Don't Buy Points

[my3sonsCary]

I was in a hurty today and bought some points on Southwest. that was a mistake.  I paid about double of what I would have paid had I just flat out bought the airfare from Southwest.  I called SW to see if I could get my $$ back.  NOPE!  My bad.  It won't happen again.

Don't make my mistake.  Don't buy points!!!!!!

[LindseyD]

@my3sonsCary,

I'm saddened to  hear that you had a disappointing experience with purchasing points. Many Customers find it a helpful option when they want to purchase a flight with points and they are just a little bit short. Still, thank you for sharing your experience and your feedback. We always welcome the opportunity to learn how we might improve our services and processes. 

[my3sonsCary]

Lindsey:

Surely, you jest.

Seriously, before someone stupidly buys points (as I did), they should compare the cost of the additional points versus the cost of flat out buying the airfare.  If I had spent the extra 3 minutes to do that comparison, I would have saved about $400. 

NEVER again!

[trevorrowe]

I found this out the hard way as well. Fortunately my price difference was only $5 but my lost points was much greater.

I had 28,879 points. I needed five one-way flights: 8,424 per ticket, 42,120; or $140 per ticket, $700.

I bought 15,000 points for $275. Then I had 43,879. I bought the tickets and had 1,759 points left.

I should have bought three tickets with my points: (8,424 x 3 = 25,272). I would have had 3,607 points left. (28,879-25,272). 

The difference in points between the two tickets is 1,848 (3,607-1,759). Since most of my points come from regular purchases, point wise, it will take me spending over $1,000 to gain the lost points back.

Additionally, if I would have bought the tickets instead of points, I would have earned more point: 840 points per ticket x 2 = 1,680 points. 

I trusted Southwest to offer something that was actually a worthwhile deal; instead I'm out 3,528 points.

Don't buy points!

[chgoflyer]

As you've learned, the cost of buying points negates the value of those points.

The best advice is to purchase points 1) only in small increments, if needed to "top off" and purchase a specific fare, and/or 2) when there is a special points offer that grants additional points or a reduction in point price.

Southwest uses a 3rd party to manage their points sales/transfer/gift function, as a profit center.

[elijahbrantley]

Agreed. 

Travel bloggers frequently encourage buying points only in certain situations (usually the ones you mentioned above) because the value usually isn’t great. 

[2024sw9834]

The very same thing just happened to my sisters and me.  I am seriously considering reporting this to the Illinois Better Business Burea.

[bearomo11]

Hi there, 

Did you report them? I am in a similar situation and would like to do the same. 

Bea