I’m working on building up my travel savings for a future cruise. I’m also acquiring Southwest Rapid Reward points for a return to Vegas someday.
How did I do in the first quarter of 2017?
The Pittsburgh International Airport offers plenty of destination options for non-stop Southwest flights. Vegas, baby!
Southwest Rapid Reward points
1,538 – one roundtrip Bradenton flight
362 – Rapid Rewards dining program
350 – using Super Shuttle to/from Bradenton airport (one roundtrip journey; plus one December trip that posted to my account in January)
total: 2,250
A flight to or from Vegas is currently running 6,500 – 11,000 Rapid Reward points. So I should have enough built up by the end of 2017 to cover at least one leg of my Vegas flight.
Free flight = more time at the $5 Blackjack table!
I’m also building up my Rapid Reward points via e-Rewards. The points that I earned January – March were posted to my Southwest account in early April. So I’ll share more about that next quarter.
In March we stayed one night at the Hyatt at the Meadows Casino in Washington, PA. It was a St. Patrick’s Day concert to hear our favorite local Irish band, Corned Beef & Curry. (A big thank you to my nephew for doing a sleepover with Ned for us!) I spoke with the manager and provided my Rapid Rewards number so that, as per Hyatt’s webpage, I’d accrue Southwest points for the stay. So far they have not appeared in my account. I’ll make some phone calls and see what transpires.
Ibotta app
To boost my savings account that is earmarked for travel, I earned $48.85 from Ibotta. This total includes cash-back for purchases I made — as well as $13 for completing bonuses within the app.
Join my Ibotta team here! You’ll receive $10 for signing up. Once you have $20 in your account, you can transfer the funds to your bank via Paypal. Easy!
We also have $24.96 pending inside the Ibotta app for a Groupon purchase made through the Ibotta app. The Groupon offer is a great one – 40% cash back at the time of our purchase. (Sadly, it is currently offering only 20% cash back, but I’ll be watching to see if the 40% offer returns).
But here’s the thing – the money isn’t deposited until 45-days after the purchase. This is to prevent folks from returning the Groupon (getting back their purchase price) as well as collecting the Ibotta funds.This means that you don’t get the cash-back in time to offset the Groupon charge on your credit card. (We pay our credit card in full each month and use it to accumulate Royal Caribbean points.) So just be ready for that if you make a Groupon purchase inside the Ibotta app.
I’ll post next quarter if this actually worked as planned via the app — if we end up netting the $24.96 as expected.
We love the New York, New York casino in Vegas. We’ll be back someday!
Looking forward to April – June
I expect to accrue some Southwest points via:
- returning to Bradenton in May for my dad’s 75th birthday
- Rapid Rewards dining program
- my book club will be meeting at a listed restaurant
- I’ll visit my favorite place for gluten-free pizza
- my January – March work for e-Rewards posts in April
To boost my savings account that is ear-marked for travel, I’ll:
- continue to use Ibotta
- consider selling some items – maybe via my town’s buy/sell Facebook group. Members often meet in the grocery store parking lot to conduct transactions This seems convenient since one of my dogs is wary of strangers. (“Hi, nice stranger, who is buying my household goods. Please ignore the berserk beast behind me.”)
