SW points 25% off

[LeslieG]

I see SW is offering rapid reward points for 25% off. I'm trying to decide if this is a good deal. Would this be like getting 25% off a flight if I buy the points and then book my flight? Or do the points end up costing more than if I just paid cash for the ticket?

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

I prefer purchasing my flights with points because if you cancel your flight or it goes down in price, the points are returned to your account without an expiration date. If you pay with cash and cancel or your flight goes down, you get a credit for future use but it has an expiration date. You pay more for the points even with the 25% off but in my opinion, it is worth the price.

 

[LeslieG]

I prefer purchasing my flights with points because if you cancel your flight or it goes down in price, the points are returned to your account without an expiration date. If you pay with cash and cancel or your flight goes down, you get a credit for future use but it has an expiration date. You pay more for the points even with the 25% off but in my opinion, it is worth the price.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I love having points to work with. But how much more am I paying for points vs. cash? Does anyone know?

 

[Minniekins]

Hmm, well right now 5000 pts are $103 at 25% off. To get that many points thru the credit card purchases would cost $5000, so looking at that just now, that seems like a pretty good deal. And, the best the was mentioned above, in that booking with points, if the fare goes down, the points go right back to your acct and there is no credit to deal or use by a certain date, you just have your points you can use. And, if you are lucky to get a good sale, like I did last year, it was about 5600 pts for a one way trip from Chicago Midway to Orlando.

 

[LeslieG]

Here is a link that may be helpful. Still a bit confusing.

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/04/southwest-25-rapid-rewards-points-buy-gift-transfer-bonus-worth-it/

 

[LisaS]

I see SW is offering rapid reward points for 25% off. I'm trying to decide if this is a good deal. Would this be like getting 25% off a flight if I buy the points and then book my flight? Or do the points end up costing more than if I just paid cash for the ticket?

The points will cost you more than the cash price of the ticket, even with the 25% discount.

Example: Looking at a flight from Manchester, NH to Orlando in October, the cash price of the flight is $145, the points price is 8009. Based on the cost info in the article you linked, the full price to purchase one point is 2.75 cents, the price with the 25% discount is 2.0625 cents. So the cost to purchase 8009 points at 25% off is $165.19 just over $20 more than paying cash for a ticket on that particular flight.

To be completely accurate, we should subtract the security fee from the cash ticket price. It is $2.50 per hop and you will be charged that fee on your points ticket as well as the cash ticket. So in the example above, we would compare $165.19 for the cost of 8009 points against $140 (since it was a connecting flight with one stop) so the cost difference is $25, not $20.

To see if the math works for the flights you are considering, just look up the price in dollars and in points. Multiply the number of points by 0.020625 and see how it compares to the cash price of the ticket. Subtract $2.50 from the ticket price for a non-stop, $5.00 if it is a connecting flight with one stop before comparing the amounts.

You have to purchase points in blocks of 500 so in this example you cannot purchase exactly 8009 points, you would have to purchase 8500 points if you had no other points available in your account.