Flying Southwest... is it worth it to buy points to book a flight or pay cash?

[chris4disney]

It seems that the price of buying SW Rapid Reward points cost more than paying for the flight with cash. Is there a real advantage to buying points to book the flight with? I know that if the flight price decreases after I book with points that I can get a refund on those points, but does the flight cost ever really decrease that much to make it worth paying more for the points to begin with?

 

[Yellowjj]

No. Unless your topping up to buy a reward ticket. But outright buying points to purchase the flight is almost always a bad deal.
For instance. Flight is $100 cash or 4,500 points.
4,500 points - costs $123.75 to buy. So you just lost $24.00 than if you had paid cash.

 

[supersnoop]

Points redeem at a straight 60 or 70 points per dollar. Buying at 45 points per dollar would make no sense. They sell points to people who need just a few more to top up their account for an award.

 

[mikehn]

Actually I have seen flights where booking with points actually works out better than with cash. These anomalies happen every once in awhile, some times they are very obvious when you toggle back and forth between cash and points.

 

[klmrph]

The nice thing with points is that if you do cancel a points reservation there is no expiration date on when you have to use them again (except to keep your account active), unlike travel funds which have to be used within one year of booking and can only be used for the person who the flight was originally for. Points can be used by anyone.

 

[nkereina]

I was short about 2200 points for a recent booking. I was able to buy 2500 points for $68.00 and saved about $30 doing it that way than if I had bought the flight cash (the fare was $99).

 

[kristenrice]

Here's another thing...when you book with points, you can cancel any time and you will simply get your points put back into your account. There are no restrictions on them so it is like buying a fully-refundable fare. If you are not 100% sure of your travel, or simply want to consider it "insurance", buying the points to book a flight may not be that bad of an idea. Yes, it will cost you more than a WGA fare would by paying cash, but you are turning that non-refundable WGA fare into a fully-refundable ticket.

 

[Rpsemont]

Sometimes, southwest offers a premium on the point purchase (example - get 30% extra for the same price) this can make it ALMOST seem worthwhile. I know the last time they did this, I did the comparison and bought some extra points. But then a month or so later, when I went to book tickets, the fare that was previously 5000 points was now 5500 points (but same $$) so it really didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. The other times that I like to use points is when I am buying tickets for others - for example, if my DD wants to bring a friend. Even it if isn't the most cost efficient way to do it, the bottom line is, if the friend cancels, I get the points back to me. They're not held in a TTF account under the friends name!