Rabidstoat

I'm confused, I've not flown AirTran in a while but I booked a flight in coach next week, and I have 8 credits about to expire. Can I use those to upgrade to business class still? And when I use credits, do I still have to wait to 24 hours before to use them?

rsteinmetz70112

Yes they are still available.

You can actually call in any time the day before the flight so you usually can upgrade before 24 hours.

If you have 16 credits you can extend your credits by transferring them to the Southwest Rapid Rewards program and creating two Standard Awards. The new Standard Awards will be good for one year from the day they are created and can be transferred back to Airtran and exchanged for credits.

saneman

rstein,
I have 10 credits left. Am I better off converting them to standard awards(8 of them) or letting WN do the standard conversion on Nov 1, which I think is 1300 or 1200 WN points per credit.

Which gives me more value. I won't be using the points in the AirTran program because I still need 6 credits to extend my Elite for another year past Ocd26 which will then trigger automatic qualification for A List until 2015 since that will take A+ elite past the Nov 1 date for WN to grant me that. Boy, is it getting tough to find a way to get those measly 6 more credits. In the past , it was no problem. Now, all my favorite destinations are taken over by WN and I couldnt' even use my AirTran account to book the WN travel on those routes. (PBI: I flew two RTs recently on WN, which won't be credited to renew my Elite status on AirTran because there was no way to book them on the AirTran site)

rsteinmetz70112

[QUOTE=saneman;23296567]rstein,
I have 10 credits left. Am I better off converting them to standard awards(8 of them) or letting WN do the standard conversion on Nov 1, which I think is 1300 or 1200 WN points per credit.

/QUOTE]

That depends on you view of Standard Awards vs Points flights.

You need 16 credits to get a Standard Award, which is 2 flights. if you have a Single Rapid Rewards Credit (or less) you can top off to get an Award with points at the rate of 1200 points per credit.

Standard Awards Flights are worth 9,600 and are sometimes available at the last minute when points flights are often very expensive.

If you get your final 6 flights in you will have the 16 credits necessary for a Standard Award. However you could move a single Credit and take the points on November 1, that would give you enough points to top of the credit for a Standard Award later. You could also move the credits get a Standard Award, and move one flight back to Airtran, to get the points.

There are a number of convoluted strategies you could employ depending on whether you favor Standard Awards or Points and your future travel.

By The Way, this year Southwest will count Airtran flights towards A-List, but you need 25 total flights.

saneman

So Standard award = 16 credits or 9600 points? which is a round trip flight?
If so, isnt it better to let my credits convert to points since even my 9.5 credits(to be precise) will translate to more than 9600 points.

rsteinmetz70112

Sorry for the confusion. In part it is because Southwest seems to use the term "Standard Award" to apply to two different things.

To create a "Standard Award" requires 16 credits (16 credits = 19200 points). But once created the Standard Award shows as two one way "Standard Award" flights (each flight equals 9600 points). Either flight may be used by anyone at any time provided Awards Fights are available. Either flight may be reconverted into Airtran Credits.

Standard Awards are capacity controlled and no one knows what may happen in the future. Right now it is often possible to use a "Standard Award" to book a flight on short notice when points flights are more expensive. Also flights to resort areas may be "cheaper" using a "Standard Award" if they are available. "Standard Awards" expire one year after they are created but points last indefinitely as long as every 24 months some new points are added.

There is no current way to convert Standard Awards to Points except to transfer them to Airtran Credits prior to November 1.

I hope this helps. If it is still unclear please explain what your don't understand.

Also keep in mind that while I have followed this as close as I can Southwest is inconsistent and I may have missed something or they may change the rules at any time.