Transferring Rapid Reward points to another member, is there a fee?

[DeeO]

I got the Southwest Credit Card when there was a special to spend $4,000 in the first three months and receive the free Companion pass and 30,000 points. 

So I have qualified for that and my husband will be my companion.

If he gets a card and receives 40,000 points, can he use his points to buy my ticket and get his free?

Should he transfer or gift them to me?

[SWDigits · Accepted solution]

Yes, your husband is able to use his points for your ticket (follow steps outlined earlier in the thread). Then once you see your ticket in your account you will be able to click to add your companion 🙂

[DeeO]

Thank you for the quick response!!

[dfwskier]

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@DeeO wrote:

I got the Southwest Credit Card when there was a special to spend $4,000 in the first three months and receive the free Companion pass and 30,000 points. 

So I have qualified for that and my husband will be my companion.

If he gets a card and receives 40,000 points, can he use his points to buy my ticket and get his free?

Should he transfer or gift them to me?

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Normal advice is to avoid transfering points unless you absolutely need to. You devalue the points by over 50% when you do so becasue you have to pay a penny a point to do the transfer. It's far better to just use your points to buy the other person a points based ticket - no fee involved except for TSA fees which everyone has to pay.

[Rawlings25]

Did you recieve an answer?   I'm in a similar position.   I might be short of the 110,000 points needed to get companion status next year.   Was thinking of paying to transfer wife's points or purchase points to get over the limit,  but want to make sure they count towards companion status. 

[TheMiddleSeat]

@Rawlings25 neither of those options would give you Companion Pass qualifying points. In other words, buying or transferring wouldn't help you achieve Companion Pass.

--TheMiddleSeat

[Diane2019]

I'm blown away about this. I was excited to give my daughter 40,000 points for her birthday, thinking that it would be a cool useful gift, until I found out it would cost me $400 to move them to her account. Are you kidding? Wait...these are points I earned, but I still have to spend MORE money to use them? And all this for SW to update to our accounts.... which is still nothing to them since we do everything online to make this happen. Nothing that will cost SW anything. Nothing. Used to think SW was the best for customer service, but little by little, I'm changing my opinion.

[dfwskier]

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@Diane2019 wrote:

I'm blown away about this. I was excited to give my daughter 40,000 points for her birthday, thinking that it would be a cool useful gift, until I found out it would cost me $400 to move them to her account. Are you kidding? Wait...these are points I earned, but I still have to spend MORE money to use them? And all this for SW to update to our accounts.... which is still nothing to them since we do everything online to make this happen. Nothing that will cost SW anything. Nothing. Used to think SW was the best for customer service, but little by little, I'm changing my opinion.

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Every airline charges to move points from one account to another.

Why not tell your daughter that you'll give her a ticket to anyhere SW flies and then YOU use your points to get the ticket. Same final result -- no fee to you.

[SWDigits · Accepted solution]

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@Diane2019 wrote:

Wait...these are points I earned, but I still have to spend MORE money to use them? 

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@Diane2019 you can book tickets for anyone using your points.  You can tell her she has 40,000 points to use as she sees fit and that you'll book the ticket(s) when she's ready.

[bearomo11]

skhagger, 

I just had your same exact experience with transferring points to a friend. They charged me $450 😂 for transferring 45000 points to a friend. Let me know if you would like to connect outside of a southwest community. There are several people like us that have posted here and who knows how many have not even posted. Although I am not retired, I don't have any extra money as either. 

Bea