freebee

Congratulations, Southwest. When it comes to ticking off customers due to lack of transparency, you've just surpassed Delta.

jbdear

This is just great. Here I was excited about the new non-stops out of Dallas (ECP, SEA, PDX) - and then we get this kick to the $&@#.

Never expected Southwest to pull a Delta with respect to their FF program - but it looks like they just did. UGH.

I particularly love "Rapid Rewards Points needed to redeem for certain flights will vary based on destination" - while I presume this will apply to Int'l destinations - I would love to be in a conference room where WN employees have the following discussion:

How many points per dollar for LA on a Sunday?

x140

How many points per dollarfor Lubbock?

x70

How many points per dollar for Vegas on a Friday night?

x180.

LegalTender

I don't see a benign intent.

Point earning by fare paid - and redemption by distance - is a swindle.

flyer4512

It appears 4/17 will either be the day ( or very close to the day ) they open up the next schedule after 2/19

mile ho

Look out Friday/Sunday travelers who want to use their points!

You're about to get the shaft.

Total BS.

jbdear

I fear the worst here. Needless to say - time to start planning your leisure travel for the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

Big4Flyer

Man, I seem to be very unlucky with these sorts of things. 1 month after I hit the spending for my Frontier card they announced they were moving to become a ULCC. A month after I got my Delta AmEx Delta announces their 5 tier awards and subsequently removes the award charts. And then I get approved for two Southwest cards and now this. Everyone better watch out, I'm planning on applying for the British Airways card next, so get ready for an Avios devaluation! Oh wait, that just happened...

ursine1

Ugh.

Just, ugh.

jbdear

Big4Flyer - do us all a favor and stop getting new travel related credit cards.

toomanybooks

Kinda sneaky to do this right after a bunch of people get the CP, with CCs or by transferring in.

Go hit their Facebook, folks.

Wondering what I should do with all my UR now.

FindAWay

Since, at this point, we're still speculating what the changes will be, I'm thinking about how the boldface language guides the preceding 2 sentences:

I think it likely means that the ratio of 70 pts/$1 for WGA redemptions will be variable based on the litany of factors recited by WN. So, for example, Fri/Sun WGA flights may require 80 pts/$1 or 90 pts/$1 (instead of 70 pts/$1) for WGA redemptions but, there may not be a price floor or fixed rate of redemptions because such a redemption scheme would be too difficult to manage those going on sale when WN has a paid fare sale.

Furthermore, I think they must be changing the redemption rate(s) for some (or all) flights because the language I underlined above implies that the current rate is changing.

What the announcement leave open to speculation includes:

What will be the new redemption rate(s)?
To which flights will the new redemption rate(s) apply (and how will those be determined)?

I speculate that (1) there will not be a price floor because the email states that "there is no minimum point balance requirement to redeem for reward travel." And, I speculate that (2) "We don’t charge a fee of any kind for you to use your points, even if you are redeeming at the last minute." could mean that the 70pts/$1 ratio for WGA fares increases at some point (perhaps, at 3 weeks out, it becomes 80 pts/$1; at 2 weeks out, it becomes 90 pts/$1; and 1-week or less out, it becomes 100 pts/$1).

flyer4512

When was the last deval ? As long as they keep CP the same SW is still by far the best deal going IMO

dlaue

Perhaps this is just a precursor to Hawaii service. After all, when WN had the Hawaii arrangement with ATA, it took TWO standard awards instead of one to board.

So, 70 points per dollar on WGA fares for everything except Hawaii, which will be 140?

Anyway, that's the best spin I can put on this.

Ever since the drink coupon fiasco, I have lost faith in Southwest being other than an airline run by MBA geeks who have no sense of loyalty to their customer base.

nsx

This is consistent with the hypothesis that redemption rate will depend on the fine-grained fare bucket. Friday and Sunday flights typically have zero seats in the lowest fare bucket. So they might get a higher points per dollar ratio.

We need a statement from Southwest to the effect of: "Southwest has a range of cash ticket prices in any origin-destination market. Whenever you see the lowest price tickets available, redemption for those flights will be at 70 points per dollar."

airplanegod

The race to the bottom continues for air travel in the US, and unfortunately B6 and WN are getting in the game.