HOT OFFER ALERT: AIRTRAN A+ REWARDS CARD (32 BONUS CREDITS) EQUALS 2 FREE FLIGHTS

Chase just launched the new AirTran® Airways A+ Rewards® Credit Card offer yesterday.  The previous offer only gave you 16 bonus credits and now this offer gives you 32 bonus credits after you spend $2,000 in the first 3 months of opening your account.  32 credits is enough for 2 ROUNDTRIP FLIGHTS!  The annual fee is only $69. You also receive 2 business class upgrades after the first purchase and 2 credits every year after your anniversary date.

OTHER CARD PERKS

• Earn 2 A+ Rewards Dollars per $1 spent on AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines^® purchases made directly with the airlines.³
• Earn 1 A+ Rewards Dollar per $1 spent on all other purchases.³
• Earn 1 A+ Rewards Dollar for every $1 in balance transfers up to 9,600 Rewards Dollars within your first 90 days. The balance transfer fee is 3% of the amount transferred with a mininum of $5.^†
• With every 1,200 A+ Rewards Dollars earned, you’ll receive 1 credit toward your next flight.
  32-credit bonus is equal to you having spent $19,200 on the airline, or $38,400 on other purchases.

OTHER GREAT BENEFITS
You can redeem flights also on Southwest.  So for families you could use your bonus points earned from the Southwest  Rapid Rewards card (currently 50,000 points for each card version) and use your 32 credits earned with the AirTran® Airways A+ Rewards® Credit Card to book Southwest flights for a family vacation.  If you do have Southwest points from Southwest Rapid Rewards cards this would be a perfect card to get because you can transfer Air Tran credits to Southwest.  There is no charge to transfer these credits.  Read more about how to transfer AirTran credits to Southwest here

So if you combine the Southwest  Rapid Rewards card bonus (50,000 to 100,000 points or potentially 200,000 points per family) with the AirTran® Airways A+ Rewards® Credit Card card bonus (32 or 64 per family), you could easily have tickets for a nice family vacation or a ton of short roundtrip flights.  Families could potentially bank 200,000 rapid rewards points and 64 Air Tran credits together between the two offers.

• You can transfer AirTran credits to Southwest.  You can also transfer Southwest points to AirTran.
• If you have expiring credits/points you can transfer them back and forth to extend the expiration date by a year
• Transferring AirTran credits to Southwest points won’t help you get a Southwest companion pass, but you can transfer 120,000 Southwest points to 100 AirTran credits and then redeem for a AirTran Companion Pass (100 credits)
• You can transfer points/credit back and forth between program accounts to maximize the best possible redemption.  The Points Guy gave this suggestion back in April of this year: “You can effectively “launder” Southwest points to AirTran credits back to old Southwest credits. Now, points are worth 1.66 cents towards Wanna Get Away fares. 19,200 points would be $318 in airfare. However, 19,200 Southwest points transferred to AirTran and then back to Southwest credits would get you a free Wanna Get Away roundtrip award regardless of the price. So if you are eyeing a roundtrip Wanna Get Away ticket that’s more than $318, it behooves you to book it via AirTran and back to credits vs. Southwest points.”  I would recommend reading this article to better understand transferring points.  It a bit complex and confusing.

Aspen (via Denver)

Boulder (Via Denver)

Breckenridge (Via Denver)

Colorado Springs (Via Denver)

Cape Cod (Providence – RI)
Martha’s Vineyard (Providence – RI)

Flagstaff (via Phoenix)

Grand Canyon (via Phoenix)

Key West (via Fort Lauderdale)
Lake Tahoe (via Reno)

Miami (via Fort Lauderdale)
Monterey/Carmel (via San Francisco)
and many more! Air Tran flies to some great topical locations too like Bermuda, Aruba, Montega Bay (Jamaica), Punta Cana (Dominica Republic), Cancun, and Cabo San Lucas.

It is important to also know that AirTran is merging with Southwest airlines.  So the 32 bonus credits you earn with this card will eventually be combined together into your Southwest Rapid Rewards account.  If you aren’t able to get both the Southwest Rapid Rewards card and AirTran® Airways A+ Rewards® Credit Card, I would get the AirTran® Airways A+ Rewards® Credit Card because it won’t be around long.  Like when Continental merged with United.  There was a period of time when you could maximize Continental offers knowing you were essentially building your United MileagePlus account.  The same concept applies here.  Long term planning is important in this hobby.  So keep this in mind when making a decision about this card.  If you can get both the Southwest Rapid Reward card and the AirTran® Airways A+ Rewards® Credit Card, I’d go for it.  Both bonuses are excellent and I haven’t seen better in the last several years.