September 2026 Newsletter

🚀 Southwest News 🚀

The Southwest lounges at BNA and more are now official! This is an exciting new development for Southwest fans. You can read more about it here.

Southwest chedule update:

- The current schedule is open until Jun 2. On Oct 15th, 2026, the schedule will open for sale through Aug 2, 2027. (Date is subject to change).

🛍️ Current noteworthy shopping portal finds 🛍️

*As of Sept 1, offers change often

• • Home Depot is offering up to 4 points per dollar (Terms and conditions here)

  • Best Buy is now offering up to 5 points per dollar (Terms and conditions here).

  • Kohl's is now offering 2 points per dollar! (Terms and conditions here).

How does the shopping portal work? Use Southwest shopping to link to all of your favorite stores and make a purchase! You will then be awarded the bonus points listed on the offer directly into your Southwest account. *Note you cannot combine shopping portal offers, so do not click on Rakuten or any other portal if your intent is to earn southwest points.

🏨 Southwest Hotel Spotlight 🏨

Southwesthotels.com

A 7 night stay at this hotel for a Hawaii at Christmas time will earn you 53,500 points for ~441 per night! That is an earn rate of 17 cents points per dollar.

A few notes about hotels:

It is not recommended to bundle hotel and flight with Southwest unless you are getting a much lower price than booking separately. It is much easier to make changes to your flights if they are not bundled.

I always confirm my reservation with the hotel to be sure they got it.

Southwest uses Booking.com as their booking system, so your hotel will see the booking as a booking.com reservation.

Make sure to check your Southwest Account for credit card offers!

Here is how.

1. Visit Southwest.com

2. Log into “My account”

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page! Make sure to register for any offers you like!

For folks on the FAST TRACK for 2026:

You should have begun your 2026 companion pass journey! If you have not yet started wait for next year.

For folks using the HYBRID method for 2026:

You should have begun your 2026 companion pass journey! If you have not yet started wait for next year.

For those following the slow and steady method:

You should have 100k points already toward companion pass for next year. Start with any hotels you need to book since these have the highest earn rate.

Do you have hotels you need to book? *points will post after checkout.

Check out some shopping portal deals.

Don’t forget about Southwest dining.

- Stephanie