I don’t write all that much about the Southwest Rapid Rewards program. It’s a program that many people find to be valuable, though there aren’t that many tricks to getting hugely outsized value, given that it’s a revenue based frequent flyer program.
Continue reading: How To Redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards Points For Maximum Value
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Do you think we’ll see options at some point to use rapid rewards for business class redemption on foreign carriers that Southwest has partnerships with?
I'd like to know how I'm supposed to use this CSR $75K+ benefit of $500 Chase Travel credit on SWA when they don't fly anywhere interesting. (Honey, wanna go to... umm... St. Louis?)
@1990- WN doesnt fly to sexy destinations, but is largest domestic carrier. The vast majority of flying in this country is within the US and in economy. People are much more likely to want to take their family to Florida in the winter than to Innsbruck in F. It is nice to see the reviews of La Premier or the Residences, but few people fly it.
Pretty sure American and Delta fly more within the US, but, there are a lot of 'definitions' and technicalities that could give Southwest a 'title' of some sort here.
As far as destinations, I'm not looking for Austria; besides, they don't have F there. I'd love to try La Premiere (extra 'e') and the Residences, some day, but, yeah, that's one of the most expensive commercial products around, so no time soon for me or most.
For Southwest, when I review their 'Where We Fly' map... they only operate out of LGA among the three major NYC area airports, and the only nonstop is to TPA, which is odd. Like, I though WN had a base at FLL T1. What happened to them?
A couple of things to note. Unlike other domestic carriers on award bookings, if you have to cancel, the cash fees are not refunded and expire 1 year. And I have had trouble applying those credits to a subsequent award booking. It's small potatoes, but given the numerous other customer unfriendly changes, inferior hard products, no lounges and the fact that SW fares are usually higher than the competition, I'm running down my accumulated miles and moving on.
Mexico, Aruba, Grand Cayman, St Maarten, Turks and Caicos, New Orleans, Plenty of good spots in Florida and California. Plenty more
Your math is not correct on any of these! Add the cost, divide by the number of points.
The math is exactly correct. To calculate value per point, you have to subtract the taxes and fees from the cash fare, then divide by the points required to purchase the ticket. So for example, the cash value per point for a domestic flight is: [cash price], minus $5.60, divided by # of points to buy that ticket.
They generally refund the difference to my original FOP when I cancel, though it can take a while. I'm not sure why you're ending up with a bunch of credits. I'll have to look at this the next time I cancel.