ftnoob

I refrained from posting this when it first came up, figuring Google would pretty soon revisit the site, thus rendering the link useless, and not wanting to bother with screen cap hassles. Amazingly, though, Google's cached snapshot of newrapidrewards.com has not yet changed. In case it has by the time you see this post and click the link, however, what you missed was a parked domain featuring the title "Cash Advance | Debt Consolidation | Insurance | Free Credit Report at Newrapidrewards.com" and, most of all, this easy on the eyes stock photo image:


Someone better versed than me in the intricacies of the InterWebs might be able to tell us how Google could have come to know about newrapidrewards.com back on 23-Nov-2010.

ETA: A fully functioning AdBlockPlus and filter set might prevent you from seeing the parked newrapidrewards.com in all its glory. If you really want to see it all, temporarily disable ABP.

tusphotog

And Gary Kelly's robot email reader will likely tell you exactly what the email said. Your CP expires 12/31/11. If you earn 100 credits the old way, OR fly 100 times/reach 110K TQP, you'll get a new CP, expiring 12/31/12.

How is this not clear? How is this not fair?

dmdflyer

Probably, the hotel points exchange rate will change after 1/3. It is not clear if you will get points or old credits and the new rate for converting to points.

Peter T.

So for your LAX to OAK flights, which airline will you switch to? Do you think that UA's FF program will now give you a better return for your LAX-OAK dollars? Or maybe Jet Blue or Virgin America's program?

Yes, for short haulers like you and I (I regularly fly between the Bay Area and L.A.), this is going to hurt us a bit financially. But are there any other airlines FF programs better now than Southwest for those of us who fly regularly between the Bay Area and Southern California? I'm not sure if there are, though I'll look at Virgin America's Elevate program more closely to see how it now compares to RR 2.0.

headinclouds

A simple question about awards that I could cull out from the many pages posted. I will earn my 16th credit this month. If I redeem an award before 1-Mar-2011, then all of the old rules apply for that award. If the award is not claimed, then my award ticket gets converted to points. Is this correct? I rarely fly WN, but managed to finally get the 16 credits. It would be nice to use that for a BWI to West Coast award ticket.

Chuck2009x

From what I've seen, the RATE will be about the same. It is fairly clear, in that you earn points, not credits, after 3/1, and they've established the points you earn. For example, a car rental that used to earn 0.5 will now earn 600 points.

Now, down the line, they may reduce the number of points you get for a car rental, but I don't think they need to. By devaluing the system from 8x to 10x, that automatically flows through to any points earned the new way.

If a RT ticket is $400, it would take 32 car rentals the old way to get a free one. Now it'll take 2,400 points, or 40 car rentals. Same 25% devaluation.

In my later posts and calculations, I've come to the conclusion that NON-frequent fliers probably shouldn't worry about exchanging hotel, etc. points and banking RR1.0 credits (or having at least 1 credit carry over) before 3/1 UNLESS:

1) They can get to 16 before 3/1
OR
2) They know for sure they will earn enough points between 3/1 and the expiration date of their RR1.0 credits to do a back-conversion to get to 16 by the expiration date.

I also would like to thank SWABrian, I can see he's doing his best to get accurate answers, and unfortunately in a long thread, people are not going to read every post to see if their question has already been answered (or sometimes even bother to try to figure it out on their own), so get used to it Brian, hope you have some vacation time coming when this is over

Maybe the mods can take some of the questions/situations that have been clearly asked and answered and make a non-postable sticky thread and update it.

thefixs2

We are in the same boat. Our 2 kids travel with us as well. Is it time to find another airline? SW is so convienent for us. Or is this just the end of being able to strive for a free flight once in a while? Any advice, anyone. This stinks......

lougord99

That is not correct. Your standard award will remain a standard award with all of the old rules applying until that standard award expires or is used. You do not need to use it before 3/1/11

Chuck2009x

No. If you get to 16 before 3/1, an award flight under the old rules automatically gets posted to your account. It stays under the old rules. You have one year from the date it hit your account to fly; if you don't fly by then, you have one year after the expiration date to extend it for $50. From reading the rules, it's not clear how long you can string it out, but I think it could be as long as 3 years from the date it originally hit your account - it depends on how long the "extension" lasts (that's the part that's unclear, but I'm presuming it's a year):

• Award flight posts to your account on 2/1/2011
• Expires 2/1/2012
• You have until 1/31/2013 to extend it
• You extend it for $50 on 1/31/2013
• If the extension is good for 12 months, you have until 1/31/2014 to fly.

People who back-convert points after 3/1, the same rules apply except the award will not be extendable - they'll have to use it within 12 months.


Can I extend my old Standard or Freedom Award once it expires?
Once an Award has expired, if it was originally issued prior to the new program launch, you will have up to 12 months after the expiration date to request a one-time only Award extension for a $50 fee, payable by credit card only, at southwest.com. Standard Awards that are issued after the launch of the new program will not be eligible for extension.

What are the rules for a Standard Award earned after the launch of the All-New Rapid Rewards Program?
Awards earned after the launch of the All-New Rapid Rewards program, by converting Rapid Rewards Points into Rapid Rewards Credits, have the same rules/restrictions as a Standard Award from the old program, with an expiration date 1 year from date of creation. These Standard Awards earned after the launch of the new program are not extendable.

lougord99

I've missed anything being said about DING. Why do you say that?

benmaller

For an infrequent traveler the non- expiring points is a plus since you no longer have to earn enough credits in 2 years. Depending on the costs of the paid flights versus what you want on award flights there is some devaluation but if WN is the most convenient airline for you as an infrequent traveler them it most likely still is after the change.

swag

The new program really isn't very complex. What is very complex is the transition. I'm almost 500 posts into this thread, and I'd say 90%+ of the comments deal with the conversion issue: transition of redeemable credits, when a-list and cp counters reset, and so forth.

If you look ahead to 2015 and what will be in place then, it's fairly simple. If you don't fly enough to worry about a-list or CP, but just earning and redeeming awards, the post-conversion program is even more so.

starflyer

[QUOTE=SWABrian;15603434]Either you're Jeff Robertson, or marketing spin has become very contagious.

swag

Absolutely true.

The good news is that RR2 seems relatively immune from future devaluations. Pegging awards to a dollar amount of spend should result in a more stable program. Within each fare class, the reward is 10%. If airfares rise, as they inevitably will, the ratio stays at 10%.

More importantly, partner point value will naturally decrease with inflation. If a fare rises 25% from $200 to $250, the amount of credit card spend required for that award will rise 25% also.

Compare that to the legacy airlines: $25K of card spend for a free roundtrip is constant, so as the price of the roundtrip rises, the airline will eventually have to increase the award chart (either bump to 30K or reduce the "saver" level inventory). When they do that, this affects not only those who earn via partners, but also those who earn by flying.

swag

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet after over 500 posts, but there's another benefit to RR2 for the infrequent traveler. You can now redeem an award for a one way ticket, as soon as you have enough points to cover it. With RR2, there was no one way award issued after 8 credits, you had to get to 16 before redeeming.