Southwest Rapid Rewards - Simple question regarding old rewards

So I still have a leftover RR 1.0 award to burn.

Can someone please tell me why on earth almost all available flights that let you use a Standard Award require you to do a connecting flight, while almost every non-stop flight is "unavailable"?

Why would WN want me to tie up a seat on TWO flights in order to burn one RR? Wouldn't they want me to burn the award and get it over with on ONE flight?

This has probably been discussed ad nauseum on here, but I figured that someone had a quick answer for this odd policy.

All these views and nobody knows why the airlines resort to this practice for Reward flights?

It is simply that we are as baffled by it as are you. There is no logical reason and we were hoping that you would get an answer.

Seems there may not be one.

Let me offer a guess as someone that has a few. They are trying to discourage their use.

I'm not sure where you're trying to fly, too but the weird thing about WN is that often direct flights cost more than connecting.(Cash wise, I havent booked a points flight as of yet). I recently flew BUR to LAS and then LAS to PVD on a connect flight and it was 226 total... After I booked I looked up the cost of LAS to PVD (same flight I was on via my connection from BUR) and the cost of that flight was well over $300. I'm not sure why WN does this, but it makes me want to look into "hidden city" destinations in the future it it ends up being cheaper.

Presumably N/S flights are more in demand and easier to sell, or at least WN thinks they are.

Though for some of the trips I am considering, N/S is more available than flights with changes.

Presumably N/S flights are more in demand and easier to sell, or at least WN thinks they are.

But, a connecting flight is simply two N/S and should be less likely to have availability for both legs.

Which begs the question: Has anyone checked one of these available connecting flights to see if both N/S legs are available as SA's?

Update: I found two BNA-SMF with connections, one through LAX and one through LAS, and availability on Aug 10. All four legs also had availability.

Update #2: Since BNA SMF has no N/S, I decided to check BNA-BWI with a lot of NS and a few with connections. BNA-CMH-BWI showed available. BNA-CMH and CMH-BWI also showed available.

Conclusion: If the connection is available, the individual OW's are available.

Update #3: I check the same day BNA-SMF for all of the connecting flights that showed no availability. On every one, at least one of the two legs had no availability.

Conclusion #2: There may actually be some logic to this.

But, a connecting flight is simply two N/S and should be less likely to have availability for both legs.


I don't think it's a matter of availability of one vs. two legs. I think it's a matter of WN in general not wanting to "give away" its more desirable product if it thinks it might be able to sell it.

If we are flying MDW-MCO and the N/S is 2:30 hours and the one with a change is 4:35, obviously we will choose the N/S if we can. So that seat is worth more in general, at least toward the end, when it may go out empty, and that's when we see 1.0/1.5 availability sometimes open up. The legacies are the same way.

There are many more considerations than these, though. For example, for cash, I can find an MDW-MCO N/S flight on August 15 for less than one that changes in FLL. And the N/S available on an Award while the other is not. Presumably those 2 legs can be sold for more than the one leg, or at least WN thinks so. But other 2-leg flights the same days cost less for cash than the N/S for this route and they are not available as Awards. So something else is going on.

Empty seats on airplanes are empty seats. I doubt WN cares much if you occupy three or two or one of them on an Award trip if they are unsold anyway.

I don't think it's a matter of availability of one vs. two legs. I think it's a matter of WN in general not wanting to "give away" its more desirable product if it thinks it might be able to sell it.

If we are flying MDW-MCO and the N/S is 2:30 hours and the one with a change is 4:35, obviously we will choose the N/S if we can. So that seat is worth more in general, at least toward the end, when it may go out empty, and that's when we see 1.0/1.5 availability sometimes open up. The legacies are the same way.

There are many more considerations than these, though. For example, for cash, I can find an MDW-MCO N/S flight on August 15 for less than one that changes in FLL. And the N/S available on an Award while the other is not. Presumably those 2 legs can be sold for more than the one leg, or at least WN thinks so. But other 2-leg flights the same days cost less for cash than the N/S for this route and they are not available as Awards. So something else is going on.

Empty seats on airplanes are empty seats. I doubt WN cares much if you occupy three or two or one of them on an Award trip if they are unsold anyway.

This answer makes the most sense.. If you're looking to use a reward flight, in my case BWI-MCO in mid-October, and there are 8 flights available and 4 are non-stop, obviously the paying customers are going to be clicking on those non-stops first.. So me routing through Norfolk or Nashville or Birmingham makes more sense NOW..

I know one thing.. I'll be glad when this goofy old reward is gone. I love the new system, where you wait for flights to go on sale, and then grab your reward tickets for as little miles as possible. Hell, I recently got a round trip ticket for Sept for BWI-CHS for a whopping 4400 RR points round trip.

However I pay for a flight points or cash. I will always pay more for the NS flight. I can see the logic with this with RR2. RR1 cert usage - maybe not so much. But, that will be long gone soon enough when all those RR1 certs have been used or expired.

However I pay for a flight points or cash. I will always pay more for the NS flight. I can see the logic with this with RR2. RR1 cert usage - maybe not so much. But, that will be long gone soon enough when all those RR1 certs have been used or expired.

Really? I almost always find the exact opposite. For the itineraries I book, the NS is usually the cheapest flight, or at least among the cheapest.

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to WN's fare structure. Occasionally it makes sense in cases like when the afternoon "business-oriented" flights are the most expensive.

But, generally I find that the NS is the cheaper (or cheapest) option. I suspect it's because, as was mentioned above, the revenue management software ups the price when one of the legs is selling well or approaching unavailability.

Some completely random samples are below.

http://i50.tinypic.com/by6ur.png

http://i45.tinypic.com/29dv41e.png

As a former revenue management scientist at AA, I can share with you that availability on a particular flight on a specific date will depend on current booking levels on the flight as well a future predicted demand.

Sometimes the N/S options will have lower predicted load factors and, hence, have award availability. Other times, the connecting flights will have lower predicted load factors and, thus, have award availability. It will vary by route and date.