Can I use A+ awards to book southwest flight?
 

My wife and I both have companion tickets, but she has no more miles on her account. I was wondering if:

1. I could link my A+ account to her in order to transfer her some points?
2. If I could use 8 credits to book a cheap 1-way flight it might be cheaper than paying for cash even with the companion?

Any advice is greatly appreciated as I am not very familiar with the A+ program redemption options.

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking.

It is not necessary to transfer credits to her account to book her a ticket. You can book a ticket for anyone using your account and credits (Airtran) or points (Southwest.)

In order to use Airtran Credits to book a flight on Southwest, you need to transfer 16 credits to your Southwest RR account. That will create a Standard Award which is good for 2 one way flights. Again you can book these flights for anyone.

Note that A+ Rewards and Southwest Standard Awards are capacity controlled and may not be available for the destination and dates you are interested in.

If that does not answer your question plese post more details.

I have enough A+ credits for a Southwest Standard Award. Can I check standard award availability online before I decide to transfer the A+ credits to Southwest even though I don't have any Southwest credits (I just have points under the new system)? If so, how? Thanks.

You can check Standard Award availability on Southwest.

To do that:

• Log into your RR account.
• Click on the little "My Account" under your name.
• Click on the "View My Old Awards and Credits" box on the left side of the page.
• On The next page click "Standard Awards Availability"
• Fill in the Pop up menu.

The transfer is usually instantaneous but you may need to log out of your RR account and back in to see the new Standard Awards.

You can also always transfer any remaining Standard Awards back to Airtran and regain the credits.

Sorry for SW newbie ignorance, but what's the difference (or trade-off) between a standard award and points? When I look at the SW website I see different points requirements for Business Select, Anytime, and Wanna Get Away. Is a standard award equal to one of those? I want to use my Airtran credits to get 4 RT tix ATL-AUS this fall and I'm trying to get educated to make the most of my credits (I have plenty for any transaction; I just don't want to waste credits/points).

Thanks!

A Standard Award is Southwest's name for a Round Trip Reward Voucher, it takes 16 Credits to get one which equals 19,200 points.

Each Standard Award is for two one way flights. They do not have to be used together. They are capacity controlled, that is there may be no Standard Awards seats on some flights. The advantage is that sometimes you can get a Standard Award flight when the points price of the same flight is far more than 9,600 points, this seems especially common for short notice flights although some people report very low availability of Standard Awards flights.

At present the only way to use Airtran A+ Credits on Southwest is to convert the A+ Credits to Rapid Rewards Credits then to Standard Awards.

On November 2 any A+ Credits remaining in your A+ Rewards account will moved to your Rapid rewards Account and converted to points at the rate of 1,200 points /credit. Southwest has warned that it may take several weeks to transfer the credit to points.

To get the flights you want from Atlanta to Austin will take 64 Airtran Credits or 4 Standard Awards. Checking September and October most dates appear available and the points price is often below 9,600 points, so if you have points you can use those as well.

I would suggest booking your flights on Southwest as soon as possible, as availability will likely diminish over time. If your plans change you can always rebook or cancel on Southwest with no penalty, except possibly higher cost or reduced availability.

Hope This Helps.