Author: Randy Slovacek

As part of their “Honeymoon for Heroes” campaign, the folks at Southwest Rapid Rewards Card from Chase just gave away 1 Million Rapid Rewards Points to essential workers. In partnership with Brides.com, Chase and Southwest surprised five essential worker couples across the country with a pop-up backyard honeymoon experience PLUS 200,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points (about $3K in value) that don’t expire so they can take their real trip (or trips) when they are ready to travel. Chase and Southwest took the time to get to know each couple over the past few months, including their unique love story and ideal honeymoon destination, so that they could design a pop-up backyard honeymoon experience that felt special and personal to their relationship. For example, Erica, who is a pediatric ICU nurse, and Kaila, who is a licensed clinical social worker in New York City, were planning to visit a tropical island for a relaxing beach trip, but had to put their plans on hold when COVID started ramping up across the city. Chase and Southwest decided to surprise them with a Bohemian Picnic backyard honeymoon experience, inspired by the islands of Belize and Turks and Caicos, to give them the chance to relax and unwind on the beach as originally intended, without any of the hassle or worry.

All of the couples also received Southwest’s coveted Companion Pass status through EOY 2021, which allows a Rapid Rewards member’s companion to fly with them free of airline charges every time they book a flight using points. Plus, each of the couples will be featured on Brides.com at the end of the month in a guide to planning weddings and honeymoons. It’s totally a ‘best practice’ to use a credit card like Southwest’s for expenses. If you’re going to be spending the money on the happy nuptials anyway, why not earn points for use towards the honeymoon? As part of the campaign,  over 1,000 individuals were surveyed about their honeymoon plans and as you might expect, 2/3 of couples had to change their honeymoon travel plans (coronavirus pandemic, don’t you know…). But 3/4 of couples do intend to stick with their original honeymoon destination when they finally feel comfortable traveling.