain affiliate links from our advertising partners. Read my Advertiser Disclosure policy here. Additionally, some of the offers on this page may no longer be available through Deals We Like.

I’ve been receiving many emails recently on how to earn points towards the Southwest Companion Pass since the end of the calendar year is quickly approaching. Well… I was just going through the Southwest website and saw a great promotion for renting Thrifty and Dollar rental cars.

With both car rental companies, you can get 1,200 Southwest points for a rental as long as it is a mid-size, full-size, or SUV. While these type of bonuses with car rental companies is quite common, they typically requires a few night minimum rental. With this promotion there is no minimum! So a one day rental will earn you 1,200 Southwest points which is worth approximately $17 towards Southwest travel. And the best part about this is the points earned count towards the Southwest Companion Pass.

Earn Southwest PointsThe Dollar offer is exactly the same.

While I did not go ahead and search every airport location and date, my first search at Charlotte Airport for a random Saturday gave me a rate of $20.08 total for the day (for a mid-size car). So if you have an actual need for a car rental, this will cost you $20.08, but give you back $17 in Southwest travel, so costing you only about $3!! Of course, some airports will be more expensive so your cost will be more, but this is just one example. For those that have a multi-day rental, if it is not too out of the way, booking multiple one-day back to back rentals will allow you to maximize those Southwest points!

Earn Southwest Points

Now, if you do not actually have a need for a car rental, but are in desperate need for qualifying points towards the Southwest Companion Pass, it might be worthwhile to just rent the car and immediately return it just to get the points. Per the example above, your out of pocket expenses will be $3, but that is a cheap cost for those qualifying points. Liquidating Visa or MasterCard gift cards will cost you much more!

While this is not realistic, it would take you 91 rentals to earn the 110,000 points needed to earn the Southwest Companion Pass from scratch. In theory this would cost you $273 to earn the companion pass which is great!!! Even if you were physically capable of renting every day and you were able to find such a cheap every time, the promotion ends December 31, 2014, thus not giving you 91 days total to do this. Also, the companion pass runs on a calendar year and the points that are included are the ones that are POSTED for that calendar year regardless when the activity actually took place. So a rental for December 31, 2014, will most likely post in 2015. Points can actually take up to eight weeks to post.

You can book a rental here through the Southwest site using code WN69.

 

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
eponymous coward
eponymous coward
9 years ago

While this is not realistic, it would take you 91 rentals to earn the 110,000 points needed to earn the Southwest Companion Pass from scratch. In theory this would cost you $273 to earn the companion pass which is great!!!

Um…

91 * 20.08 = 1827.28

Also… there are less than 91 days left in the year. Whoops.

WontPayForTravel
WontPayForTravel
9 years ago

Unfortunately, my closest Thrifty is San Jose, CA – $24 rate, but adds on a $25 “Taxes and fees”, so they math doesn’t work for me, but I appreciate your efforts!!

Pin It on Pinterest