How to maximize your points from rideshare apps

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Two weeks ago I polled you asking if you knew what a reconsideration line was, and 71.82% of you had never heard of it! If you’ve recently applied for a card and were declined, make sure you check our newsletter about this topic.

Good morning from my second home; Toronto Pearson International Airport. It was hard getting here so early today, but I did witness an epic airport move…

A guy behind me at security tried to put a frozen bottle of water through the scanner. They wanted to take it from him, but he kept persisting that it “wasn’t a liquid.”

I didn’t stick around to see how it played out, but I gotta say: well played, sir.

Here’s how we’ll finish off this exciting week:

🚗 How to maximize your points earnings from rideshare apps
✈️ Rack up easy Southwest points from the comfort of your computer
🖼️ Travel meme of the week

🚗 How to maximize your points earnings from rideshare apps

You may not know this, but there are some easy ways to maximize the points you earn on rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft.

On an even better note, this section applies to international readers as well, mainly in the U.K. and Canada. So wait a minute before you scroll past it. 😉

Basically, different companies partner with Uber and Lyft to offer added earnings and benefits. For example, in the U.S., you can link your Marriott Bonvoy account with Uber to earn Bonvoy points on certain rides and even food deliveries.

Simply go to your settings in the Uber app, click on “Marriott Bonvoy,” and then “Link Accounts.”

Boom. You’re now earning Bonvoy points in addition to whatever credit card points you earn on travel purchases.

Speaking of credit cards…

Certain credit cards also partner with these rideshare companies to offer elevated earning rates when using the card to pay for rides.

For example, this card (sorry I can’t say the name or the bank will get mad at me) offers 5x points per dollar spent on Lyft rides, compared to its normal earning rate of 2x points on travel purchases.

Earning an extra 3 points per dollar on Lyft rides can be pretty sweet if you use the app a lot, and is an excellent way to rack up points on a normal, everyday expense.

Additionally, you can also link your Hilton Honors account to Lyft and earn Hilton points every time you ride.

So here’s what I do:

I link up all of those accounts and every time I need to use a rideshare app, I just compare prices between the two and take the cheaper one. It’s great, because no matter which one I choose, I’m earning more points than normal.

But here’s where things get even better…

If you live in the U.K. or Canada, you can also take advantage of this perk.

In Canada, you can earn Aeroplan points by linking your account with Uber (the same way I mentioned earlier with Marriott).

For you Brits, you can earn British Airways Avios by linking your account to Uber.

This is arguably the most valuable partnership of them all, given the fact that you can freely transfer Avios between British Airways, Qatar Airways, and other airlines.

So take a few minutes and link up all your accounts to any loyalty programs you have. Seeing those points trickle in after every ride is a great feeling!

✈️ Rack up some easy Southwest points from the comfort of your computer

Did you know that airlines offer ways to earn miles and points other than just flying or opening a credit card?

For example, Southwest has a shopping portal that lets you earn thousands of points just for shopping at everyday retailers.

Today I wanted to share some ways that you can earn a stash of Southwest points with minimal effort… because there are a few right now.

First, Southwest currently has a promotion until March 8th that will award chunks of points for spending with ANY retailer in the portal, in addition to the points you earn from that retailer already.

Here’s the deal:

Spend $100 in the Rapid Rewards shopping portal, earn 500 bonus points
Spend $300 in the portal, earn 1,000 bonus points
Only valid until March 8th, 2023

500 or 1,000 points might not seem that exciting… because it’s not.

But when you stack up all the other opportunities that you can pair this with, you’ll be surprised to see that you could potentially book a free flight just from various shopping portal bonuses.

I wouldn’t spend $100 or $300 solely to earn these points, but if you were going to spend that money at one or more of the Southwest retailers anyway, why not?

One opportunity that I’m taking advantage of is the Southwest TurboTax promotion, which awards 1,000 Southwest points for filing your taxes with TurboTax.

FYI, this even includes the free version of TurboTax, and 1,000 points is a nice return on a free product.

Additionally, you could sign up for Rapid Rewards Dining, Southwest’s dining portal, and earn another 1,000 points pretty easily.

Here’s how dining portals work:

You sign up for the program and register as many credit cards as you want. When you dine at partner restaurants, you’ll earn bonus Southwest points as long as you use one of your registered cards to pay your bill.

And no, it doesn’t need to be a Southwest credit card. It could even be a debit card if you wanted, but you know better than that…

You can search for restaurants in your town or city on this website. I ran a search for the most random city I could think of, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and found a number of options.

My point is that if the Southwest dining portal has restaurants in Fort Wayne, they probably have them in your city too, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding ways to earn some points through this method.

You might even discover some new local gems in the process!

Aside from these lump bonuses of points, many of the retailers in the shopping portal offer great multipliers or larger bonuses on the money you spend with them, including some pretty popular stores and services:

So here’s the bottom line:

If you make an effort to shop and dine through Southwest’s partners, you could pretty easily rack up enough points for a free flight, or at least get yourself pretty close.

Southwest frequently has flights for as little as 2,000 or 3,000 points, even on some not-so-short hauls, so don’t overlook the opportunity to get in on the action.