Southwest Rapid Rewards - Reborn! Southwest is matching Frontier status and up to 50k miles (Wisconsin only)

My sister forwarded me this email she received from Frontier. She lives in Milwaukee so I am not sure if it only went out to Milwaukee flyers or all Frontier flyers.

I don't fly Southwest much but this is great if they start giving status to other airline elites.

We have an exciting opportunity for Wisconsin Rapid Rewards Members looking for ways to use their Frontier EarlyReturns® miles! From now through August 31, 2012, donate all of your Frontier miles to one of the EarlyReturns charitable donation program participants, and we will give you a Rapid Rewards Point for every EarlyReturns mile you donate!

In addition to matching your Frontier EarlyReturns miles, we are also offering EarlyReturns Ascent and Summit members complimentary Rapid Rewards A-List and AirTran® A+ Rewards® Elite status. That means you can gain tier status in two frequent flier programs regardless of whether you choose to donate your miles or not!

Here's how it works:

Donate all of your Frontier miles to an EarlyReturns charitable donation program of your choice.

Submit a copy of your Frontier EarlyReturns statement that denotes the mileage that you have donated and reflects that your account balance has been zeroed out along with all of the information below to RapidRewards@wnco.com.

And if you are an EarlyReturns Ascent or Summit member and wish to gain elite status in Rapid Rewards and A+ Rewards, submit a copy of your current, valid tier card or statement along with all of the information below to RapidRewards@wnco.com.

Rapid Rewards Points and any eligible elite status match will be granted within four to six weeks of submitting your request. Don't miss out on this one-time special offer!

Submit the following information to RapidRewards@wnco.com by August 31, 2012:

First and last name.

Rapid Rewards account number.

A+ Rewards account number (if requesting A+ Elite status).

Enroll now if you are not yet an A+ Rewards Member.

Phone number.

A copy of your EarlyReturns statement reflecting a zero balance and the donated mileage.

A copy of your current, valid EarlyReturns Ascent or Summit tier card or statement if requesting status match.

To avoid delays, please ensure that your request includes all of the above information.

Please note that e-mail attachments cannot exceed five megabytes (5MB).

Donate your mileage today and get matching Rapid Rewards Points!

Called frontier to donate miles----was told the donation program has been suspended.

Called frontier to donate miles----was told the donation program has been suspended.

Not surprising. Southwest is clearly trying to bankrupt Frontier. With high fares and underhanded stunts like this, it's clear that WN is officially a legacy carrier.

Called frontier to donate miles----was told the donation program has been suspended.

Not only that, but apparently the donations have been reversed retroactively (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frontier-airlines-earlyreturns/1358706-southwest-answers-deltas-offer-donate-f9-miles-get-rr-miles.html#post18791329).

Not surprising. Southwest is clearly trying to bankrupt Frontier. With high fares and underhanded stunts like this, it's clear that WN is officially a legacy carrier.

You know the Frontier Pilots are kicking themselves going with Republic rather than WN. WN now carrying more passengers than UA mainline in Denver and the largest in Milwaukee.

Not sure how this is underhanded though. No different than AA matching UA status for Exp Plats.

Not sure how this is underhanded though. No different than AA matching UA status for Exp Plats.

WN offered FL members a benefit only if they engaged in a redemption that would cost FL cash money. WN was messing with FL's cash flow. Too clever by half. JMO.

Had WN bought FL, the AirTran acquisition likely would not have occurred. Perhaps that result would have been better for Southwest: Time may tell.

As far as tactics go, this is pretty ingenious... entice your competition's customers to hurt their bottom line, and build loyalty to your own brand, all in one fell swoop.

WN offered FL members a benefit only if they engaged in a redemption that would cost FL cash money. WN was messing with FL's cash flow. Too clever by half. JMO.

Had WN bought FL, the AirTran acquisition likely would not have occurred. Perhaps that result would have been better for Southwest: Time may tell.
FL was Frontier Mk I. Frontier Mk II is F9. FL (ironically) is now Air Tran.

WN offered FL members a benefit only if they engaged in a redemption that would cost FL cash money. WN was messing with FL's cash flow. Too clever by half. JMO.

Had WN bought FL, the AirTran acquisition likely would not have occurred. Perhaps that result would have been better for Southwest: Time may tell.

I heard Delta sent out a similar email offering to allow members to exchange their F9 miles for Delta miles. Thank God they aren't doing status matches on Deltas or giving any MQM's only RQM's but not sure how that is working. I can't imagine F9 would want to sell miles to Delta or Delta would want to buy miles from F9. If that is the case I am surprised WN didn't try to work out a similar deal.

FL was Frontier Mk I. Frontier Mk II is F9. FL (ironically) is now Air Tran.

Oops. I earned quite a few miles on Frontier Mk I. IIRC those miles were matched by AA and also by People Express when Frontier had an aborted merger, then a completed one.

I heard Delta sent out a similar email offering to allow members to exchange their F9 miles for Delta miles. Thank God they aren't doing status matches on Deltas or giving any MQM's only RQM's but not sure how that is working. I can't imagine F9 would want to sell miles to Delta or Delta would want to buy miles from F9. If that is the case I am surprised WN didn't try to work out a similar deal.

As a poster on the F9 forum pointed out, the DL offer costs F9 nothing out of pocket. DL picks up the liability apparently without any money coming to DL from F9. Southwest's deal was presumably designed to bleed the value of the miles from F9 immediately. As I said, that was too clever by half.

Not only that, but apparently the donations have been reversed retroactively (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frontier-airlines-earlyreturns/1358706-southwest-answers-deltas-offer-donate-f9-miles-get-rr-miles.html#post18791329).

Since this is using my post, I want to be clear. The Delta match does not involve donating miles, so we have no reason to believe this is related to the Southwest offer today. I just found it odd for them to disappear and then reappear, but I have no reason to believe they're not still in transit to DL... yet.

It's called "competition" and it has a function in the free market. I don't see any major difference between this and retailers accepting competitor's coupons, a practice engaged in by many companies.

As a poster on the F9 forum pointed out, the DL offer costs F9 nothing out of pocket. DL picks up the liability apparently without any money coming to DL from F9. Southwest's deal was presumably designed to bleed the value of the miles from F9 immediately. As I said, that was too clever by half.

If someone "donates miles" on F9 do they make a cash donation in exchange for the miles? If they are then that is costing F9 money right away. Or are they donating the actual miles to the charity and the charity has to use the miels to fly clients on? If it's donating just the miles I dont see how it would cost cash to F9 immediately unless the charity uses all those miles right away.

The Delta situation is odd because F9 is deducting the miles from the members account. The two airlines have to be working together. I really don't see the advantage to the airlines unless Delta thinks they can get a lot of the Milwaukee business (and I know DL has a SC at MKE so they must have a decent amount of business there) and F9 is happy having the miles off their books (and since they are RDM skypesos and not MQM's they aren't that valuable IMO anyway). I know F9 is cutting service drastically at MKE but I thought they were still going to have a preference, like what Delta did at CVG.

If someone "donates miles" on F9 do they make a cash donation in exchange for the miles? If they are then that is costing F9 money right away. Or are they donating the actual miles to the charity and the charity has to use the miels to fly clients on? If it's donating just the miles I dont see how it would cost cash to F9 immediately unless the charity uses all those miles right away.

I thought it was the former, a cash payment by F9. After all, not every charity has a use for miles. But I could have been wrong.

If it's the latter, presumably with the miles aggregated from all donating members, then the liability is deferred until redemption. I don't know what would happen if a charity receives a total amount that is insufficient for even one redemption.

Since this is using my post, I want to be clear. The Delta match does not involve donating miles, so we have no reason to believe this is related to the Southwest offer today. I just found it odd for them to disappear and then reappear, but I have no reason to believe they're not still in transit to DL... yet.

You are correct. I goofed on the retroactivity because I was not familiar with the DL offer. I erroneously assumed it was also a match for donations. That leaves open the question of what if anything DL is getting in exchange for its miles other than the customer list and some goodwill.

That leaves open the question of what if anything DL is getting in exchange for its miles other than the customer list and some goodwill.

I think if you look at it from Delta's point of view, a lot of the questions are answered.

Delta is taking over a liability of Frontier's, and they are not doing it out of the goodness of their heart. Altough we don't know what sort of financial or asset consideration (if any) Frontier is giving Delta to take over the obligation of millions of frequent flyer miles, it's safe to say this is a specific, focused initiative on Delta's part.

Delta is only doing this because they see a rather unusual opportunity in Milwaukee to make significant inroads in the frequent flyer base.

(a) Frequent travelers primiarly invested in F9 are orphans looking for a home

(b) Frequent travelers primarily invsted in FL are especially vulnerable to poaching because of the uncoventional takeover they face from Southwest. Delta has probably already see benefit in Atlanta and sees opportunity in MKE.

Although other cities have been de-hubbed too (some fairly quickly and some more gradually), in most cases the legacy airline still stuck around with a few dozen flights to hubs and key point-to-point destinations. Think AA in St Louis, for example. But in Milwaukee, Frontier is unable and disinterested in continuing to serve the base, and so lots of flyers are trying to decide who to concentrate their flying with.

Delta isn't particularly interested in encouraging Frontier customers to come their direction by essentially comping them frequent flyer miles. Delta is interested in encouraging Frontier Milwaukee customers to come their direction. The special circumstances and unusual vulnerability are the key making it worth the effort and expense.

If it's the latter, presumably with the miles aggregated from all donating members, then the liability is deferred until redemption. I don't know what would happen if a charity receives a total amount that is insufficient for even one redemption.

If they do donate $ for giving up miles I wonder what the dollar amount was? Hopefully there is a F9 Frequent flyer familiar with the program.

I know Delta used to allow you to donate miles to the Red Cross and the red cross could use those miles to transport volunteers and some medical charities where they would transport patients and their families. It would probably still be costing frontier money if this is how their charity program works since the charity is going to use the miles and some of their customers may not ever use their miles or if someone doesn't have enough miles for a ticket and donates them....

I thought it was the former, a cash payment by F9. After all, not every charity has a use for miles. But I could have been wrong.

If it's the latter, presumably with the miles aggregated from all donating members, then the liability is deferred until redemption. I don't know what would happen if a charity receives a total amount that is insufficient for even one redemption.

Directly from the website of one of Frontier's approved charities:

The Make-A-Wish Foundation® needs more than 2.5 billion miles, or 50,000 round-trip tickets, to grant wishes each year. Every mile donated helps wish kids and their families travel to destinations around the world. Once donated, your miles will never expire and are used to support wishes across the country. This is just one simple way you can help grant a life-changing wish experience.

Frontier is no longer listed on the Make-A-Wish website form to donate miles, only DL, UA, and US.

Directly from the website of one of Frontier's approved charities:

+1

From what I've heard, donated miles are indeed miles and not cash. They can be banked and used for air transportation by the charity.

As for Frontier not being listed by Make-A-Wish, I wonder if they're so on the ball that they quickly updated their website based on Frontier's program suspension yesterday? Or is Frontier so relatively small to them that they weren't listed on MAW's website in the first place.

I think it is a bad PR move on F9's part to suspend this program, especially if only Milwaukee members were being targeted.

I understand how Delta would have gotten F9's email list if they are working with them, but would like to know how WN acquired it.

Beautiful promotion.

It's a PR disaster for Frontier. Southwest whipped Frontier competively fair and square.

IMO it's a sore loser move by Frontier as it exits the MKE marketplace. Kudos to Southwest.

Not surprising. Southwest is clearly trying to bankrupt Frontier. With high fares and underhanded stunts like this, it's clear that WN is officially a legacy carrier.

Frontier's doing a pretty good job losing money on its own.

It's a PR disaster for Frontier. Southwest whipped Frontier competively fair and square.

IMO it's a sore loser move by Frontier as it exits the MKE marketplace. Kudos to Southwest.

I agree it was a very bad PR move for F9. Flying families for charities like Childrens Miracle network is GREAT PR for them and the negative PR over stopping this program could cost them more than what the the transportation for the charities would have cost them, not to mention the loss of the good PR. And I can't imagine there would have been that many miles donated anyway. Most people with considerable mileage balances burned miles before they left MKE or are willing to connect through DEN or another city. Hopefully F9 will continue to honor the miles that charities already have (they may not have a choice but to honor them).

Delta should have done a status match as well to help get some of the customers. As a Delta FF though I am glad they didn't since their are too many people with status as it is and it would only make getting upgraded harder.

This could help Delta out though. Seeing people aren't getting miles on WN any longer, they can still get the miles transferred to their Delta account (even though RMD's aren't worth much).

Delta should have done a status match as well to help get some of the customers. As a Delta FF though I am glad they didn't since their are too many people with status as it is and it would only make getting upgraded harder.

Delta is doing a status match for 90 days, during which time one must fly a minimum amount (8000 miles or 10 segments, I believe) to keep Silver status. Silver is worth something, but not all that much, on Delta in part because it's so relatively common. That's certainly the case here in Milwaukee.

Anyone over here have thoughts on why Southwest rolled this out 15 days after the Delta deal was announced? It was essentially the same program AirTran used a few years ago against Midwest, so it's not like it should have taken so long to dream up. Even if Frontier had not snuffed this out by freezing the mile donation program, a lot of horses had already left the barn with Delta having that 15-day lead.

Delta is doing a status match for 90 days, during which time one must fly a minimum amount (8000 miles or 10 segments, I believe) to keep Silver status. Silver is worth something, but not all that much, on Delta in part because it's so relatively common. That's certainly the case here in Milwaukee.

Anyone over here have thoughts on why Southwest rolled this out 15 days after the Delta deal was announced? It was essentially the same program AirTran used a few years ago against Midwest, so it's not like it should have taken so long to dream up. Even if Frontier had not snuffed this out by freezing the mile donation program, a lot of horses had already left the barn with Delta having that 15-day lead.

I didnt realize they were giving them Silver status. If you have to fly 8K miles in 90 days that isnt that great of a deal anyway since you only need 25K miles a year for the status. Anymore a DL Am Ex card gets you almost all the same benefits except preffered seating and a chance at an upgrade.

Its possible WN's marketing dept had no idea about the DL offer until after it was rolled out but seems like they could have done something in a lot less time than 15 days if they would have done it as an offer for any F9 flyers in Milwaukee and not targeted.

I was hoping to sign up for the Frontier card for myself and the wife to then have SW match the bonus points offer.

Wondering if they'll reinstate the donation program a bit down the line, at least before the August 31st cut off of the F9 bonus points? :confused:

Southwest is now simply giving Wisconsin flyers credit for the miles in the EarlyReturns account, up to 50,000, simply for proving that they have this balance.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/southwest-airlines-offers-rapid-rewards-191000930.html

It's nice to be fought over. Time for some serious double-dipping.

So, I know people that live in Wisconsin. In what accounts do I need to change my address to be able to take advantage of this? Just my rapid rewards account? Frontier too?

Are these points TQP and/or CPQP?

Are these points TQP and/or CPQP?

No.

This would be a great way for someone in WI who received the Delta offer and hasn't cashed in yet to double dip. Sign up for the frontier credit card if they aren't already at the max and if they are don't bother signing up for the credit card. Do the mileage match with WN and then transfer the miles to Delta.

Or if they fly MKE/DEN a lot or some other route F9 hasn't pulled then do the mileage match with DL and they will have useful miles on both airlines.

I tend to take a different view here - I think F9 has a right to be angry and cut off the loophole, and charities end up as the big losers. WN should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting a beneficial, charity-oriented program for business purposes. It's sleazy, and in my eyes, knocks WN further down the ladder towards being just another greedy corporation. They should apologize to the charities they've caused to miss out on the opportunity to transport people in need.

I tend to take a different view here - I think F9 has a right to be angry and cut off the loophole, and charities end up as the big losers. WN should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting a beneficial, charity-oriented program for business purposes. It's sleazy, and in my eyes, knocks WN further down the ladder towards being just another greedy corporation. They should apologize to the charities they've caused to miss out on the opportunity to transport people in need.

My feelings are a little mixed on this. WN is a business and I understand them trying to win over the Milwaukee passengers, especially seeing that F9 was transferring miles to Delta.

This tactic assured WN that people wouldn't have miles to use on F9 if their accounts were emptied out. However this backfired and unfortunately the biggest losers right now are the charities.

Seeing that WN is now doing the match I think it would be a good PR move on both airlines if F9 reinstated the program (a lot of the people doing the match would probably rather keep the miles than donate them) and also for WN to agree to donate a certain amount to the charities they support based on the number of miles they match.

I tend to take a different view here - I think F9 has a right to be angry and cut off the loophole, and charities end up as the big losers. WN should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting a beneficial, charity-oriented program for business purposes. It's sleazy, and in my eyes, knocks WN further down the ladder towards being just another greedy corporation. They should apologize to the charities they've caused to miss out on the opportunity to transport people in need.

How are the charities being exploited? F9 recinded the program. WN has agreed to match mileage accounts with their own point system. If one were inclined to donate to charities, they could do so with the points that WN matched so that people could get their flights. It is up to the recipient, not WN, to follow through with that.

If anything, WN is giving the charities the opportunity to reach their goal since F9 bowed out on them.

I tend to take a different view here - I think F9 has a right to be angry and cut off the loophole, and charities end up as the big losers. WN should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting a beneficial, charity-oriented program for business purposes. It's sleazy, and in my eyes, knocks WN further down the ladder towards being just another greedy corporation. They should apologize to the charities they've caused to miss out on the opportunity to transport people in need.

I agree in F9 cutting off the loophole. If it is going to hurt F9's core business, charity giving just isn't possible, the same way a person wouldn't donate savings to charity, if it was to harm oneself financially.

If WN wants to be giving to charities, let it do so using its own miles from its pax, rather than encourage pax to take away miles from another network.

WN transitioned FL routes like MKE-MSP to its own metal. However, when FL flew the route, it was so that LGA-MKE-MSP itineries would show up as the lowest on fare engines.

WN in its own network might not be able to make MKE support all those routes, so it is getting desperate and doesn't want to look like a complete failure at MKE. Right now WN just transitioned the routes over, but there will likely be significant pruning involved later.

Just to clarify, Southwest will be taking over most AirTran flying at MKE by November, but most of the changes have not taken effect yet.

--At this point Southwest has taken over all of MKE-DEN, but most of the AirTran east-west operation is intact.

--By last summer/early fall, the east-west operation at MKE is mixed, with Southwest taking some flights like SEA, LAX and select LGA, but AirTran retaining others like MSP, BOS and DCA.

--By early November, Southwest takes everything at MKE except AirTran retains ATL, DCA and a handful of Florida flights. Recently one of five LGA flights...originally planned to be all-Southwest...has been added back to AirTran.

So most of the transition from FL to WN at Milwaukee hasn't yet happened, but it will within the next 2-5 months. I share your concern that the east-west operation in Milwaukee faces real headwind as Southwest is planning to run it this coming winter -- including bigger planes to fill and much less connectivity. But it's far too early to know how it will pan out since most of it hasn't even kicked in yet.

Just a heads up for anyone trying to take advantage of the bonus offer, there's an easy way to get 1k Frontier miles to be matched:

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/1000-free-frontier-points-or-other-milespoints/

Ha. When I try to sign up at Frontier, I get the following:


Server Error in '/' Application.

Runtime Error

Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".


<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="Off"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>

Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.


<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>

EDIT: Nevermind; it finally went through. But they only gave me 500 points, not 1,000.

EDIT: Nevermind; it finally went through. But they only gave me 500 points, not 1,000.

Did you also register your account on points.com? That's how you to get 1,000 points over the standard 500.

Did you also register your account on points.com? That's how you to get 1,000 points over the standard 500.

No, but I logged back in later and have 1,000 points now. I believe the Frontier deal is 500 for signing up and another 500 for completing your profile.