A-List attainment recommendations
 

I've recently started flying infrequently out of MDW to local markets (OH, MI, MS, etc) with an occasional flight out west or down south.

At my current level of travel I would have no problem attaining A-List status over the course of 12 months, but since I just started traveling I won't make it on flights alone in the remainder of the 2012 calendar year.

If I want to get status for 2013 and not start over again on Jan 1st are my options limited to buying the remainder of points (guessing $150-200 worth of points)? Or are there other options available to help close (or eliminate) the gap before the end of the year? I see this thread suggests car and hotel rental but my corporate system does all the booking for these and I'm not sure if I can earn RR points without booking them through the SW site manually.

Also, do the 50,000 bonus points from getting a RR Signature Visa card apply towards status attainment, or are these only points towards redeemable flights? (I've read through the FAQ and a couple threads but still can't find this one item called out specifically).


Thanks

You might as well wait until 2013. Southwest does not yet offer elite status challenges, and non-flight points don't count toward A-list, except for a small amount of credit card points.

Most of those other points count toward Companion Pass even though they do not count toward A-List. Confusing, I know. Again the count resets at the end of the year, so 2012 points will be wasted.

Get the RR credit card late this year but don't use it until January. Then your 50k points will post in 2013 and you will have a shot at getting CP for the rest of 2013 and all of 2014. You won't earn A-list until late in the year unless Southwest initiates a status challenge offer. That's the best you can do.

Don't forget the rare possibility of the 2x TQP promotions like the ones they ran early this year. I got some extra out of the California one. I think there were also ones to DEN and MDW.

This program is kind of difficult in that regard, you really have to earn the points or do the required number of flights.

I am pretty sure the DEN promotion did not go toward TQP, just into your point bank...

This is interesting. Are you sure there isn't a time limit like "use the card within 3 months of the issue date to get 50k points?"

What's the link to the 50k point offer again?

Why is that a problem?

Southwest Chase Card Offer

The requirements are to charge at least $1000 in the first three months to get the 50,000 points. But from what I can tell these do not appear to count towards status attainment (is that what TQP means?), which makes sense otherwise simply getting this card would give you instant status.

Also, it's not clear to me what the yearly cycles are. Do I need to reach my point or flight total by EOY? I see other post talking about Jan, Feb, or even March dates and it's not clear what therse are in reference to.

You get status attainment only two ways (well three if you include the AirTran transfer): BIS (Butts in Seats, either points from such or number of segments) and spending on the Premiere card. On the card, you get 1500 points for every $10K in spend, no fractional award. Spend $9900 get zilch. Maximum 15000 points on the card per year. I just have the Business version. Someone else can say if you get 15000 on each card if you have both. Got to spend $200,000 to get it though and that may be a high hurdle for a lot of folks.

If you'll only be a couple of flights short you could look into doing some mileage runs (or segment runs on WN) to make up that difference. You would probably earn that money back in points by getting the 25% bonus on your first batch of 2013 flights. I'm typically 2-3 flights short of a+ and do 2 or 3 Dallas to Tulsa runs at $100 each to make up for it.

The California promo at the start of the year was double TQP and I've been looking for another promo but nothing so far. I'm projecting to come up about 5K short for A+ this year.

If you're that close and you'd get actual value from A+, go do a same day turn somewhere. A Y + BS fare should get you fairly close. I'd do that in the next few weeks and get it out of the way, so that in December you're not trying to scramble and pick up some extra points when flights are fuller, the kettles are back etc.

If you are currently A-List, you get 12x TQP for BS. The bonus points and the CC points are not TQP.

So you are looking at about $420 in BS airfare. You can decide if it is worth it. If you fly enough for A-list, then the difference in 25% bonus and 100% bonus will get you enough points for a lot of WGA travel.

Then there is the free WiFi. When it is installed. When it works. I figure about $1 per flight true value. I just flew RT to CA. Four flights, all 300's and no WiFi. I seem to have the worst luck getting WiFi equipped planes.

If you are short just a few segments you can try to split up a few trips. So instead of flying MDW-EWR you'd buy two tickets MDW-BWI and BWI-EWR in such a way that this forms a legal connection. They have to be two separate tickets with separate reservation codes, doesn't work if you simply connect on a single ticket. It will take some time to figure out cheap routes that you can do this on, sometimes it even saves money over the non-stop.

WN is on a calendar year now for elite calculations: A-list and CP. Counters reset to zero at midnight on New Year's Eve. This does not affect your redeemable points.

Since elite status is now valid for "all of the current calendar year and all of the next," it pays to reach goals as early in the year as possible.