mritty

On April 16, I booked a round trip from MCO to SNA:
Friday, 5/11/12: #1492 MCO->CMH, change planes to #3007: CMH->DEN->SNA
Advertised fare: $155 (actual fare: $154.40)
Monday, 5/14/12: #591 SNA->PHX, change planes to #1174: PHX->MCO
Advertised fare: $151 (actual fare: $150.60)

On Monday, while waiting for the plane to PHX, a Gate Agent announced they were looking for volunteers to take a later flight to PHX. I told the agent my final destination was Orlando, and would happily volunteer if they could get me to Orlando that same day. The Agent re-routed me, new itinerary:
#237 SNA->MDW, change planes to #446 MDW->MCO.
My arrival time in Orlando was 40 minutes later than my original itinerary.

For my trouble, I was given a LUV Voucher for $450.60 - one-way fare of $150.60 plus $300 compensation. I don't understand that to begin with - why was it $300 if my arrival was only 40 minutes later? Was it because it was technically the 'next day'? (I was originally going to land in MCO at 11:55pm, but now was going to land at 12:35am)

But what I absolutely do not understand is the RR points from this trip. My original confirmation email states the estimated points earned would be 1,548. Divide by 6 and that's $258 of fare. Fare breakdown on the confirmation email shows a base fare of $240, Excise taxes of $18. So that's all good. (for completeness, also includes $19 segment fee, $18 passenger facility charge, and $10 Sept 11th Security fee)

But now that I'm back, looking at my account, I see:
This, I do not understand at all. 1,290 divided by 6 is $215 of fare. 774 divided by 6 is $129 of fare. That's a total of 2,064 points or $344. I can't see any numbers that can be manipulated to arrive at these figures. I can only assume it had something to do with my re-routing, but ... what? And why is the second line listed as a "REFUND"? Refund of *what*? I didn't pay any points to begin with.

Do these figures make sense to anyone? I don't mean to complain, because I absolutely made out on the deal, both in voucher funds and RR points. Nonetheless, I'd love it if someone could explain the math to me.

InkUnderNails

That is real close to the WGA fare for that route for tomorrow. It could be that you got points for the current WGA fare that was in effect at the time of the change.

texashoser

That's what I was thinking.

mritty

Upon further examination, I have another data point to reference. The documents that the GA gave me that list my new itinerary state:
What I'm wondering now is if the Excise Tax portion of that Fees/Taxes is $9, making my earnable-fare $129, and they gave me the Anytime rate of conversion? (ie, $129 x 10 points per dollar = 1290 points). That would mean both halves of the trip were valued at $129 each, but because the second half was technically booked last minute, I got the Anytime rate for that, but the Wanna Get Away rate for the original first leg. Does that make sense?

ftnoob

Excise tax is 7.5%, which is indeed $9 on a $120 fare, so it does sound like you are getting the 10x AT points earning for the return.

It still doesn't make total sense, though...


Addendum:
Oops, wait, not flying so much these days and with the bundled fare quotes, I'd forgotten the segment fee is now $3.80 instead of $3.70. So the total fare makes sense after all: $129 old-style quoted fare, + (2 x $10.80) is $150.60.

The parts that are still odd:

nsx

When my flight was late a few weeks ago I was switched to the earlier flight for free. The RR2 points posted appeared to be consistent with an Anytime fare rather than the WGA I purchased. YMMV.

ftnoob

Yes, I was thinking about this some more while taking a walk, and it seems to me that when the airport folks rebook someone due to IRROPS, VDB, or bump, the computer probably books that person into an Anytime bucket with a waiver of the fare upcharge. So the original $129 fare at 10 points / $ makes sense.

But the OP arguably should have received 10 points per dollar on the excise tax portion of the outbound. mritty, did you have an additional stop on the outbound? If the "base" fare was $129 each way, that would explain the $3.80 extra cost of the outbound. Assuming that is correct, the excise tax was $9 on the outbound as well, and SWA arguably owes you an extra 36 points ($9 x (10 - 6)/$).

So who is going to be the first to start booking flights earlier than they really need and using the flat tire rule to travel on a later flight, thereby earning 10 points per dollar on all their WGA flights?

(No, don't actually do that, we don't want the flat tire rule taken away from everybody!)

mritty

The outbound was a 2-stop, 1-planechange: Orlando to Columbus, change planes. Columbus to Denver, stay on the plane, Denver to Orange County.

Yeah, I don't think I could possibly explain that well enough to SWA customer service to make it make sense... :-P