100 points short of A List Preferred

[Kgmflyer5884]

I’m just a little shy of making A List Preferreed for the first time. I flew 12/22, but my points haven’t posted. 
I called and was told it takes 72 hrs for points to post and the return flight has to be complete before points for both legs are posted. Is this right? IF I canceled my return, I’d surely still get my points for the outbound. 
When I called, it didn’t go to the special line for A List and the person who I talked with wasn’t especially helpful. They also said if my points don’t post before the end of the year, they wouldn’t get me to A List Preferred even though they were earned in 2023. Does what this rep told me sound right?

[DancingDavidE · Accepted solution]

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@Kgmflyer5884 wrote:

I’m just a little shy of making A List Preferreed for the first time. I flew 12/22, but my points haven’t posted. 
I called and was told it takes 72 hrs for points to post and the return flight has to be complete before points for both legs are posted. Is this right? IF I canceled my return, I’d surely still get my points for the outbound. 
When I called, it didn’t go to the special line for A List and the person who I talked with wasn’t especially helpful. They also said if my points don’t post before the end of the year, they wouldn’t get me to A List Preferred even though they were earned in 2023. Does what this rep told me sound right?

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You’ll get the credit for the flight retroactively when you complete the return flight, even if it is 2024. As long as your outbound gets you the 100 points you’ll be good. 

I recommend booking one-way flights for this and many other reasons, you’ll technically only be A-List when you make the return flight in 2024 and then it will kick in. 

If for some reason that return flight never takes place then unfortunately you’ll be stuck in A-limbo. (Not really since you have A-List in the meantime, it’s not so bad compared to someone who was in the same spot trying for A-List.)

If you can cancel and rebook the return that would be fine, plus then you’ll get ALP for the return instead of waiting one more flight.

[Kgmflyer5884]

Thanks for the tip, David. 
I always forget to book one-way flights instead of round trips. I’ll start booking my flights as one-way going forward!

[Kgmflyer5884]

Would you share the other reasons why you recommend booking one-way vs RT? Easier to change one leg or are there other advantages?

[dfwskier]

IMO, the main advantage is that your return does not get automatically cancelled if , for whatever reason, you no show part of the itinerary for the outbound flight.

Especially important for anyone tempted to take a hiddn city trip

[DancingDavidE]

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@Kgmflyer5884 wrote:

Would you share the other reasons why you recommend booking one-way vs RT? Easier to change one leg or are there other advantages?

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As @dfwskier points out you don't get penalized on tier qualifying for missing your return flight - right now you would be at risk if you no-showed your return then you wouldn't get that credit for the earlier flight either. Making them separate you don't impact the other one if something goofy happens.

Then the same thing also for the travel credit - if you no-showed an earlier leg the whole trip gets canceled without travel credit, besides forfeiting the points from the earlier segments.

There are also some times when you want to cancel the second flight instead of change it but you can't do it online if you already flew the first leg, you'll have to call. 

If you have companion pass you may also want to bring the companion on only one leg of a trip and they are either meeting you there or staying longer - whatever the case is you have to call to do it and then the companion gets unliked from your A-list. If you want to self-service this option and keep the companion linked for A-list companion benefit, book one-ways.

Then statistically speaking if a majority of people fly round trips and the current A-list hurdle is 25 flights then all of those people who only fly round trips are going to miss out on A-list on flight #26 because they haven't completed their itinerary. (This will be minimized next year with the hurdle being 20 flights.)

Sometimes you want to use points but not for the whole trip - book one ways and you can mix points and cash. I guess that will be an option in 2024 also.

Unless you have a promo code I haven't ever noticed on Southwest getting a discount for RT pricing - this doesn't apply to the legacy airlines, they may have cheaper RT or minimum stay that you don't get booking one-ways.

Last one for now is when people are booking a large reservation for multiple people and they are using travel credit you can run out of payment methods. But if you book one-ways the limit of three methods is now six methods. (Actually five - you'll end up using cash either way to top off most of the time for both one-ways.) 

TL;DR - you'll often end up in a scenario where you can't self-service changes to a trip that's already in progress or lose flexibility with companions, payment methods, and changing to a multi-city trip. Also earning status mid-trip.

Downsides - there are some things to consider - you have to remember more confirmation numbers, and might have to explain yourself during irregular operations if weather affects your earlier flight and it won't be linked to your later flight that you now can't make. Potentially you could have "the red bar" allowing rescheduling of one of your legs and the other leg is outside of the accommodation period.

[Kgmflyer5884]

@DancingDavidE  Thanks very much for listing some of the ways a RT might not be as good as 2 OW flights. I didn’t know you couldn’t cancel a return online if you’ve already completed the outbound!

[dfwskier]

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@Kgmflyer5884 wrote:

@DancingDavidE  Thanks very much for listing some of the ways a RT might not be as good as 2 OW flights. I didn’t know you couldn’t cancel a return online if you’ve already completed the outbound!

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I don't think that is what David said. You CAN cancel a return flight after your trip has started.

If you simply don;t take the return flight, you will lose  the $value value of the leg and you will not recieve RR points nd flight credits for the outbound flight.

[DancingDavidE]

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@Kgmflyer5884 wrote:

@DancingDavidE  Thanks very much for listing some of the ways a RT might not be as good as 2 OW flights. I didn’t know you couldn’t cancel a return online if you’ve already completed the outbound!

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I don't know if this is absolute, it doesn't sound right now that we're discussing it further...I'm second guessing if I had some other simultaneous issue that caused it not to be available online?

Who changes their flights all the time... @bec102896 does this work for you?