Rapid Rewards is the name of Southwest’s frequent flyer program. This program gives Southwest passengers the opportunity to collect rewards for each flight they take with the airline. Even if you don’t fly Southwest often, signing up for the frequent flyer program is advantageous. Rapid Rewards points don’t expire, so you can collect them over a long period of time to earn a free flight. The following is a guide to getting the most value from your Southwest flying and Rapid Rewards points.
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Points Earning
Southwest Rapid Rewards awards points based on the ticket purchase price. The number of points awarded per dollar depends on the type of fare selected. The cheapest “Wanna Get Away” fares award 6 points per dollar. Unless you are booking last-minute flights or intentionally buying more expensive flights for business or personal travel, Wanna Get Away fares represent the vast majority of flights purchased on Southwest. If you do buy more expensive flights, the Anytime tickets award 10 points per dollar. Finally, the most expensive “Business Select” tickets award 12 points per dollar.
Southwest awards Rapid Rewards points on the base fare (not on any taxes or fees charged). The price displayed on the initial flight selection screen is not the base fare but rather the total fare (base fare + taxes and fees). As an example, the Wanna Get Away flight from BWI to DEN shown above will earn 1,282 Rapid Rewards points. The flight sells for $244. Multiplying $244 by 6 points/dollar would be 1,464 points. Obviously, this is not the same number of points that Southwest is advertising that you will earn. To find out what the base fare is, continue to the next Trip & Price Details screen. The base fare is shown as the Price per Passenger.
For the same example flight from BWI to DEN show above, the base fare is $213.56. Multiplying $213.56 by 6 points/dollar would be 1,281.3 points. Southwest rounds this up to the 1,282 Rapid Rewards points they are awarding for this flight.
As will be explained in the Points Redemption section below, Rapid Rewards points are worth between $0.013 and $0.014 each. Based on these valuations, Rapid Rewards points represent about an 8% rebate on Wanna Get Away fares, 14% on Anytime fares, and 16% on Business Select fares. These rebates stack up well against other US airlines so be sure to get your points when flying Southwest.
Southwest also provides the ability to earn points with several of its business partners. These partners include businesses like Avis and Dollar rental car, 1-800-Flowers.com, and NRG or Reliant energy companies. The opportunities to earn are numerous but also fairly niche. For this reason, I won’t cover all the options here. I encourage you to check out the Southwest partners’ website if you are interested in the options.
Points Redemption
The purpose of earning Southwest Rapid Rewards points is obviously to get free flights. Southwest makes this very easy with its generous redemption policies. These policies range from no blackout dates to good point values and flexible booking options.
Blackout Dates & Seats
First, Southwest has no blackout dates or limited seats. Any seat being sold for cash is available for point redemptions. If you have tried to get an award ticket with most of the legacy US airlines (Delta, American, or United), you will know that they block the vast majority of their seats to point redemptions. If you find an open seat with these legacy carriers, it’s often undesirable times or itineraries with multiple stops. This is not the case with Southwest. Southwest is one of the easiest airlines to redeem points for those who are new to frequent flyer programs.
Points Value
Second, point redemptions are based on the cash price. A more expensive flight requires more points, whereas a less expensive flight requires fewer points. This generally works out well for leisure travelers who plan ahead.
As an example of expected point values, the two flights above for $199 and $179 require 13,573 and 12,708 points, respectively. These work out to values of $0.0142 and $0.0136 once the $5.60 government taxes are removed. Point redemptions will always get between $0.013 and $0.014 in value for points. This is nice since you don’t have to worry about finding the maximum redemption opportunities. The downside of fixed value points is obviously that the maximum value redemption opportunities are not present.
Changes and Cancellations
Southwest makes changes and cancellations easy with tickets purchased with cash. If it can be believed, changes and cancellations are even easier when redeeming points. Changes to a less expensive flight or cancellations result in a travel voucher good for a year on a cash ticket. If you book a flight with points, you get a full refund of both your points and cash paid for taxes.
Elite Status
The final portion of Southwest’s reward program is its status tiers. The status program awards frequent flyers of Southwest airlines with additional perks. Two different tiers make up the program with an additional frequent flyer perk that awards really frequent flyers but isn’t a tier by itself.
A-List
The lowest status in the Southwest program is A-List. Southwest awards A-List status to flyers who take 25 paid one-way flights within one calendar year. Alternatively, A-List status can be earned with 35,000 tier qualifying points (TQPs). If you are earning status from flying, the TQPs are almost never the way to earn status. However, if you are earning TQPs from spending with partners or the Southwest Credit Card, TQPs could be an advantageous way to qualify.
The benefits of Southwest A-List status include:
- Priority Boarding – Everyone in your reservation gets access to an earlier boarding position on the plane. This is equivalent to purchasing EarlyBird Check-In for each passenger. You are guaranteed a boarding position better than anyone checking in 24 hours prior to departure. This also means that you don’t have to worry about checking in exactly at 24 hours ahead of departure.
- 25% Points Earning Bonus – 25% additional points earned on flights is the equivalent of an additional 1.5 – 3 points per dollar spend. This is equivalent to an additional 2% – 4% rebate on flights in the form of Southwest points. While its not nothing, this isn’t that big of a benefit.
- Same-Day Standby – Southwest allows all travelers to cancel their flights free of charge and book another flight. However, travelers would be responsible for the difference in fare between these two flights (which can often be a lot on the day of travel). The Same-Day Standby benefit allows A-List elites to avoid this cost.
- Priority Check-in and Priority Security Lane – Southwest provides special check-in and security lanes for the elite members. The value of this is highly dependent on how you travel. If you have TSA Precheck and don’t check bags, this won’t have any value to you. If you don’t have TSA Precheck, this will allow you to skip the main security line (but you will still have to go through the normal screening machines). Similarly, bag check lines at Southwest can be long; priority check-in will allow you to skip this line.
- Dedicated A-List Phone Line – The final benefit is a dedicated phone number for A-List elites. This is most beneficial in the case of irregular operations such as weather delays causing massive flight cancellations. The dedicated phone line skips many people waiting to be reaccommodated on other flights. This means a greater chance of getting the option most preferable to you.
A-List Preferred
A-List Preferred is the highest level of elite status with Southwest Airlines. This level of status requires exactly double the qualification requirements of A-List. Therefore, this takes either 50 one-way paid flights or 70,000 TQPs within one calendar year.
The benefits of Southwest A-List Preferred status include:
- All benefits of A-List Status above
- 100% Points Earning Bonus – A 100% increase in points earned is an additional 6 to 12 points per dollar spent. This is a much better rebate on spend than the A-List rebate at 8% to 16% of the flight cost.
- Dedicated A-List Preferred Phone Line – This is similar to the A-List phone line above but with a smaller group of people accessing this phone line the response times should be better
- Free Inflight Wi-Fi – The final major benefit to A-List Preferred members is free in-flight Wi-Fi. Southwest generally charges $8 for in-flight Wi-Fi so these savings can really add up.
Companion Pass
The final Rapid Rewards program perk is the Companion Pass. While the steps to earn a Companion Pass are structured like a tier in Southwest’s elite status program, it isn’t really a status. Earning a Companion Pass requires flying 100 one-way paid flights or earning 125,000 qualifying points within a calendar year. Flying 100 one-way flights is a lot. Averaging one flight with Southwest every ~3.5 days in a year would be difficult. For that reason, a large proportion of Companion Pass holders earn the pass by collecting 125,000 qualifying points. While this still isn’t easy, collecting 125,000 points is probably easier than 100 flights when things like credit card spending, booking rental cars, booking hotels, or using the Southwest online shopping generate points.
The Companion Pass is a unique benefit that allows the person who earned the pass to designate someone who can fly with them as a companion. This companion only has to pay the fees and taxes on each ticket to fly. These fees and taxes are $5.60 each way on US flights or a little more for international flights. You don’t pay anything else. If you have someone who regularly flies with you, the Companion Pass can amount to some huge savings over the course of the year. While there are limits on the number of times you can change your designated companion, you can truly get unlimited flights with the companion. The pass is valid for the rest of the calendar year in which you earn it and all of the following calendar year.
