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You’ll Pay More Points to Fly on Southwest Airlines

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Beginning April 17, 2015, you’ll pay more points to fly on Southwest Airlines.

You'll Pay More Points to Fly on Southwest Airlines Traveling Well For Less

Big changes to how you use Southwest points coming

Say Goodbye to Fixed Rate Point Tickets

It will cost you more points to fly on Southwest Airlines after April 17, 2015.

Because Southwest is making changes to their Rapid Rewards program.  Namely, award tickets on Southwest Airlines will no longer be a fixed rate.

You used to get a fixed rate on award tickets booked using points:

  • 70 points per $1 for Wanna Get Away fares
  • 100 points per $1 for Anytime fares
  • 120 points per $1 for Business Select fares

But starting April 17, 2015, award tickets booked on Southwest will be based on the following factors:

  • Destination
  • Time
  • Day of travel
  • Demand
  • Fare Class (i.e. Wanna Get Away, Anytime, or Business Select)
  • Anything else Southwest decides
Beautiful coast in Jamaica Traveling Well For Less

You’ll pay more for flights to Jamaica than for flights to Detroit

What This Means For You

1.  Flights Will Cost More

Award tickets on Southwest will cost more points especially to popular destinations like San Diego, Fort Lauderdale, and New York.

And the amount of Southwest points needed for award tickets on weekend travel and over the holidays will also increase.

Christmas Traveling Well For Less

Your flight home for Christmas will cost more Southwest points

2.  Look for Sales

Sales will become more important.

Because when ticket prices cost less, the amount of points for award tickets are also less.

Southwest sales Traveling Well For Less

Your points go farther during Southwest sales

How to Get More Southwest Points

1.  Southwest Credit Cards

You can earn 50,000 Southwest points from the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card> or Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening.

When you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card, you can earn 60,000 points.

And because a personal card is considered a different card product than a business card, you can apply for both a personal and a business card on the same day.

If you’ve already had a Southwest card, you can apply for a second card if it’s been 24 months since you received the sign-up bonus.

So if you got the sign-up bonus on the Southwest Premier Credit Card on February 20, 2013, then you can get the sign-up bonus again.

Southwest credit card Traveling Well For Less

You can earn 50,000 Southwest points from 1 credit card

2.  Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Southwest.

For every Chase Ultimate Reward point, you transfer you get 1 Southwest point.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be earned from:

3.  Transfer Choice Hotel Points

You can transfer Choice hotels points transfer to Southwest.

When you transfer 6,000 Choice hotels points you get 1,800 Southwest points.

What are your thoughts about having to pay more points for Southwest flights.
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