Beckles

HHonors Double Dip has an even more generous precedent, the flat mileage option doesn't apply to just selected airline programs, but all airline programs.

k02sc02

sorry if wrong thread
I need to sign up for RR and have been prompted for a promo code. Anyone have one and can pm me? i will hold off on signing up for RR for a few days in hopes someone can benefit from a referral for me to the rr program.
am going to apply for chase swa visa posted here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...ift-cards.html
deal still appears to be alive. i would like to get in before rr 2.0 hits in march!

dlaue

I had a good run with Western Airlines, including the excellent service at their Horizon Club. Then in ended.

Then, I had a good run with PSA and their flight segment + credit card frequent flyer program. Then it ended.

Next, I had a good run with USAir and spent almost all my long distance travel in first class seats. Great international travel, too, during their partnership with British Air. Then it ended.

Now I have had a good run with Southwest, including a companion pass and A list every year they were offered. Looks like this may be ending.

American Airlines?

Hell, Amtrak?

Who's next to get my travel dollar?

dlaue

So I used the WN points simulator. Deleted the award travel segments. This yeilded an estimated 202,000 points.

If I am reading this correctly, that means ~16 wanna getaway round trips at $200 each.

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before (I was aboard a cruise ship and did not want to figure this all out at 50 cents/minute connect time):

Does the WN points simulator import the ACTUAL fare you paid or just make an estimate based on the current WGA fares for that city pair?

dillspearpaddler

I will be sitting on 6 (maybe 7) Standard Awards on 3/1. The way I understand it, you will not be able to convert to Freedom Awards after 2/28. I have found it increasingly difficult to find SA travel. Any thoughts out there regarding converting before 3/1? Advantages/Disadvantages?

HPN-HRL

The Point Simulator appears to base its results on estimates of fares between your city pairs, NOT the fare you actually paid!

Minigolf Man

This may have already been asked, but I don't have the time to read through every post. It looks like I will have 15 credits on 3/1. What happens, since RR 2.0 takes effect that day? Will I be allowed to earn that extra credit and how long do I have? Can I earn it with my SW Visa?
Thanks.

starflyer

You can find your answer without reading through hundreds of posts at: http://www.newrapidrewards.com

Tino

Find someone with a Diners Club card and bribe them. DC points can be converted into SW credits for anyone's account.

Tino

After flying Southwest heavily for 15 years and being very active in gaming their FF program, I am making a bold call that this "benefit" of the program is going to disappear soon. Every single opportunity that flyers have had to significantly game the Rapid Rewards system has been rooted out by the airline and systematically eliminated (one example: the Amtrak conversion fiasco of 2007). I have known of a few loopholes that I would not even post on this board because I knew that the airline would call an audible and 1) eliminate it, or 2) send me a threatening letter for violating their T&C (which I have received from them in the past).

If you have those points in hand now, you are making a bold call that the conversion rates after 3/1/11 remain the same and that this loophole will hold. I believe that they will, in the future, limit the number of points that you could transfer from other sources as part of your total CP requirements. It is way, way too easy for people to score perpetual 24-month CP passes this way.

This benefit will be "adjusted" in "RR 2.1", because it ignores the fact that other programs will let you bank Southwest points, but points in the Southwest program expire at the end of the year (for CP qualification purposes). It was never an issue in the old Rapid Rewards because you could only get a 1-year Companion Pass at a time for "topping off to 100". The new rules allow you to get a 2-year Companion Pass for doing the same thing.

Bookmark this page and come back to it in a year. I'd bet my accumulated pile of SW drink tickets on it.

HERE IS WHY:
----------------
Anyone with a (corporate or personal) Starwood Amex that puts just $5k of spending per month on their card, at current conversion rates, would have a perpetual Companion Pass. That is really, really easy to do and I would expect many corporate clients to do just that. The math:

$5k/month in spend = 60k points/year
60k points converts to 50 credits at current rates (with the 25% Starwood bonus)
So every 2 years you would accumulate 120k Starwood points (150k with the 25% bonus). These would transfer to 100 credits, or really 110,000 SW points (assuming the 100 credit/110k SW point ratio stays constant as outlined in the FAQ). You would do this every other January 1, and you could, with a very minimal effort, keep a perpetual CP.
----------------

If you actually flew Southwest or stayed at Starwood properties, you would need even less spend. Once people figure this out, the following things will happen:

1. Southwest will eliminate the 24-month Companion Pass.
and/or
2. Southwest will introduce a limit to "banked" points you can transfer and/or require a minimum level of annual flying.
and/or
3. Southwest will devalue the points through the Starwood/Southwest conversion ratio (this is a near certainty).
and/or
4. The Southwest Visa card becomes obsolete, as the amount of spend you would need via that route is obscene (because those credits die at the end of the year for CP qualification purposes and cannot be banked like Starwood points can).

I'd cash them in now and get a 2011+2012 CP, since this benefit is going to be "streamlined" before you know it.

toomanybooks

Some things should not be loudly proclaimed.

Tino

That is probably why I received these nice letters with the Southwest legal department's letterhead on them.

SWSNA

Am I missing something? The "24-month" CP is really just a temporary "13 to 23 month" CP for the transition. After 12/31/12, there will only be 12-month CPs, unless I'm totally misreading everything.

I don't see any great opportunities for gaming. It will take about $10K in spending per month (at current rates) to get the one-year CP. At 1%, $10K per month is $1200/year, which seems like a fair average value for the CP. YMMV, of course.

bon95

on 1/1/2013 you could convert enough points from Starwood to get CP for the remainder of 2013 and all of 2014. Repeat process on 1/1/2015. 1/1/2017. etc.

Tino

Yes, you are completely misreading it. I think that you are assuming that the spending is all from Southwest flights, and that future CPs will be 12-months in duration. They will be a minimum of 12 months, but a maximum of 24 months.

Re-read my math. It takes $5k (or less) of ANY monthly spending to get a perpetual 2-year CP if you use a Starwood Amex. You don't have to spend one dollar on flying, since you are using banked points.

People that put their monthly corporate expenses on their Starwood Amex card are probably getting more SPG points that they know what to do with them. Their "cost" of a Companion Pass has just dropped in half. I informed a couple of colleagues with hundreds of thousands of SPG points from this credit card and they are very, very interested in this strategy.

This applies to all Starwood Amex holders: if you only have $2,500 a month in spending on your card, you will still be able to get a 2-year Companion Pass every four years with your banked points, which is an amazing deal.