anyone with experience redeeming SW Rapid Rewards

[dudspizza]

I got an offer for a SW Visa card. They would give me 16 free credits for getting the card (1 free rd trip). It would also take 19,200 dollars spent on the card to earn each additional free rd trip. I currently have an AA Mastercard, but it takes 25000 dollars spent to earn a free trip. The annual fee is also about $20/yr cheaper for the SW Visa card.

My question. Is SW very restrictive with the amount of rewards seats that are available or the destinations you can fly to? I would be looking to fly domestically. I have had no problem finding flights on AA as long as I am planning in advance......

SW is still fairly new to MSP, so I am trying to figure them out.

 

[Tara]

I got an offer for a SW Visa card. They would give me 16 free credits for getting the card (1 free rd trip). It would also take 19,200 dollars spent on the card to earn each additional free rd trip. I currently have an AA Mastercard, but it takes 25000 dollars spent to earn a free trip. The annual fee is also about $20/yr cheaper for the SW Visa card.

My question. Is SW very restrictive with the amount of rewards seats that are available or the destinations you can fly to? I would be looking to fly domestically. I have had no problem finding flights on AA as long as I am planning in advance......

SW is still fairly new to MSP, so I am trying to figure them out.

I've never had trouble finding reward tickets, even without planning terribly far in advance.

 

[happymommy]

I've used the SW reward tickets before. My DH flies them a lot for work. Once I had to buy him a ticket as there was no reward seat available, even though he had a reward credit. The ticket was pretty high (Baltimore to Tucson). A couple of weeks later, a reward seat was available, so I changed it and he just got a credit for later. So, if a reward seat isn't available, I learned to keep checking back.

Still, I wouldn't make a huge change in your flying pattern for a little difference in amount needed for a free flight. I'd do what is easiest for you.

I do like SW more than lots of airlines for domestic coach. They are simple, straightforward, usually very friendly, and convenient.

 

[JohnsonsRUs]

I have used rapid rewards that I was able to get from my Diner's Club points and we had no problems using them for the week of Thanksgiving from MI to FL and even changed our trip dates a couple of times.

 

[Manda]

I've occasionally not had the exact flight time I wanted available, but the day I want to fly has always been available. And, if you keep an eye on it, the availability usually opens up. For instance, we decided relatively late that we wanted to fly to Las Vegas during spring break using our rewards tickets. The only flights left were very early morning and very late. We went ahead and booked them with rewards because free was more important than timing for this trip, but I kept an eye out and was able to switch to my preferred flights two days later. I can't think of any other time when I even had those issues with using rewards tickets though and we usually use several a year.

 

[DebbieB]

I wanted to use one in June 2009. For the day I wanted to go (Sunday), all that was available was a 7:00pm flight. I was meeting friends for dinner that night so that would not work. I already had hotel reservations arriving that day at AKV. I ended up going the day before and got a hotel room at the Swan with Starwood points. I did watch for a while to see if Sunday opened up but gave up.