Does this honestly surprise anyone? I have a big stack of tan drink coupons that I was told could be used on monster and that would never expire. They stop accepting them for Monster (even though they are still suppose to accept a lot of the ones I have for monster the majority of FA's still don't know the rule) and then they deicde to put an expiration date of August, 2011 on coupons that have no expiration date. When WN has the audacity to make those changes on coupons they SOLD, no one should be surprised at this. And not to mention they didn't even give 60 days notice to HUGE changes they made in rapid rewards, luckilly I didn't have any travel paid for after the changes, but I would have been upset if I would have book travel on WN over Delta on a DTW/MDW ONLY because 2 RR credits was worth more than 1000 MQM's to find out I was going to be WN points worth less than the Delta miles.

WN should admit they made a mistake and give those passengers a free drink coupon on every flight for the next 30 to 60 days. But you know when an airline charges for drink coupons that don't expire and decides to put an expiration date on them and stop accepting them for one of their products, they sure aren't going to do that.

I'm guessing the team hadn't figured out the mechanics for how to work the deal or realized it required a "gimme free booze" a-list preferred ID card (which hasn't been issued yet) and hopefully will bring it back in another 6 weeks once the paper program catches up and we get our "I'm a special customer" A-List Preferred card.

Keeping the fingers crossed, I'm curious if they'll reinstate it as "1 free drink per flight" policy or a "let's get wasted in first class" type policy.

I called the Dallas folks and, yes, they are aware of the little picture that surely insinuated free drinks for A-List+ folks. That has been removed and there is no free drink(s) program simply due to A-List+ status nor is there one planned.

To get free drinks as an A-List+ member, you will still need to purchase a BS fare or have drink coupons.

Wow. I gotta call shenanigans (stole that one from the DL forum :)). That wasn't just a mistake, it was deliberately coded into the site, seen by several people- enough to be able to say it was once there publically- (and was also seen by- and try not to laugh- the QA team for the website revision), and allowed to go live.

I dunno what happened, but something just doesn't pass the smell test here.

I'm as irritated as anyone, but perhaps you are oversubscribing to a conspiracy theory. Even with the most sophisticated content management and revision repository systems in place, all in takes is one web developer to check in a change and push it live. And with all the madness going on before and after the botched conversion, I doubt the QA 'team' was focused on small details. After all, their whole flucking website blew up after having months to prepare to convert frozen databases and the associated backend queries, etc, over a two-day period into the new RR 2.0 environment.

It could have been a misunderstanding by a single employee of instructions given to them by their manager or perhaps an overzealous noob in the marketing department gave wrong information to the web development director.

Not to excuse incompetence, but I doubt seriously that Southwest management purposely put that free drink graphic on the website in order to pull it less than 24 hours later. What purpose would that serve?

How will drink coupons be distributed? At what threshold - 16 flights still?

After 10 paid trips.

trips = roundtrips, or segments?

If you have credits still in your account and convert the points is WN still going to give you the four drink coupons when you get your standard award? Those drink vouchers help make flying WN on a long flight a lot more bearable. And the FA"s on WN are great about doing refills compared to Delta in Y.

One-way trips, whether or not they include a connection. I'm not sure about the next question (award combining credits and converted points).

Email re-stating "free drinks"
 

Just got a message in my inbox (with a not-so-reassuring Subject line of "Testing Rapid Rewards Notification" - assuming this was a marketing mistake) mentioning that I'll be getting an a-list preferred package in the mail. In it, the message stated:

------------

As an A-List preferred Member, you will now enjoy these benefits:

* Priority Boarding
* FlyBy® Priority Check-in and Security Lane Access (where available)
* 100% Earning Bonus
* Free Drinks Onboard
* Free Inflight Wi-Fi (when available)
* Dedicated A-List Preferred Member Phone Line
* Standby Priority

You should receive your new Membership materials, including your card, within ten business days. Get the rewards you deserve by providing your account number when making a reservation or when using any of our Rapid Rewards Partners.

-----------

Again I'll go back to my statement earlier that I'm guessing the free drinks will be happening, but they had to pull it at the start as they didn't have a mechanism to execute on who is supposed to get them. I asked an FA on my Monday flight about free drinks for a-list preferred and she indicated she hadn't heard anything about it.

At the same time, given that the email's subject line wasn't on target, the email stated that "Your new card is enclosed" (wasn't an attachment - the email later stated I'd receive the card in 10 days) and that this it the same organization that sent me an A-list (not A-list preferred) card a week ago - 2 weeks after I was granted A-list preferred status, my confidence level isn't at 100%.

Me Too...
 

I got the same "testing" e-mail. Note to WN: your test was a success! You managed to annoy and upset pretty much everyone. I almost never drink on my flights but this does seem a bit on the cheesy side.

I received the "test" e-mail but just received one without the "test" on it. The new e-mail is labeled Rapid Rewards Notifications and still has the drinks!

On a side-note, I'm 57% to A+ re-qualification (already A+ qualified through 12/31/2012).

Do we get free drinks AND four coupons for ten trips?

I did not get an email today, but I am A+. I did receive an A regular card in the mail a few weeks ago, I wondered if that was a mistake. Did you all who received emails also get an A List card in the mail?