Bonus Points From Southwest For Purchasing Marriott Gift Cards
Southwest Rapid Rewards and Marriott are teaming up this month to offer bonus points on gift card purchases.
Buying gift cards at a discount (or earning bonus points) is a solid way to save on travel. I remember stocking up on Hyatt gift cards when they were a 22% savings purchasing at Costco. American ran a similar promo last year as well.
If you have a Chase Sapphire or Ink credit card, you can buy gift cards at an office supply store for 5 points per dollar. This deal represents 12 points per dollar spent. If you collect Rapid Rewards points and have a Marriott stay coming up, this is pretty much a no-brainer. Not a barn burner but a nice deal to consider.
ETA: Reader PH pointed out two things to me. First, of you use either of the Chase Sapphire cards, this transaction likely rings up as a travel purchase, bumping the earning up to 14 points per dollar. Also, he points out that Marriott cards are back in stock online at Staples.com. So, you could buy them through the Chase Online portal and pick up the current bonus (usually 3X) for buying through their portal. Thanks, PH!
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This deal is actually better than 10 points per dollar. The bonus is 12 points per dollar, not 10, and if you use a Sapphire, I imagine it’ll count as a travel purchase (credit card transaction processed by Marriott.com) so you should earn the 2 points per dollar from that, for a total of 14 heterogeneous points per dollar (12 Southwest Rapid Rewards points plus 2 Ultimate Rewards points).
On the other hand, you can do better than 5 points per dollar buying Marriott gift cards using a Chase Ink card, by going through the Ultimate Rewards portal, which in recent months has usually offered a 3 points per dollar bonus on Staples.com purchases. That way you’d earn 8 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar; but you would be paying a $1.99 shipping fee. Pretty negligible when you amortize that shipping fee on a large denomination card like a $500 card….
PH, typo on my part on 10 vs 12. AFA Staples is concerned, I didn’t realize the Marriott cards were back up on the website. They had been out of stock at one point. Thanks for pointing it out!
To achieve companion pass on SW you could then transfer those Marriott points in Rapid Rewards?
Ronf, this promo actually earns Rapid Rewards points for buying Marriott gift cards, not vice versa.