30 points per dollar, but I’m still waiting for more

A few weeks ago, I wrote “How to feed the hungry and fly for free.”  In that post I showed how to donate 74 boxes of fruit or nuts from 1-800-Flowers to a food charity (Food Gatherers) in order to help others and earn enough Southwest Rapid Rewards points for a Companion Pass.  In the meantime, the offer for 1,500 points per order expired prematurely (see “A contest gone awry”).

Since then, readers have let me know about other offers, such as 1,000 points per order (use code RR22) and a new one for 30 points per dollar (use code RR59).

Neither of these offers are as good as the 1,500 point offer, so I’m still waiting to see if that one reappears.  With the expired 1,500 point offer, you would have earned 50 points per dollar for each $30 per order, so that was far better than 30 points per dollar.  Still, the 30 point per $1 offer has one big advantage: you could earn all of the points you need in one order.  For example, if you wanted to earn all of the 110,000 points needed for a Southwest Companion Pass, you could theoretically place a single $3,666 order.  That’s a heck of a lot more expensive than it would have been with the 1500 point offer ($2,220), but also a heck of a lot easier than placing 74 separate orders.  If, despite the higher cost, you’re interested in doing good while earning points and a Companion Pass, please carefully read ““How to feed the hungry and fly for free.”  Keep in mind that you would have to use promo code RR59 rather than the code I wrote about previously.

In related news…

I finally have confirmation that the process works!  It took a few weeks, but my test purchases have finally resulted in points applied to my Southwest account.  First, upon logging in, I saw this:

Then, I clicked through to the details and found this:

All of my test purchases resulted in the expected 1,500 points earned.  And, I can now verify that the points do qualify towards the Companion Pass.

The dates are interesting, though.  I expected the dates to all reflect the date of delivery, but there are actually two dates on each line item (thanks go to Daraius of Million Mile Secrets who pointed this out to me – I hadn’t noticed the second date on each line item).  The date in the Date column is the date that the points appeared in my account.  The date in the Description column is the date of delivery.  In other words, it is the date that the fruit or nut packages were delivered (or, sometimes it is the day after delivery).  This is only important with regards to timing the Companion Pass.  I think that the Companion Pass credit will be based on the date in the description rather than in the Date column, but I have no way right now to prove that.

Pending portal results

On two of my test orders, I clicked through portals to 1-800-Flowers before placing the order and applying the 1500 point promo code.  Based on prior experience, I expected that the portal earnings would be clawed back once the 1500 points were awarded.  At this point, though, both portals (FatWallet, and AAdvantage eShopping) continue to show the cash back and miles as pending.  It will be very interesting to see what happens in the long run since portal rewards could go a long way in helping to offset the cost of acquiring miles through 1-800-Flowers.

Waiting for Valentine’s Day?

I was certain that 1-800-Flowers and Southwest would offer a holiday promotion, but I was hoping for a return of the 1,500 point offer.  Instead, it looks like the 30 point per dollar deal is their holiday offering.  So, unless they surprise us with a second holiday promotion, I think we’ll have to wait until near Valentine’s Day to see if they’ll bring back the 1,500 point promotion.  Or, even better, maybe they’ll bring back the 1750 points per order offer that they’ve had in the past.  Let’s hope!

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.