7 Days Left to Book Southwest Award Flights before Devaluation

[Frugal Kev]

Starting after March 31st Southwest is devaluing their Rapid Rewards frequent flier miles by 17%. Currently award flights cost 60 points per dollar of a fare, after the 31st that is going to to 70 points per dollar of a fare.

For example if a Southwest fare is $200 it will currently require 12,000 for a free flight. After the 31st that same $200 flight will cost 14,000 points for a free flight.

If you're going to be redeeming Rapid Rewards for a flight soon now is the time to book!

 

[hsmamato2]

ummm yeahm great advice if you're traveling by Oct. 30, if not, you're out of luck....and you have to wait....like i do.... wish I could do something about it but I can't

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

That is terrible news I can't book my flights until they are released in May. Hope we will have enough points.

 

[elgerber]

Starting after March 31st Southwest is devaluing their Rapid Rewards frequent flier miles by 17%. Currently award flights cost 60 points per dollar of a fare, after the 31st that is going to to 70 points per dollar of a fare.

For example if a Southwest fare is $200 it will currently require 12,000 for a free flight. After the 31st that same $200 flight will cost 14,000 points for a free flight.

If you're going to be redeeming Rapid Rewards for a flight soon now is the time to book!

Just curious why none of my flights work out to 60 points per dollar? I have flights at 7758 points, that are $161 if using cash, and 8595 points of $176 cash. My other flights in July are the same way, averaging about 47 points per dollar.

 

[McKelly]

I know this stinks........I too am waiting the May 19th date because I need December airfare. Now I am hoping I have enough points for at least a one way for each of us. We are traveling over Christmas break...... We each have around 14,000 points...anyone remember what Xmas airfare looked like last year - dollar wise?

 

[georgina]

Thanks for the reminder. My DD doesn't yet know when she will be done with finals in May, but I will bug her to find out and book her flight!

Just checked and I am 500 points short unless the price drops. Oh well.

 

[bjscheel]

Just curious why none of my flights work out to 60 points per dollar? I have flights at 7758 points, that are $161 if using cash, and 8595 points of $176 cash. My other flights in July are the same way, averaging about 47 points per dollar.

I have noticed the same thing. My points appeared to be worth more than 60 per dollar too. From their FAQs:

How many points per dollar does it cost to redeem for a ticket?
The number of points needed for a reward flight depends on the fare. Just like fares, reward pricing can vary based on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare class, point redemption rate, and other factors and is subject to change.


But then in the next FAQ it does mention the 60/70 switch.

I have my June flights booked and am fairly happy with the points used, so if it doesn't go down any lower I will be okay. But I won't stop checking

 

[katie111]

Thanks so much for the heads up! Time to talk to my DH and try to convince him that the kids & I need a Disney trip in August!

 

[Marionnette]

Thank you for the reminder, OP!

I've been on the fence about whether to fly in the night before our reservation or the morning of. Since I cannot book our return flight until Southwest opens up their schedule in May, I decided to take my DH's RR points and I booked us for the night before and used my RR points to book the morning that our trip starts.

Part of me is leaning toward the nighttime flight so that we aren't exhausted on our first full day in Disney. But the other part of me is reluctant to pay for another hotel night, even if it is an inexpensive hotel near MCO. At least this buys me more time to decide without losing the current exchange rate for the points.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Just curious why none of my flights work out to 60 points per dollar? I have flights at 7758 points, that are $161 if using cash, and 8595 points of $176 cash. My other flights in July are the same way, averaging about 47 points per dollar.

I agree I have a flight in May that averages $37 a point. I think SWA is doing fuzzy math.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Thanks so much OP. I will probably book a flight for Sept/Oct before this change goes in effect. If I cancel, no problem, I will get all the points back.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Thanks for the reminder. My DD doesn't yet know when she will be done with finals in May, but I will bug her to find out and book her flight!

Just checked and I am 500 points short unless the price drops. Oh well.

Don't forget -you can buy points at Southwest.

 

[Frugal Kev]

Southwest is pretty quirky with the point values - as many of you are reporting the point values per dollar isn't always exactly 60 points per dollar. There are some fees that are changed on cash fares that are not charged on award flights which can vary the redemption price.

Overall we will be paying more points for the same flights after the 31st. Also remember with Southwest that many have mentioned that you are allowed to cancel/change your flights without penalty.

 

[BSil]

I'm a bit sick of southwest rewards. Every single time I try to fly I have to book the flights for each individual person, or the prices are higher searching for the 4 in my family. Then I can usually buy 2 tickets before the prices/points jump, then wait until the following week until they come down again, and buy one more. Of course after one purchase they jump again. Then it is a game of checking the site constantly to see if I can get a few points back. Now they want to change the value of points? It is nonsense. Now my anniversary points that will hit my account in April are worth less for the same $99/yr. fee. They should credit a portion of the yearly fee since they devalued my benefit for paying the fee. Might be time to find a new travel card. Or I'm just extra cranky …probably just that.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm a bit sick of southwest rewards. Every single time I try to fly I have to book the flights for each individual person, or the prices are higher searching for the 4 in my family. Then I can usually buy 2 tickets before the prices/points jump, then wait until the following week until they come down again, and buy one more. Of course after one purchase they jump again. Then it is a game of checking the site constantly to see if I can get a few points back. Now they want to change the value of points? It is nonsense. Now my anniversary points that will hit my account in April are worth less for the same $99/yr. fee. They should credit a portion of the yearly fee since they devalued my benefit for paying the fee. Might be time to find a new travel card. Or I'm just extra cranky …probably just that.

You have to check and re-check airfares for most airlines. The difference with RR is that your points are good on any seat on any flight. Just try doing that with an awards ticket on another airline!

My brother had award tickets booked on Delta for 2 people. He wanted to cancel the flights and redeposit the points to his Skymiles account. Delta wanted $300 per person to do it. If it had been a Southwest flight booked with RR points, it would not have been a problem.

I understand your frustration. My husband's SWA CC's anniversary is in June. He will also pay the same huge annual fee for points that have a lower redemption value unless he cancels. It might just be time to cancel that card, but I'm not giving up on Southwest (and this is after they lost my bag last week!)

 

[hsmamato2]

I too wish that I could book my next flights before the change,but I can't,it's too far out...that said, I LOVE SWA No cause for complaints here at ALL! I love how flexible my plans can be, I love the deals, and I love how reliable they are! I think that 'fuzzy math' has something to do with actual cost, then fees and taxes and ____blahblahblah.... I read an article about it once, but I couldn't pay attention to all the details....

 

[NokOnHarts]

Don't forget -you can buy points at Southwest.

Southwest just changed their policy on this too. You have to buy (and transfer) points in 2,000 increments now as a minimum. It used to be 1,000. $55 to buy 2,000 points is the cheapest option now. Not very happy with this change as it happened the day I was planning to transfer 1,000. Gotta wait to save more now.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

OP, thanks for the reminder. I knew it was sometime in the spring but couldn't remember exactly when. I was able to book our summer vacation flights out west but only had points for 4 seats one way. I haven't booked return flights yet but we have more choices on that date. I will probably have enough points to buy 1 one way seat home after my SWA credit card posts more points on Saturday.
For any of you who have flown AirTran recently and still have active A+ credits, you can transfer them to your SWA RR account, then supplement with points to get an old-fashioned standard award. (No points, just free flight anywhere.) Also for a small fee I was able to transfer dh's and our kids A+ credits to my A+ account before I transferred them all to my SWA account. Then their credits didn't go to waste and it took fewer SWA points to reach the needed amount.

Of course it depends on availability which is just awful. I wasn't able to use my award for our summer trip within the first couple hours the dates were released. So I tentatively booked it for a long weekend in Sept.

I am also a USAirways Dividend Mile member and have been since around 9/11. To the PP who is frustrated at SWA, don't bother trying US Airways. What they say is the amount of miles needed is a crock. I've yet to find availability for any desired flights at the lower miles rate. Of course for 50% more miles, you can get the flight you want.
Domestic flights are supposed to be 20,000 RT. I couldn't find anything to MCO for less than 15K each way but then again I didn't look at Wednesdays in Sept. We were looking for Thurs to Monday flights which I don't think are very peak demand.

Also for our flights to Barcelona last summer, we had to use 125,000 pp instead of the 90k in their awards chart. Even at that we only were able to get that because of our Wednesday departure. I know they recently raised their change fee. It used to be $200 but now I think it's $300. That's highway robbery if you ask me.

Sure it's a pain to have multiple reservations on SWA when getting free flights but to me it's worth it to fly free. If you can't be bothered with more than one confirmation #, just pay cash (cc) for your flights and you'll all have the same conf. #.

 

[tzeitel]

I agree I have a flight in May that averages $37 a point. I think SWA is doing fuzzy math.

I'm OK with fuzzy math You got a great deal, I booked our FLL to DEN at $51 per point (we are doing a cruise this year instead f WDW).