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Ticket Value

cijd1010
Explorer C

Hi.

I booked flights for may using reward points.  What I didn't do ahead of time was note the amount the flight would have been if I paid money.

 

Is there a way to find out what the dollar value of a particular ticket is, so I can relay the cost to the other people traveling with me?

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Ticket Value

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

RR points are currently valued at 1.3 cents per point.  Take the points you used, multiple that times .013 and add the taxes you paid and you should be close to the cash price of your ticket.  Occasionally you'll find flights with different redemption values, but 1.3 cents is most common.  Flight prices do fluctuate though so you're better off just having them look at the current price of the flight on southwest.com if you are trying to tell them how much the flight will cost.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Ticket Value

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Just to be clear: Points redemption is currently fixed at 83 cents per $1 of base fare. That's equal to 1.2 cents per point. When you make a flight purchase using points you don't pay all the taxes and fees that are added to a cash one, you only pay the September 11th Security Fee. This makes it tricky to do a direct comparison, and is why some people note that the received value of their points can fluctuate. (On a smaller fare you receive greater value from your points vs a larger one, as the taxes & fees represent a larger proportion of the total cash fare.)

 

To answer your question, one way to do as you are asking is to find a flight that is currently showing the same points fare as you paid. Then change from points to $ to view the cash fare.

Re: Ticket Value

rich1954
Adventurer A

The points guy claims RR points are worth 1.5 cents a point.

Re: Ticket Value

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@rich1954 wrote:

The points guy claims RR points are worth 1.5 cents a point.


 

The points guy is a bit incorrect here. Bloggers often are. 😉 It's not untrue, but it's also not the full story.

 

Southwest charges 83 points per $1 of base fare. This means the literal value of a point is 1.2 cents.

 

But, as I mentioned above, since points bookings don't incur all of the taxes & fees charged on cash ones, the realized point value can fluctuate. You get better value on flights with lower fares since the taxes & fees represent a larger portion of the cash fare, which you don't pay on a points booking. Some people realize points values of as high as 1.8 cents per point. (Even higher if you factor in the Companion Pass, which some bloggers do, but which isn't particularly useful for anything other than allowing a high points value claim.)

 

Back in the good old days, savvy travelers often realized points values above 2 cents. Sigh.

 

Since realized point value can fluctuate depending on the specific fare, it's better to use the fixed value when making comparisons over time. For example, when Southwest makes changes to the Rapid Rewards program, which historically tend to be implemented about every 2 years. These changes reduce the value of RR points.

 

Note: We're overdue for a program change likely held back due to the pandemic, and April has historically been devaluation month. 😕

 

Re: Ticket Value

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@cijd1010 wrote:

Hi.

I booked flights for may using reward points.  What I didn't do ahead of time was note the amount the flight would have been if I paid money.

 

Is there a way to find out what the dollar value of a particular ticket is, so I can relay the cost to the other people traveling with me?


The points valuations below are all fair - of course you aren't technically allowed to sell points to someone else - but what if you go to the website now and look and just tell them the current price, unless you think the fare has changed much since you bought it originally. I'm gathering that you paid their fees as well, so the "even exchange" including all fees would be if they paid whatever it is right now as long as that's close to what it may have been in the past.

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.