question about rapid rewards system

I recently signed up for SW Rapid Rewards and then immediately booked 2 rt tickets nonstop both ways from Buffalo at an amazing $595.20 total. Many thanks to Champster for posting about his good fortune, which prompted me to look at our dates!
My question is this - the 250 bonus points for signing up showed right away, but its been more than a week since we booked and there is no sign of the points for the flights. Does anyone know how long before they post? And do I understand their system correctly that, since the purchase was made using my info, that my account will be credited for both flights?
I'm seriously considering getting their credit card sometime in the future. SW doesn't currently fly out of Rochester, which is closer to my home. But with their purchase of Airtran, which does fly out of Rochester . . . If the day comes when I could fly nonstop, from my preferred airport, with no baggage fees, at a great price - it would be worth it to bite the bullet and pay the annual fee. I'd use the cc instead of my debit card for all my everyday purchases and really rack up the miles.
Thanks in advance to anyone with some experience with Rapid Rewards - and I know you're out there!

You points for your flight will not post til after your flight has been taken.

Honestly get the CC. I charge everything on it and pay it off every month. Then I wait for sales to use the least amount of points. I booked 3 flights for less then the price in points of 1 flight during a sale they had going on.

Cancer Chic, what's the deal with the sales? I've been thinking about getting the credit card, it's kind of a close call for me since we get a lot of cashback with our Discover card and cash is obviously more flexible. If there are frequent "sales" where SW points go farther, that may work for us. Thanks!

Thanks for the info drmilled - it does make sense now that I think about it that they wouldn't post until you actually take the flight. I guess I'm still getting used to the idea that I could actually cancel and not be out the money

The DEAL for Signing up for the SW Credit card has changed.

When I signed up for it, I got 50,000 RR points to use for flights.

NOW, you get 2 roundtrips.

So this can be Good or bad. For me, it would be bad, cuz I can take lots of small trips with my
50k points, vs. 2 long flights.

So make sure to check which deal youre getting when you finally sign up for SW C.C.

I haven't gotten in the habit of using it for Everything, like some of you, but I'm working on it. lol

Wow, 50,000 points is an incredible deal.

I did sign up for the card and used my bonuses, but I'm cancelling the card, even though I fly SW Air all the time. I still get my rapid rewards status w/o the card, and get better benefits for everyday purchases with other cards.