Feb06

Understanding the Southwest Airline’s Frequent Flier Program

by Jessica Healy on February 6th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Posted In: Credit

In 2011, the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program with through some significant changes. While people have both decried and applauded these updates to the program, the Rapids Rewards program does seem to be easier to understand now that they have adjusted their system to more commonly used terms.

Southwest basis the amount of points you will need to fly based on the dollar amount and class of the flight. Here is a list of miles needed to fly based on numbers taken from Southwest’s site.

Business Select: 120 points per dollar

Anytime: 100 points per dollar

Wanna Get Away: 60 points per dollar

Scenario: This means that if you were booking a $200 round-trip ticket, you would need 20,000 points for an “Anytime” fare. Compared to a lot of programs this is a bargain, especially considering that there is no blackout dates. Plus they do not have any reserved seat restrictions as do most other airlines. This makes your points much more valuable, because if there is a seat available, you can use your points to fly.

Points expiration is important to a lot of frequent fliers since they want to make sure they can keep the points they have worked hard to earn. The nice thing about Rapid Rewards is that as long as earn more points every 24 months, your rewards will never expire.

It’s also important to understand how you can earn points. With Southwest, the rewards earnings are based on the dollar amount and class of ticket you buy. Their “Wanna Get Away” fares earn you the least with 6 points per dollar. The “Anytime” flights are a little better, giving 10 points per dollar, and the Business Select level is the best earner at 12 points per dollar.

They offer 2 credit cards, both through Chase bank. The first card, the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Visa costs $69 per year and the Premier card costs a little more at $99 per year. At the time of this writing, most of the new cards were being offered an interest rate of 14.24% variable APR. Base on my research, I actually think the card with the higher annual fee is better. Each year these cards receive an annual bonus of points. The Plus card gives 3,000 bonus miles, while the premier card is given 6,000 bonus miles. In “Wanna Get Away” fares, that means that a premier card holder could book a $100 flight with his bonus miles alone.

Using the Southwest card to pay the utilities and groceries will give 1 point per dollar. The only 2 points per dollar categories are Southwest flights that you pay for with the card.

Southwest adds a little sweetener to their Credit Card proposition. If you are a cardholder, they actually give you more flexibility on how you redeem your rewards, including allowing you to book international flights and hotel stays.

Learn more about Southwest Credit Cards.

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