Southwest Airlines Community

Any chance we'll be able to see upcoming flights, and book CP tickets online soon? Not sure why you are acting like things are 'fixed' .... ... View more

Brilliant job in the design and rollout of the new Rapid Rewards. I can't imagine how a worse job could have been done. ... View more

Upon a day of reflection, and looking how I have used award tickets over the last year, there is one thing that is really irritating me about the new system - it has placed such a large cost on last minute awards redemption that in practice it's no longer an option. While there is no explicit close in rewards fee - there are several implicit ones add something like 300% to the cost of the rewards. Take SFO to PHX, the route I fly most often. My average (not good) 1-way WGA fare is like $120. Anytime fare usually $249. Say i wanted to fly from SFO to PHX tomorrow. There are currently 5 flights showing Standard Award availability, and all 12 showing Freedom award availability. 1. Under the current system I can burn 1/2 an award ticket and fly to Phoenix. Equivalent cost in spend for me to get there is something like 8 one way WGA flights at ~$120 per flights, or $960 in flight spend. 2. Under the new system if i planned ahead and got a WGA fare at $120 it would cost me 7,200 points (6 points*10 flights*$120). To get those 7,200 points i would have had to flown 10 one way flights at $120, or $1200 in spend. Already a devaluation, even if i planned ahead - but one that would be evenly offset by the new A-list bonus. 3. If i didn't plan ahead under the new system, i need 24,900 points ($249*100), so would have need to have spent $4,200 (6 points*35 flights*$120) to pay for one short last minute trip. So, more than a 4x increase in my cost! 35 flights on the same route to get 1 single one-way reward! Certainly not a cost i would ever pay, and I'm not sure how Southwest finds it defensible? Two things about this are really irritating to me: 1. It is a lose/lose situation. Southwest would benefit for me spending my miles on a flight that they are very sure will go out with empty seats (which a standard award being available a day in advance is indicative of) and I am able to take a trip that I otherwise would find cost prohibitive. 2. Southwest is not at all competitive with other airlines now for close in rewards purchasing. For the example above United has 5 flights on tomorrow SFO to PHX which i could take for 12,500 miles. Seems like this could be 'fixed' by adding some close-in rewards discount fares where Southwest has capacity. Assuming it's not, i'll keep my credit card spend with Southwest - which yields me a companion pass, and generally move all my non-companion travel spend over to United. (As a side note, all the math to figure this out really shows how poorly it was designed) ... View more

I might have thought that someone would have figured out, that if it takes a 2-minute video to only partially explain earning/redeeming, the design of the new program was poor. ... View more

In total, I'm probably indifferent to the changes - lots of offsetting pluses and minuses for me. I certainly understand some people's frustration (big devaluation for those always flying on cheap fares), and it is definitely too complicated. Requiring your customers to do multiply and divide by 6 and 12 to figure out earning and redemption is just plain stupid. One question. If I have flow 50 flights from 3/1/10 to 3/1/11, will i receive the new A-List Preferred when the program launches? ... View more