We are heading to Costa Rica in a few weeks. A previous post highlighted the emotional pull to traveling internationally, but there is a pretty practical reason also as to why we chose Costa Rica itself.
The flights were free.
(Well mostly free anyways, minus some minimal airport and government fees.)
Here's how we scored FIVE FREE ROUNDTRIP INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS:
I had heard of Southwest Airlines' Companion Pass but it always seemed so out of reach, but then we discovered some quick hacks that allowed us to tap into it. The Companion Pass allows somebody else to fly for FREE with any flights that you purchase. Once you earn it, it's good for the rest of the year that you earn it, AND the entire following calendar year.
To earn it, you need 125,000 of their frequent flyer points (Rapid Rewards), and you need to earn them in one year. That's a lot of flights if you're just earning the Rapid Rewards points through flying. You can also earn points through credit card purchases too, and you can earn A LOT of those points through the sign-on bonuses for signing up for a new card.
When I signed up, I earned 40,000 points for opening a personal credit card and 80,000 points for opening a business credit card.
That's 120,000 of the 125,000. The rest of the points came through the purchases necessary to earn the sign-on bonuses.
I signed up for both cards in November, and then timed the cards so that the points were earned in January. Remember that once you earn the Companion Pass, it's good for the rest of the calendar year AND the next year. So by earning Companion Pass in January, we have almost TWO years of BOGOs for flights.
That's one of the five free tickets.
Because we had then earned 125,000 points, we then used those points to purchase the other four flights. We had some points in our account already, but 125,000 covered most of what we needed.
Click here to sign up for a Southwest Credit Card and start earning points to your Companion Pass. Use the referral link, so we can get some more points too. :)
Once we had emotionally bought into traveling internationally and had worked out the logistics of scoring 5 free tix via Southwest, it was then the question of "Okay, where does Southwest fly internationally?"
Here's what we found:
After a few Google searches of the above destinations and then just a general intrigue, we landed on Costa Rica.
Hope this helps you with one of the many logistics of traveling with your family!
