AirTran's A+ Rewards program ends after November 1. That gives you just two days to make some important decisions about your points and credits.
Background
For newbies to Southwest, Rapid Rewards maintains two separate accounts for you: RR points and RR credits. Credits operate as they did in the pre-2011 Rapid Rewards program: When you accumulate 16 credits you automatically receive a Standard Award good for two capacity-controlled one-way trips anywhere Southwest flies. Standard Awards are typically not useful for trips planned far in advance, but they can save you a lot of money on short-notice trips. A Standard Award seat will be available if low fares would have been available on your flight but for their advance purchase restriction. You can get very lucky: I have even redeemed a Standard Award for the Monday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving on two days' notice.
Credit balances are viewable under "View My Old Credits and Awards" in the left column after logging in to My Southwest.
Under the old program many members' credits expired before they could accumulate 16. Those members got nothing from the old program. The new program gives you the option to use points to top off your 16 credits at any time. You can earn the points in many new ways, or you can just purchase them. The purchase price for the full 16 credits ranges from about $375 to $500 depending on whether Southwest is running a promotion on points purchase. A last-minute trip normally costs more than $250 each way, so purchasing the points for a Standard Award can save you money.
However you can't purchase all 16 credits for a Standard Award. You need a "seed" of 0.25 credits minimum to activate the option to top off with points. That's why I am recommending planting that seed.
How to Plant Your Seed Credit
1. Create an AirTran account for yourself if you don't have one. Make sure the name and other information match your Southwest account exactly, because mismatches may block the necessary transfers until it's too late.
2. Login to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account. Click the My Rapid Rewards tab at the center near the top. Look near the bottom of the left column for "Transfer Between A+ Rewards and Rapid Rewards". Click that.
3. If you have credits in the AirTran program or credits (not points) in the Southwest program, skip to step 6.
4. If you have no credits in the AirTran program and no credits in the Southwest program, transfer 300 points, worth about $5, from Southwest to AirTran, where they become 0.25 credit. Then do another transfer to bring that credit back to Southwest. Logout of My Southwest and login again. Click "View My Old Credits and Awards" in the left column and you will see that you now have 0.25 credit expiring in 1 year, giving you the option to top off with points. You have a year to top off that award or not, and it only cost you $5 to create the option.
5.
Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all your family members. The $5 of points you invest now might save hundreds of dollars on a round trip in the next 2 years.
6. If you have some Southwest credits or AirTran credits, check their expiration dates. The object of this exercise is to create a long-duration option to top off. Early-expiring credits will shorten your option period. The best way to clean out early-expiring credits is to top them off the 16 and create a Standard Award. That award will be good for one year. Then don't forget to go back to step 3 and move 300 points to AirTran and back.
7. If you don't want to create a Standard Award and you have credits which will expire worthlessly, you should move all your credits to AirTran and leave them there. Some time after November 1 those credits will come back to Southwest as points, at 1200 points per credit. Your points will be good for two years from the last earning date in the Southwest program, not including points purchases. This is the first and presumably last opportunity to convert credits to points. I still recommend transferring 0.25 credit to Southwest before November 1 even though the result will be a shorter-term option to create a Standard Award. It's only $5.
8. If you have existing Standard Awards you can extend their expiration by transferring them to AirTran and back. This only works with an even number of one-way awards. Any odd number of one-way awards will leave you with 8 credits rather than a one-way award.
For further discussion including reports of transfer glitches requiring a phone call, read these two threads:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...you-doing.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...10-2016-a.html