Ultimate Guide on How to Earn Southwest Points Without Flying

Readers often email asking how to earn Southwest points without flying. So I created the ultimate guide on how to earn Southwest points without flying. There are lots of easy ways you can earn miles and points without flying. With some of them, you don’t have to leave your house!

Most of these points count towards earning the Southwest Companion Pass. With the Companion Pass, you can fly for free for two years.

Here’s the ultimate guide on how to earn Southwest points without flying.

Ultimate Guide on How to Earn Southwest Points Without Flying

Photo courtesy: Southwest Airlines

1. Signup for a Southwest Credit Card

You can earn thousands of points when you signup for a Southwest credit card. Southwest currently has five travel rewards credit cards:

2. Join Rapid Rewards Dining (Free)

Join Rapid Rewards Dining and get up to 1,000 points. It’s free!

Earn an extra 500 points when you spend $25 or more on your first restaurant visit.
Earn an extra 250 points after you spend $25 on your second restaurant visit.
Earn an extra 250 points when you spend $25 on your third restaurant visit.

3. Eat

Each time you eat at a participating restaurant you’ll earn up to 3 points per dollar spent including tax and tip! You’ll earn another 10 points if you complete a 5 question review.

Pro-tip: Buying gift cards at participating restaurants counts towards the Companion Pass and earns 3 points per $1 spent plus 10 points if you leave a review.

4. Buy Flowers

When you buy flowers, gift baskets, or plants you get 1,000 points for each order of $29.99 or more. Remember to use promo code RR22.

5. Signup for a Card that Earns Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Did you know you can also get Southwest points without having a Southwest credit card? These credit cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points:

Pro-tip: You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest.

Check the lastest credit card offers.

6. Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer on a 1:1 ratio to Southwest points. They transfer instantly! You have to transfer a minimum of 1,000 points.

For every 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points you transfer, you get 1,000 Southwest points. So 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points gets you 80,000 Southwest points. Which means a lot of free flights!

Pro-tip: Transferred points don’t count towards the Southwest Companion Pass.

7. Go Shopping

You can earn up to 20 points for every $1 you spend when you shop through the Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal. Watch for bonus point promotions for back to school and the holidays.

Bonus Offer: Get an extra 250 Southwest points when you spend $125 within seven days of signing up with the Shopping Portal.

Pro-tip: Find someone you like at the mall? Buy it through the Rapid Rewards Shopping portal and pick it up at the store.

8. Take Surveys

Earn Southwest points for completing surveys through e-Miles and erewards. If you have free time it’s an easy way to earn Southwest points without flying or leaving your house. It’s not a lot of points but it’s some points.

Pro-tip: These points don’t count towards the Companion Pass.

9. Get a Cell Phone

Planning on getting a new cell phone or changing cell service? You can a lot of points:

10. Rent a Car

You get up to 2,400 points on every car rental booked with:

Alamo
Avis
Budget
Dollar
Hertz
National Car Rental
Payless Car Rental
Thrifty

Pro-tip: You can get $5 car rentals.

11. Book a Shuttle

When you book a shuttle or car service with Super Shuttle or ExecuCar you get 150 points one-way or 300 points for round-trips.

12. Pay Your Utility Bill

If you live in certain states you can earn up to 15,000 points when you change your utility company. You’ll also earn points each month when you pay your utility bill.

13. Stay at Hotels

Get up to 10,000 Southwest points when you stay at these hotels:

Best Western, Best Western Plus, and Best Western Premier Hotels and Resorts
Carlson Rezidor Hotels (Country Inns & Suites by Carlson, Park Inn by Radisson, Park Plaza, Radisson, and Radisson Blu hotels and resorts)
Choice Hotels
World of Hyatt
La Quinta
Marriott
Mlife

You can make a reservation without paying in advance.

Pro-tip: You can triple dip and earn Southwest, Hyatt, and Mlife points when you stay at Mlife hotels.

14. Signup for a Hotel Credit Card

These hotel credit cards offer up to 185,000 points bonuses:

Check our travel rewards card page for the latest travel rewards credit card offers.

15. Transfer Hotel Points to Southwest

You can transfer certain hotel points to Southwest. Transferring hotel points isn’t always the best use of your hotel points but if you’re cash poor and points rich it can be worth it.

Pro-tip: They won’t count towards the Southwest Companion Pass. But you can use them to book free flights.

16. Book a Room Through RocketMiles

There’s another way to earn Southwest points for hotels stays. Get 1,000 to 10,000 points per night when you book through Rocketmiles.

17. Refer a Friend

You get 500 points for each friend you refer to the Rapid Rewards program up to a max of 2,000. Your friend gets 250 points.

Pro-tip: This offer comes and goes so jump on it when it comes around.

18. Buy Wine

You get 2,000 points when you join the 4 Seasons wine club from Laithwaite’s Wine.

19. Convert Diners Club to Southwest

Transfer your Diners Club rewards to Southwest points. For every 1,500 Diner’s Club rewards points, you transfer you get 1,200 Southwest points.

20. Buy Magazines or Newspapers

You can earn Southwest points when you buy magazines or newspapers. Each subscription earns points. The more magazines you subscribe to, the more points you earn.

So instead of resubscribing directly with your favorite magazine or newspaper, use the Shopping Portal.

21. Credit Card Referral Bonuses

You can get 5,000 points for each person you refer to the Southwest Credit Card:

Pro-tip: You need to have a Southwest credit card to get the referral points.

22. Research Your Ancestors

Want to know about your ancestors? Or check your genetics? You’ll get 700 Southwest points when you buy a 23andMe kit.

23. Order Groceries

You get 550 points when you order groceries from Safeway and Vons through the Shopping Portal.

24. Enroll in a Dental Plan

Looking for dental insurance? Enroll in a dental plan and get 1,800 Southwest points.

25. Pay With Your Credit Card

Pay with your Southwest credit card and earn 1 Southwest point for every dollar you spend on eligible charges.

Pro-tip: Aren’t eligible for a new Chase credit card? Or just don’t want to open a credit card? Check out the ultimate guide on how to earn miles and points without a credit card.

26. Book Activities and Tours

You get Southwest points when you book activities and tours through Southwest Vacations.

27. Buy points

You can buy up to 60,000 points per day.

28. Join Southwest’s Email List

You can get 6,000 points if you join Southwest’s email list and stay subscribed for 6 months.

This promotion only comes around every now and then. So be sure to check your offers.

Pro-tip: If you unsubscribe after 3 months, you’ll only get 3,000 points.

Conclusion

From credit card bonuses, going out to eat, shopping, to buying magazines, there are so many ways to earn Southwest points.

Our Ultimate Guide on how to earn Southwest points without flying helps you earn points without getting on a plane.

You can even earn points without leaving the house!

Did we leave anything off this list? What are your favorite ways to earn Southwest points without flying?

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the best card to get started in the world of miles and points. It is the first card you should get to start traveling for free because the welcome offer is 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.

My favorite perks about this card are earning 5X points on travel when booked through the Chase portal (2X if direct purchase), 3X points on dining, $50 yearly credit on hotels booked through the Chase portal, no foreign transaction fees, and transferring points to 13 airline and hotel partners like Hyatt, United, and Southwest.

Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and how to apply

Chase Freedom Unlimited®

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is one of my favorite cards for earning cash back card and travel rewards. It offers a welcome offer of an additional 1.5% cash back on all your purchases up to $20,000 your first year.

My favorite perks about this card are earning 5% cash back on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal, 3% cash back at drugstores and restaurants (including delivery and takeout), 1.5% cash back on all other purchases and no annual fee. When paired with cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card or Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, you can use your points to travel for free.

Learn more about the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and how to apply

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Janet

Sunday 20th of June 2021

Hi Debra--

Great article! But I am just curious about your statement: You get 550 points when you order groceries from Safeway and Vons through the Shopping Portal.

How do you get 550 points? Don't you just get points on the amount of groceries you purchase? Can you clarify?

Debra Schroeder

Monday 21st of June 2021

Hi Janet,

Thank you, glad you enjoyed the article. Sometimes there are bonus point offers in the shopping portal, like the Safeway and Vons 500 point deal. So you get an extra 500 points in addition to the points you'll earn from your grocery purchase.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Meagan

Tuesday 26th of September 2017

I've somehow managed to never fly Southwest (yet) but these are all amazing tips! Going to take a look at my existing travel rewards card to see if there's anything additional I can be doing to rack up extra points through different channels - maybe I need to buy magazines more often ;) thank you for sharing!

Suruchi

Wow! These all are cool ways to earn the points and moreover, we use them every day. So, why not it be a win-win situation. This is a super helpful post for people who have or are looking to purchase this south-west card.

Sarah

Although we live in Europe so many of the miles offers we get here here are not nearly as generous as the ones in the US, we signed up to the Lufthansa miles programme a couple of years ago and got a credit card with their airmiles scheme to try and accelerate our miles savings. There are some great tips in your post that we had not previously thought of - particularly, I just discovered that I can earn additional miles if I sign up for a pre-paid global SIM card through their portal. The RocketMiles site also looks interesting - will check that out too. Thanks for sharing your tips!

Victoria

Monday 25th of September 2017

I have a chase card and I didn't even know this! This will be so helpful for when I fly with southwest in the future! Thanks!