I'm not sure if the deals are still out there or if it is possible for you, but the Southwest Visa by Chase was offering 50,000 points if you opened a new card. When my DS went in we opened one for both my wife and I giving us 100,000 points (Worth about 6 round trip flights from where we live). After a year I cancelled one of them and kept the other. We have yet to pay for a single flight for him.
This ^^. If people reading this want to learn the tricks of the trade, read on and take copious notes.
Over the 4 years, I suspect we paid under $1000 total for USAFA related airfare as a family. And our DS flies a lot. We visit USAFA on average 3-4 times a year as well. The past 4 years and USAFA airfare travel has cost a grand total of $1000. Let's NOT talk about hotel fees (measured in the thousands). What we have done is pay for all of the kids airfare to visit home as well as graduate school interviews.
We are SWA bigots. With the Southwest Airlines Visa by Chase, you can book with points and not get penalized if you cancel (miles are re-banked). So for the breaks, we will book 2-3 best guess trips and cancel the ones that eventually won't work. The reality is schedules are way too fluid at USAFA and can change on a dime. So long as you cancel within an hour of the flight leaving, you are able to to re-bank the miles
and get back the $6 booking fee. So there is no penalty for re-banking. With most airlines, you pay a minimum of 25,000 miles (35,000 miles is typical) and get charged change fees. We are planners and book early. On average, out round trip SWA flights are around 12,000 miles. Some RT flights have been 6,000 points. This is a major advantage for SWA frequent flyer points over other carriers.
Though my business, I put on $400,000+ worth of charges on my credit card (which turns into 400,000 frequent flyer miles). At 110,000 and SWA, you get a free companion ticket for the entire year. We have 2 Chase cards so my wife and I both have a free companion option. It gets better. If you use the 50,000 points when filing out for the card (and the promo) add an additional 60,000 points (by charging $60,000) you will hit the 110,000 miles in a calendar year. the neat thing is you get that companion ticket from the date you earn the 110,000 miles. So in our case, we earned the companion ticket inside of 3 months and it was good for the remaining 9 months PLUS the following year. You assign a person to travel with but can change the name up to 3 times a calendar year. It gets even better. You can add that extra free person all the way up to the very day of flight.
SWA is
very military friendly (the best in the business) which is why I love them so much! Explain your situation and they bend the rules to change your same day travel for free (we have done this several times). Every SWA person our family has talked with is compassionate when it comes to the military. One of 5 calls that were honored was: "My orders have changed and now I do not have to report back for till 6 hours later. I'd love to spend another 6 hours with my family but the next flight out is over my budget." They did it for the same price ( but it had to be the same day travel).
Since cadets are active duty, they get military rates when we get caught without a solution. Many times we have gotten $100 one-ways 6 hours before the plane takes off. Did I mention I was a SWA bigot yet?
Other airlines also have active military rates and we recently used American Airlines. The one way ticket was $380 but it beat the $600 posted rate. Even at a military rate, I suspect this was the most expensive 1 way ticket I have ever paid and it might include international travel. But so long is it isn't a major holiday, SWA has last minute incredible rates for active duty members.
We do everything possible to book with SWA. They have been so good to work with, we will continue to give them every opportunity to fly with them post USAFA experience. But getting deals fries-up a lot time to hone in on the best deal.
I'll sum it up with the following example. We are flying from MN to AZ for graduation week. My wife got a rate of 12,000 miles round trip. She is flying with me for free. So
two round trip tickets for 12,000 total. This is the rule and not the exception for us. I hope this long-winded post helps!