Booking Southwest Flights on UR Portal
 

On the UR portal it states you can call for travel with Allegiant and Southwest. Since I have a CSP if I call and book through them would it cost less points than transferring and booking with Southwest directly?

In general, you'll get a better value than CSP (1.25cpp) by transferring to WN, but there may be scenarios where that's not true. Try a couple test cases and see.

Right. No hard and fast answer. Play with the options.

Always remember when paying (booking via Chase) you'll earn Southwest points/miles, whatever they give out. When transferring you'll be redeeming a reward with Southwest and probably won't earn anything... So factor that into your equation too.

Unfortunately Southwest changed the math which brings the value comparison closer to Chase redemptions. With CSP (1.25cpp) it's most often still better to transfer to WN. With CSR (1.5cpp), however, it's more of a toss-up now. As always, one should check their own itinerary to compare prior to deciding which currency to use.

When you book through the portal do you loose the flexibility you get if you book directly through WN

Re-hashing an old topic but I just booked two one way international flights and think the CSR portal was a better fit because I avoid the taxes and also will earn points for the flights as opposed to transferring them to Southwest and making a RR booking. As I understand it, if for whatever reason I need to cancel one or both of these flights I will have 12 months to use the travel funds inside Southwest from date of cancel? Will the funds show up as revenue I take it and not RR's? Also, I assume I can add my companion to both one way itineraries and pay the international taxes and that's it? I did all this through chase portal to at least avoid the international taxes on my fare and to earn points on my fare(s), one was business select and the other was WGA. I assume I still will earn 12x and 6x respectively for each flight?

I am pretty sure than you paid the taxes as part of the fare.

Sounds good to me as you have to pay the taxes when you book with points which is revenue based for Southwest. I'll have to use the RR that are anchored at some point but I'll strategize to do that on domestic $5.60 award bookings.

I didn't know about calling to book Southwest or Allegiant. Have you been successful in doing so?

Yes , did for SW just recently. Grab a beer though, it takes a while. With UR, you get the slightly better 1.5x toward the cash flight on Sw's website which is a little better than what SW gives for RR bookings( I think 1.43x-1.45x right now for domestics, a little lower on Intl). Get to earn RR on the flight too by booking with UR. Only drawback is by booking through Chase you will get the travel credit in dollars added to your account to use within 12 months if you have to cancel instead of RR being re-deposited upon cancellation.

Those are some excellent points, especially about if I need to cancel a flight. Than you.

I think the other drawback is that if you're also booking tickets for other travelers the cancelled funds will be tied to their names and not reusable for someone else like RR points would.

Similar to making a cash (not points) booking directly with SW.

No. 12 months from date of purchase not date of cancel.