Southwest Airlines Companion Pass – Part 3: Hyatt Points and E-Rewards Transfers
Good evening everyone, this is part 3 of my Southwest Airlines Companion Pass series.
- Part 1: Obtaining the Companion Pass the Hard Way
- Part 2: Hyatt and Chase Ultimate Reward Points Game Plan
This post is probably several weeks overdue, but better late than never. I was waiting for miles and points to transfer and post, then I had to follow up with Southwest Airlines and Hyatt over some issues, and eventually this post got pushed off #backblogged.
Before I get deeper into this post, I have a personal gripe with my Chase Hyatt Credit Card. This credit card is the only travel credit card (that I know of) where points are deducted from your account if you return something or get a refund to your credit card. Recently, I canceled an airline ticket that I purchased on my Chase Hyatt Credit Card and the Hyatt Points were removed from my Hyatt account. Most other travel credit cards will not touch your miles/points if you return an item or get a refund, you will just end up with a positive balance on your credit card.
Because of this “feature” of the Chase Hyatt Credit Card, I mis-spent on my Chase Hyatt Credit Card in terms of earning Hyatt Points. Oh well, live and learn I guess.
On the flip side, when you use your Chase Hyatt Credit Card in different categories, your statement shows each category and the number of Hyatt Points you earned that statement.
For some reason, the exact same numbers show up as separate transactions in my Hyatt account. I am not aware of any other travel loyalty program that does this. Am I the only one that cares about this? Why not just post all Hyatt Points in one transaction? OK, moving on now…
Since my Southwest Airlines account is short by 37,449 Southwest Airlines miles, I had a plan to transfer Hyatt Points to Southwest Airlines miles to count toward my Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. Remember, transferring Chase Ultimate Reward Points directly to your Southwest Airlines account will not count toward your Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.
My plan was to make 2 large Hyatt Points transfers to Southwest Airlines miles:
- 50,000 Hyatt Points would become 30,000 Southwest Airlines miles
- 15,000 Hyatt Points would become 7,200 Southwest Airlines miles
- 37,200 Southwest Airlines miles would post to my Southwest Airlines account
Hyatt’s confirmation screen showed that 50,000 Hyatt Points would become 30,000 Southwest Airlines miles.
However, on the Hyatt confirmation email, the 6,000 bonus Southwest Airlines miles were missing. This was a bad sign…
After refreshing my Hyatt account, I was able to see all of the transfers into and out of my Hyatt account, including both transfers to Southwest Airlines.
A few days later, the Southwest Airlines miles posted to my account. Unfortunately, I was missing 6,000 Southwest Airlines miles. I should have received 37,200 Southwest Airlines miles, not 31,200 Southwest Airlines miles.
On my Southwest Airlines Companion Pass dashboard, the new Southwest Airlines account balance updated to show the new balance. I was still short 6,249 Southwest Airlines miles.
After contacting Hyatt Gold Passport customer service and explaining that I was missing 6,000 Southwest Airlines miles, the representative was able to see the problem and send the remaining 6,000 Southwest Airlines miles to my Southwest Airlines account.
I thought that might happen because the exact same thing happened last year when I did the exact same transfer (notice the dates of the above and below photos). Seems like Hyatt still hasn’t fixed the bug in their system to send the 6,000 bonus miles. Maybe next year it will be fixed…
A few days after speaking with Hyatt, the missing 6,000 miles posted to my Southwest Airlines account.
I was now 249 Southwest Airlines miles away from the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.
I figured I would try to get as close as possible to 249 Southwest Airlines miles and E-Rewards fit the bill. I could convert “$15 of E-Rewards” into 250 Southwest Airlines miles.
Completing the transfer was easy and the points posted in under a week, much shorter than the 4-6 weeks mentioned in the terms and conditions.
Confirmation screen of the E-Rewards to Southwest Airlines miles transfer.
The only problem with my plan is that the Southwest Airlines miles transferred from E-Rewards did not count toward my Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. I called Southwest Airlines and they verified that Southwest Airlines miles sent from E-Rewards do not count toward the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. Arghh!
Here are the latest transactions that posted to my Southwest Airlines account.
My Chase Southwest Airlines Premier and Plus Credit Card statements are closing in the next few days and I made sure to spend enough money to earn at least 249 Southwest Airlines miles. This process was not quick or easy, but it will be well worth it to keep the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass for another year. As for 2014, I only used my Southwest Airlines Companion Pass twice. I plan on doing (slightly) better in 2015!
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great evening!
Hey Grant,
I already used two SW card sign ups last time for my companion card. My understanding is that there are 2 other SW cards I can get.
I also have Chase URs that I can transfer as well to get the companion pass as well.
Do you think it’s a wiser move to apply for at least one of the other cards for the easy points or move the UR points? Moving UR will get me a free week worth of hotel stays, but applying for another card would obviously get me a quick 50k or more without touching the balance (or as many) of the URs.
Thanks!
Marty, it depends what Chase SWA CCs you currently have. There are 2 personal and 2 business credit cards, all with the 50,000 mile sign up bonus. Assuming you can get a third SWA CC, I would go for that. Then use the Hyatt to SWA transfer if you are short a few thousand miles. Does that sound like a good plan?
Gotcha. I just churned those so I don’t have them anymore. I believe I did one personal and one biz. Hopefully my records somewhere will show me which ones I applied for. Just didn’t know if you thought it’d be wiser to get the sure thing with the card sign up (provided they approved me.. Which they should. No credit issues, excellent score, etc.) but figured if I got the sign up bonus for at least one, it’d drastically reduce what I needed to transfer.
Hopefully I remember which cards I had so I don’t get denied from having the offer before.. LOL. The joys of the business I guess.
Thanks!
It also depends when you want the SWA miles. If you are trying to get the miles before 12/31, then you should do the Hyatt transfer. If you are trying to get the miles in 2015, then go for the credit card. You might be able to log into your Chase account and view old SWA statements. It might say the name on them. if not, let me know the first 6 digits of your account number and I will check with the SWA CCs that I have.
Hi Grant,
How could you get so many points from Hyatt account?
I transferred a lot of Chase Ultimate Reward Points into Hyatt Points.
Hey Grant. I have a strategy question. Why would you time the points transfers to obtain the CP for only 2015? You mentioned that you also used UR pts. Was that UR->Hyatt->RR? I’m one that believes “to each their own”, but this appears to be less value than you should be getting. Especially since you used the valuable UR.
The reason I went for the SWA CP is that I was already half way there this year. I got a SWA credit card in the middle of the year and had to be creative to get the remaining points. I did the Chase UR to Hyatt to SWA transfer. I got 70k Chase UR from my Chase Ink Plus sign up bonus, so I moved most of them to get the SWA CP. Probably not the smartest move, but it is easy to generate Chase UR :)
I just wonder why you did not play with MS. With 3 BB accounts plus buying MO, you could accomplished it instead of transfer from Chase UR –> Hyatt -> SWA since you lose a lot of points.
You are right Hoang, I’m just not a fan of buying money orders. My approach to the SWA CP is not ideal, I am just sharing how to turn around a bad situation. I appreciate the suggestions though.
Yay! It took effort & wonderful Hyatt points but you made it work. My goal is to get a pass in my husband’s name early next year. He has one new SW card that we’re waiting to use until the next statement & I’ve dipped my toe into the Sears reselling. 2 years of free flights for one of us would be a game changer at my house.
Good luck with the reselling. Have you tried reselling on a small scale? Enjoy the SWA CP :)
I double dipped with Sears gift cards & bought electronics. I then sent to Amazon to have them do the shipping. With the Shop Your Way Points I have left, I’m up about $150. I’m holding off on doing more to see if all the points post correctly & to see what returns come in. It’s a pain for sure & time will tell if it’s worth it. ;-)
Nice job shopping, I hope FBA works out well and that you don’t get any returns. Good luck!
No such luck. Rec’d my 1st refund email & a 1 star review from the buyer saying they never got the item. No! I’ll see how it all plays out. Reselling is not for the faint of heart.
That’s too bad. I’m sorry for the 1 star review and bad feedback. Live and learn.
I’ve heard from another seller that I can ask for that bad review to be removed since Amazon was supposed to do the shipping so that will help. In the meantime I’m missing an expensive (for me!) item. I will figure it out & maybe look at other ways to earn that companion pass. ;-)
Yes, that makes sense that Amazon should be responsible for any shipping complaints. I hope the expensive item turns up.
Can you still transfer UR to Hyatt to SW for the companion pass? I just tried Virgin Atlantic to Hyatt and they don’t do it. Please help!! Thanks.
The transfer should still work with Chase UR to Hyatt to SWA. I haven’t heard any reports that it stopped working.
Thanks. I will go that route then.