Originally Posted by
saneman
I have 15.5 credits. I am a half credit short to get the roundtrip standard award. What is the best strategy to get that half credit? I have nearly 5000 points in my WN account. Can I buy a half credit of Airtran using some of those points and then use the 16 credits to get a Standard Award on WN? Also, how bad is the availability for standard awards if I usually fly to cities like Philly or Boston.
Transfer 900 points from Southwest to Airtran. That gives you 16.25 credits. Transfer 16.25 credits from Airtran to Southwest. That gives you one Standard Award and a seed for a second later. Availability at the last minute is pretty good except for sumer and holidays. Short haul availability is excellent even near peak times. If you ever need to travel on short notice, Standard Awards are very good.