And not to mention on DL, you don't pay to switch to an earlier flight if seats are avialable, if you have a short connection you don't have to worry about getting a lousy seat (if you are on a 35 minute connection and your first flight is late arriving and your connection is on time A-list or EBCI will still get you a back middle seat if the plane is boarding), your bags come out first, if checking bags is important to you, you get 2-70 lbs bags instead of 50, etc.

:rolleyes: Yeah, let's just guess about information that is readily available ...

OK for a DL PM/GM the return without the 10,000 mile promotion is still 94% for a kettle it is 47%.


For a short (500 mile) $150 r/t flight the SM return for a kettle goes down to 6%. It is the FTer game that is at stake here!

what happens to fractional credits
 

I can't find anything on what happens if you have fractional credits. If you have .75 credits does that mean you can convert 300 points (.25 * 1200) into 1/4 credit to get your balance up to one credit?

Ah, I finally found a bit of info on this subject in the FAQ:

"For Rapid Reward Dollars earned prior to the program change but posting after, the process is as follows: Rapid Rewards Dollars earned prior to March 1st through spend on the Rapid Rewards Credit Card from Chase, but not deposited into the Member's Rapid Rewards account because the 1,200 Reward Dollar = 1 Rapid Rewards Credit threshold wasn't reached at the time the Member's February statement was issued, will be posted to the Member's Rapid Rewards account on or after March 1st as Rapid Rewards Points at the rate of one Rapid Rewards Point per Rapid Rewards Dollar."

Clear as mud... Seems like they will still deposit 1 RR Credit into the account each $1200 spent and then whatever is left over will go into the account as the 2.0 points.

What concerns me though is if I don't make my first purchase on the card until March 1, will my 32 credits be deposited as points? Using their standard exchange rate, 32 credits = 38,840 points. Using the base 60 pts/dollar, this is only $640 worth of credit, or about $160 per leg. I don't like that conversion a bit!! I was hoping to wait to activate so I could extend the expiration date but it looks like that is not a good idea anymore.

Yes, for your flying patterns, it's bad. But switching to the legacies could be worse.

If your short flights are 500 miles, on the legacies, you'd need FIFTY flights to get to the 25K needed for that $200 free flight. A legacy "anytime" flight would require ONE HUNDRED short flights to earn.

Rapid Reward 2.0 for those who travel on the $59 fares and less
 

In the past, if you booked 16 one way flights regardless of price you earned a free flight. NOT EVEN CLOSE ANYMORE.

Example on the old Rapid Rewards: Purchase sixteen $59 flights and you get a round trip. These round trips were typically valued at about $250.

Example on the new Rapid Rewards: Purchase THIRTY SIX (yes, 36) $59 flights and you will earn $70 * 6 * 36 = 15120 points. These 15000 points can then be used to purchase $250 in WANNA GET AWAY fares. If you want to book an anytime fare then you would have to purchase SIXTY (yes, 60) of the $59 flights to get $250 credit towards an ANYTIME fare ($70 *6 *60 = 25200 points which is equivalent to $250 towards ANYTIME fare redemption)

Keep in mind I was using $59 fares for the above calculations. If you book $39 fares, things get much worse.

This is an absolute joke for Southwest to do this to its loyal customers. Southwest has always prided it self on its cheap wanna get away fares for short trips. Now they are punishing those that book them to accommodate the ~5% of passengers that regularly book business select and anytime fares.

calm down. not the end of the world

My 2 cents:

Peak travel (especially the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving, where most WGA fares are locked out) is going to be at a massive penalty, especially for any connecting travel where the Anytime fare is much higher than the WGA fare. For example, the ECP-BWI flight (which I'll be doing a lot of come March) is about 16,000 points ($140+$126)*60 as a WGA, but the Anytime could be 52,000 ($260+$260)*100.

This does really change my strategy, though, when there are expensive WGA fares (as can be the case on PHL-PIT and CLE-BWI, for example, due to fare compression)...the difference between a $100 WGA fare and a $125 Anytime fare (hypothetical numbers) is the difference between 600 pts and 1250 pts.

If I'm understaning correctly that since I have already re-qualified for my CP with 100+ credits and will remain 100+ through 3/1/2011, that my CP will be good until the end of 2012, consider me a happy RR member.

A question (and sorry if I missed it): Will any RR members be made A-List Preferred starting out on 3/1/11, based on history? Or will there be no A-List Preferred initially?

For the same DL flights? I pulled the numbers right from ITA. Yes, you can get lower but you must give up non-stops. $1100 is not a high number on a non-competitive DL route. DL- ATL-PDX ATL-ALB, etc.

still sorting out my feelings on this...
 

...it seems innately fair, but might not work well for me.

Hope they offer some earning promos...any word if they will?

As I understand it, because my CP expires 1/12, my requalification period will not start until 1/1/12.

Award points aside, am I correct in assuming there is no point to me earning more points than I need for A -list during 2011?

I have 4 awards that will expire before 3/1/11. It appears that I can leave them there for 12 months after their expiration before extending them for $50. Does anyone see any reason to extend them before that time if they are not needed?

end of the world, no.

End of my relationship with WN? Yes.

I fly weekly from LAX to OAK, almost always on $59 fares (or better with sales).

Will be switching to another carrier once all my existing bookings and awards are used.

[QUOTE=sbm12;15595397]Expecting the double miles year after year for a city is going to be the exception, not the rule.

Actually, the point system gives the flexibility to have more promotions, just as it will allow more partners to join. Before, the only currency was a flight credit, but now we will be able to offer different numbers of points for currencies.

Also, our elite levels remain based on numbers of flights flown (25 ows for A-List and 50ows for A-List preferred). In reality, it is now easier to obtain A-List status because under the current system 32 ows are required. One you have obtained either level, you earn more points on every flight. Some of you who are frequent shorthaul travelers may be missing this. Again, I would encourage all of you to try the simulator feature at newrapidrewards.com to compare how your current earning patterns will fare under the new system.