If You Don't Know About The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass, You're Missing Out!

Have you heard about the Southwest Airline Companion Pass? I hadn't until last year.  I used to fly Southwest all the time when we lived in San Antonio and it was much easier and often cheaper than driving to Dallas.  Since we moved to Dallas 8 years ago, we hadn't flown Southwest that much, and were mainly using American to get to places....

That changed last year when I found great deals on Southwest to Boston, Los Angeles and other destinations! They had many more destinations and more nonstop flights than I had remembered!  I found out about the Southwest Airlines Companion pass and made it my goal to earn it.

My husband and I each earned our Companion passes in April and immediately booked a flight the next week!

We can each take a companion on any flight we take for free for the next 20 months!! Plus we can book our flights using the miles earned to get the passes!

And its much easier than you think to earn the passes but there are some minor caveats...you have to earn 110,000 miles and you have to do in during the same calendar year.

Its easy to earn 50,000 miles on the southwest airlines personal card and 60,000 miles on the business credit card after meeting minimum spending requirements in the first 3 months and total 110,000 miles!  And 110,000 miles earns you the companion pass good for upto 2 yrs!If you and your spouse do this, you can get 2 companion passes!  
 

This makes it easy to get almost all the 110,000 Southwest points needed to get the Southwest Companion Pass!

If you don't use the companion pass for a spouse or a child, you can use it for a friend or another family member...you can change the companion upto 3 times during the duration of your pass.  

So what are you waiting for? Sign up today!

Our last minute trip to Los Angeles, Disneyland and Legoland and Tips we learned!

My husband and I recently each earned our Southwest Airlines Companion passes! which give us the rest of this year and all of next year to each take a companion with us on flights for free!  So excited with the prospects of the next 20 months of free flights for our kids and cheap flights for us using Southwest points or get-away fares, we decided to book our first trip with the passes!

Since it was a last minute trip over Easter weekend, the flight choices were a little limited but we found lots of non-stop options to LAX... so one week before the trip, we booked the flights! Then a few days before the trip we booked the hotel and car rental.  All very last minute!  I was lucky to find a deal with Hertz that saved over $100 compared with other competitors using the Amex Plat CDP code!  We chose a hotel close to Disneyland and then decided we could uber it to the park and back for less $$ than Disneyland parking would charge for the day and have a lot less hassle!

Then the search was on for discounted tickets to Disneyland and Legoland so I scoured the web and read many blogs for tips and tricks.  We ended up getting the 2 day Disneyland 1 park per day tickets since every extra day you add is at a deep discount!  Even though we flew in on Friday at 2pm we got to the park at 4pm and stayed until midnight and got to enjoy the parades, fireworks show and most of the rides seemed to have no lines after 8pm! 

Undercover Tourist also has lots of deals and discounts, and currently have an American Express rebate offer!

I learned from Mousesavers that AAA members can get a 10% discount on Legoland tickets at the local AAA in California, or 5% at the gate!

On a side note, we probably should've done a bit more research and gotten the Merlin passes instead which would allow us access to any Legoland or Sea Life Aquarium for a whole year!

Membership Special - Limited Time Offer

FREE One Night Stay at the LEGOLAND Hotel at LEGOLAND California Resort with purchase of Four (4) Merlin Annual Pass Premium, now through May 1, 2017. Not available on monthly pay. Offer cannot be combined with any other offers or promotions. Valid only on Premium Merlin Annual Passes purchased at LEGOLAND California Resort. Blackout dates and restrictions apply.

Merlin Annual Pass Premium Benefits include:

• 1-year of admission* to LEGOLAND California, SEA LIFE Aquarium, LEGOLAND Water Park and 30+ Merlin North America Attractions.
• FREE regular parking
• Dining and retail discounts
• 1 FREE 1-Day Ticket to LEGOLAND California
• And more!

* Includes unlimited access to LEGOLAND Water Park and includes admission to Brick-or-Treat Party Nights.

The UnPerfect Family Travel Blog

Welcome to the UnPerfect Family Travel Blog!
Messy, crazy, chaotic, memorable and definitely not perfect

We know that no matter your job, whether you work in an office, work in the home, or are a stay at home parent, you are very busy! and like us, you are probably no where near perfect 😊!  
Here we share some of our well planned, some of our last minute, and all of our un-perfect family trips!

This blog was created to share our love for travel and our experiences traveling with and without kids, despite busy lives and tight schedules. We will share budget trips and luxury trips and have guest bloggers who have traveled extensively with their kids. we will share what has worked for us and what we wish we had done differently and learned from our experiences!


Here are a few important links that will help you get started:
Check if you need any medications or immunizations prior to your trip: https://www.passporthealthusa.com/

Check if your passport is up to date and meets the requirements of the country you are visiting.  We got our daughters passports done each shortly after they were born, so if we needed a last minute vacay, we could just book it and go!
https://www.usa.gov/travel-abroad

Did you know you need to apply for a visitor's visa to visit some countries? Here are all the details:
https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/visit.html
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country.html

Find out about travel warnings before your trip using:
https://mx.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/security-and-travel-information/
and https://step.state.gov/step/

and lastly use tripadvisor reviews to plan your trips and check out attractions and hotels!

see my reviews at: https://www.tripadvisor.com/members/shopaddict