Southwest Rapid Rewards points - A little short

[seancharles]

Good morning. Quick question for the Southwest Airlines experts...

So, we did the SWA credit cards to get the 50k points. This morning our flights are on sale. One flight one way is 6178 points. There are nine of us going. So I am booking about 110k in points. But we are about 2100 points short of the total. If I book, will I still only owe for about 1/3 the price of one flight, i.e. do they prorate the points and only owe the difference? Or should I "buy" 2100 points? Is there a difference? Any suggestions? Thank you very much, as always.

 

[msmama]

You can't use part points/part "cash" on a ticket, so you'd have to buy at least one ticket not using points.

I would do the math to see if it's cheaper to buy the points you need or to buy a ticket in cash. If it's close, I'd buy the points just to make things easier on myself.

 

[Mom2m&k]

Exactly what msmama said. Sometimes they have "deals" on buying points where you get extra for buying a certain amount but generally buying points only really makes sense if you only need a small amount. If you are signed in under your swa account you can see how much they are.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Depending on how many points you need, that last ticket doesn't have to be bought as a round trip. Maybe you're just short enough that you would have to pay cash for a one way seat. Hopefully you have enough points that you only have to pay cash for the cheaper leg and can still use points for the more expensive leg.
Another option that has worked for me in the past when I was about 1,000 pts shy of a reward is to shop through the swa online mall and make an expensive purchase at the beginning of the cc billing cycle. The mall points posted in less than a week (not to be confused with the cc points that post after each billing cycle.). I could book the flights I needed and then return the item so that it's credited to my cc account before my billing cycle ends.
As an example, I needed 900 points so I entered nordstrom.com through the swa shopping mall and bought some expensive purse. Once the points posted to my RR account I returned the purse, still wrapped in tissue paper and plastic, for full refund. The purchase price is refunded back to my cc before the close of that billing cycle. Eventually the RR points from the shopping mall were subtracted from my RR account but by then I had earned plenty more so I was never in a point deficit.
Of course this only works if you know for certain you will earn enough points on your next cc statement to cover when they take those unearned points back. We usually earn 3500-6000 points every month so for us it was easy.