$764 of Free Travel to You – and Hopefully Something For Me in Return?

Good morning

We’re halfway through the final week of our 2011 fundraising appeal, and I wanted to take this last opportunity to focus your thoughts on the matter.

Oh – and also tell you how you could get $764 worth of travel on Southwest for free.  🙂

As of Monday evening, we have now reached a very positive total of 392 readers voluntarily choosing to respond and support The Travel Insider, including, since Friday morning, seven more ‘super supporters’ – Tim, Richard, Hilda, Peter, Andrew all the way from Ireland, Peter from England, and Joe.

But we’re still below both last year’s total and this year’s target.  We’re hoping to reach 500 supporters by the end of this week (which is little more than half the number who helped out in 2009).

Can you help us reach our modest goal of 500 supporters?  We need only 108 more people to participate so we can achieve this year’s goal, and if you would kindly agree to be one of those, you’ll get us there all the more quickly and certainly, and help preserve the spirit of The Travel Insider’s user-supported approach to free publishing.

As a small thank you to everyone, if you find yourself occasionally flying on Southwest Airlines but don’t yet have one of the new Chase Visa cards affiliated with Southwest, you should consider applying for one.  There’s an annual membership fee of $69, but after your first purchase, you get 50,000 Southwest Bonus points, which equates to $833 worth of travel.

If you’ve traveled Southwest before, you already know the seat assignment is a bit of a hassle; but on the positive side, you get two free bags that can be checked in, no change or cancel fees, and a generally positive travel experience.

If Southwest flies to useful cities from where you live, this is a great way to net $764 (ie $833 – $69) worth of free travel.  You can cancel your card as soon as you’ve done so if you wish, of course.

Full details here.

Many readers profited from a previous Chase credit card incentive I reported on earlier in the year; so make sure you do too this time around.

And, please consider remitting a percentage of the $764 in free travel this tip has earned you back to The Travel Insider, ensuring that I’ll be around to continue to advise you of future special deals.

Many thanks indeed.

Until Friday and our normal newsletter, please enjoy safe travels

David.