nsx

Southwest is selling points at 25% off through the end of May. The net price is a hair over 2 cents per point. These do NOT count toward companion pass qualification.

The interesting aspect is that you can buy 19,500 points for $402.19, set up an AirTran A+ Rewards account, send 19200 RR points to your AirTran account, and send the resulting 16 credits right back to Rapid Rewards. You will then have two one-way Standard Awards.

Standard Awards are most useful for last-minute travel on non-peak flights. That kind of travel tends to be expensive when booked for points or cash even though the flights don't depart full.

If you have a family emergency requiring travel between now and the end of May, keep this option in mind. You may be able to get a ticket for $400, although naturally that trip will not earn points.

You should delay making the transfer to AirTran and back until you find availability of Standard Award seats for your trip, but don't delay past the end of October. The AirTran A+ Rewards program will shut down on November 1. You need to decide by then whether you prefer points or Standard Awards.

toomanybooks

I wish I could find a decent valuable trip to a place I want to travel that costs more than 19200 points. Wife and I have 4 Standards we cannot burn.

6Strong

Is there any fee to send the purchased points to an A+ account?

nsx

No, it's free and immediate. The $25 cost per credit easily beat's AirTran's absurd price of $39.

6Strong

A new question not related to the purchase of RR points and then sending those points to an A+ account:

I see from the email that I received that you can also transfer RR points to another account at a 25% discount. I'm struggling to understand why anyone would pay to transfer points.... What's the value of this part of the offer?

joshua362

To fool uneducated people and make some cash at the same time since you can make an award in anybody else's name! I suppose if you had an account NEAR an award that you had no interest in earning additional points in ever again, it would useful to close it out at some cost...

rove312

I'd guess if neither person has the points for the trip they want to take, but a transfer would let someone reach the needed points balance.

toomanybooks

If you are actually going to do this, you might want to pay with Paypal.

You can buy (up to) $500 Paypal gift cards at Office Depot with Ink Bold/Plus and get 5 UR per dollar. That's equal to 5 WN points, a minimum of 7% value.

nsx

Which means you have to buy that many fewer points to reach the 19200, provided that you are willing to wait until your Ink card's statement date to use them.

antinseattle

402$ for 2 OWs..........very interesting. Doesn't math out for my routes, but very good thread


Might have to keep it in mind and decide for a "just in case" moment


Thanks!

johnslloyd

It took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to find an actual productive use for my last couple SAs. I'll take the points, even at 15% devalued. YMMV.

toomanybooks

Edit: Cannot do this, at least now. Cash only for Paypal gift cards at Office Depot.

EDIT EDIT: But I have recently heard that at some Walgreen's you can use a 5x card like an Old Amex Blue to buy Paypal cards.

nsx

Bump. Only 3 days left to top off your 19200 points at a good price if you want to create a Standard Award.

seabound

I have seen $200 Southwest gift cards at Staples. Can gift cards be used to buy points?

nsx

No.