TWO (yes 2!!) points away from A-list....worth a flight?

[BHoms]

I am 2 points away from earning A list.  I don't think I'll earn anymore points as I believe I got most of those from a promotion.  Is A-list status worth $150ish for a one way flight purchase (then fly back on points)?  Or is there any other way to earn the 2 remaining points?

[dfwskier]

It depends on how much you fly. If you don;t frequently fly, probably not. You can check in at t-24 and if you get a bad boarding position, you can try to pay to upgrade to A1-A15. Do that three times and you spend about $150

If do fly frequently -- the question is "how much is a oretty much guaranteed A-Boarding position on every flight worth to you/"

[BHoms]

Ehh...boarding position is nice but not the biggest deal. I'm more intrigued by the same day change.  We typically travel for our kids sports so often book the last flight of the day departing, just to make room for rain outs, shedule changes.  But often times that leaves us sitting around a random city for hours after their games end.  Standby has been iffy so the guaranteed change would be a big benefit. 

[DancingDavidE]

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@BHoms wrote:

Ehh...boarding position is nice but not the biggest deal. I'm more intrigued by the same day change.  We typically travel for our kids sports so often book the last flight of the day departing, just to make room for rain outs, shedule changes.  But often times that leaves us sitting around a random city for hours after their games end.  Standby has been iffy so the guaranteed change would be a big benefit. 

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That’s a little tricky since everyone that had the Alist could confirm but the rest of the party that was not Alist wouldn’t be sure to do that (your chance of an exception is helped by having one Alist in the group, and then also how full the targeted flight is) - you can also buy WGA+ fares for the rest of your group to increase the flexibility of others. (Unless your whole family is in the same situation being a few points short?)

Did you buy a lot of Business Select fares? It would be feasible to approach A-list with 5-10 flights if you only bought BS fares.

[BHoms]

No, I have never purchased BS.  Only WGA fares. 

Normally its only myself and my daughter (my companion) so hoping the same day change will be more feasible since its only the 2 of us. 

[DancingDavidE]

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@BHoms wrote:

No, I have never purchased BS.  Only WGA fares. 

Normally its only myself and my daughter (my companion) so hoping the same day change will be more feasible since its only the 2 of us. 

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That's a good scenario - at first the agent may balk after all your daughter won't have A-list, but in reality as long as the fight has extra seats all you would be doing is canceling the companion, same day changing yourself, and then re-adding the companion, so they should allow it under that scenario.

Your daughter doesn't need a same day change, just to be re-added after you've made your change.

[DancingDavidE]

Can you elaborate on the promotion? The ability to earn tier qualifying points is limited so if you are flying very often then I'd say this would generally be worth it.

It goes a bit beyond the offset cost of EBCI or upgraded boarding - it's also the priority line at the check-in if you need assistance, it's the same day flexibilities, there are other advantages that would be hard to quantify. (Well they can be quantified but it increases the number of scenarios to model by an order of magnitude.)

And then of course if you are flying 10+ times then I think you most likely would feel like it was worth the $150. 

People flying 24 times or the equivalent in points it's a no-brainer to fly that extra points run to earn it. 

[BHoms]

I don't remember the exact promotion.  I'm actually assuming that I earned so many TQP through a promotion because I've only flown 10 times this year. I have 34,998.  I earned the companion pass through our credit card spending a few months ago.  

We fly 5-10 times per year so not a ton but hate thinking I'm so close so guess I'll spend the $110 for the one way ticket and use points to fly back.  

[bec102896]

I would just look for the cheapest RT flight in a day and do that 

depending on your departure city some places have good deals AUS/MSY sometimes is $39-$59 as an example 

[johnmcgrann]

I can sympathize, I'm in nearly the same boat, 6 points away!  I earn most of my TQPs with our Southwest rewards credit card, so I should have a path to get these last 6 as long as we reach the next credit card milestone by December 18.