Last week when the huge Southwest Airlines sale was going on, I got a thought. It was not one of my usual, very complicated ways to spend fifty cents to earn millions of miles. Rather, I was trying to figure out how to take advantage of Southwest’s huge airfare sale last week. Unfortunately, with our big Hawaii trip planned for next summer, there was no way we could take advantage of the deal. Then I started to wonder who could benefit from the huge sale?

It dawned on me my in-laws were going on a cruise out of Florida at the beginning of the new year. As far as I knew, they were driving down, as was typical. However, I sent them a quick note to check on availability and prices with Southwest (and other airlines matching fares), because they could possibly save a tremendous amount of money and time by flying. My mother-in-law let me know they actually booked flights on Southwest several months ago. Think, think, think. Ding!

So I let them know about the great benefit with Southwest about being able to rebook at a lower fare and receiving the difference in vouchers. Sometimes I wonder though when I tell others about little nuances of airline programs if it just goes over their heads, and this was the perfect example, so I thought. I figured maybe I would need to sit down and have an intervention with my in-laws to really explain how this sale could save them money and be worth their time. Do I go over there to help them with the process? What to do?

Well later than night I was surprised to receive a phone call from my in-laws that I had saved them over $200 with the Southwest sale. They called up Southwest and actually received the same exact flights, but at the discounted fares. Excellent news! I was elated in the fact that I was able to save someone some money with my news. Perhaps I am making a difference to somebody’s wallet.

Fast forward a couple days, and we are over our in-laws house, and they tell me that they decided to use their vouchers before they forgot about them. Oh yeah, I said, where are you going? They decided to fly to New Orleans in a couple of weeks, and only had to pay a small amount in addition to their vouchers because of the greatly discounted fares Southwest was offering at the time.

So the way I see it, my in-laws scored a double win with the incredible sale that Southwest was offering last week. While we did not get to take advantage of the deal, I like to think that my obsession with points afforded my in-laws to fly to New Orleans for free (well not really, but you all get the point).