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Purchasing Additional Points for Travel

icepeay
Explorer C

When purchasing additional points to travel, why isn't it one-for-one, meaning $1.00 for every point? Seems to me we're paying more than the actual ticket amount when purchasing these points.

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Purchasing Additional Points for Travel

chgoflyer
Aviator A

$1 per point would be insanely expensive. 😉

 

As it is, at 3 cents per point, it's already expensive... the value of a Rapid Rewards points is generally considered to be ~1.9 cents.

 

If you're buying enough points for a whole ticket, you're definitely paying more than the actual ticket amount.

 

Purchasing points is generally not a good idea. The exceptions are 1) when there is a special offer that decreases the point cost, and 2) if you just need a small amount in order to "top off" your existing balance so that you can purchase a specific itinerary.

Re: Purchasing Additional Points for Travel

icepeay
Explorer C

Thanks for the clarification,  but its still ridiculous.  It forces you to continue spending without using any points until you actually get enough.  Not a great incentive for me.  Why can't you use whatever points you have and pay the difference in dollars?

Re: Purchasing Additional Points for Travel

chgoflyer
Aviator A
Solution

I agree.

 

Southwest should consider allowing customers to combine points and cash. But that's very unlikely to happen. Operationally, it would present challenges that I suspect the IT team would have difficulty overcoming. And since it wouldn't actually benefit Southwest monetarily, management would likely never give it priority of the many other IT initiatives. 

 

You may want to consider booking one-way flights instead of a round trip, using points for one and cash for the other, if that helps.

Re: Purchasing Additional Points for Travel

icepeay
Explorer C

Great point and idea, but Southwest is going to start losing business if they don't do more customer focused things