Points Resetting

[scottstephenj]

Hi! I really wanna know why Rapid Rewards points reset on January 1. To me, I find it annoying, irritating, useless and aggrivating to get all these points and then have them be reset to 0 and not be able to spend them on awesome rewards. I just wanna know why this happens.

[algwhite]

I don't believe you are losing your points on January 1.  When you earn points with travel they stay in your account for (I believe) 24 months, so long as there is some activity during that time (that activity could be a flight, rapid rewards dining, shopping through rapid rewards, etc).  As long as you stay active, you don't lose points.  However, the counter resets on January 1 for your annual accumulation.  The annual accumulation is what the A List and A List Preferred statuses are based off of.  It is also used for calculating eligibility for Companion Pass.  Your account points from 2016 should still be there for you to use as desired.  Hope this helps...

[djspencer55]

The points total do not reset, only the annual accumulations.

I, too, find that last part frustrating. I feel like they points for annual accumulation should roll 12 months from when they were earned. Most of my travel happens in spurts, and it can shift throughout the year. I would have easily earned some of the A-List / Preferred numbers in a year had they been 12 months from the date earned instead of resetting at the start of a calendar year.

[eodc514]

I too am very upset about this.  I opened a new SW Chase card to earn the bonus points knowing that I was having about $25 - $30 K of work done and planned on getting to the $110,000 easily in a rolling calendar year. Now That will be impossible with it resetting on Jan 1st. I had asked about this prior to opening and was told any calendar year.   Why would anyone ever open a card in any month besides January then?

[chgoflyer]

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@eodc514 wrote:

I too am very upset about this.  I opened a new SW Chase card to earn the bonus points knowing that I was having about $25 - $30 K of work done and planned on getting to the $110,000 easily in a rolling calendar year. Now That will be impossible with it resetting on Jan 1st. I had asked about this prior to opening and was told any calendar year.   Why would anyone ever open a card in any month besides January then?

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A calendar year is from January 1 to December 31.

[DancingDavidE]

@eodc514Many people use the cards to purchase travel all of the time and aren't relying on the bonus for any particular decisionmaking. Why would you wait until next January if you were going to be flying a lot from February to December?

The bonus is always applicable for points redemption. It's only for people that are strategizing a companion pass that it really matters with the timing. 

It's actually pretty nice of Southwest to provide the remainder of the year, plus the next calendar year for new earners. One reason for this is that you can plan ahead for the next year instead of earning CP mid-year and then having possibly several months where you will already have your flights booked. Giving you a the next calendar year works well to allow people to plan to use CP.

[theeargus]

The only reset that occurs on January 1 is any progess made towards A-list status and companion pass. Otherwise, it's pretty easy to keep your accrued points from expiring.

From Southwest.com:

"Points will remain active and valid as long as you have at least one qualifying earning activity every 24 months.  Qualifying earning activity includes 1) completed travel on flights booked through Southwest Airlines®; 2) points earned by transacting with any current Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Partner 3) points earned through everyday purchases using Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Cards and through points transferred from Diners Club®, and 4) points purchased for personal account use."