FindAWay

You have to look at Base Fare - it'll all be 70 pts/$1.

The taxes and fees are the reason the difference is made. It is not specifically related to buckets within WGA fares (i.e., an "N" bucket at $89 vs. "N" at $119 for different routes will still have the discrepancy you point out but the ratio to base fare will remain 70 pts. per $1)

ncSam

I see. Thanks for the explanation. The math still derives a higher value for lower fares, because award tickets don't include the excise tax, but I agree now that the devaluation likely has nothing to do with excise tax.

nsx

There's no need to make it more complicated than splitting the current 70 points per dollar into 70, 80, and 90 points per dollar. That's assuming that Southwest doesn't also want to raise Anytime above 100 points per dollar.

illinidad

All of this speculation about 70/80/90 points per $1 of base airfare only, ignoring excise tax, etc, etc seems waaay too complicated for SW's IT department. Remember how long it took for the 'remember me' box to actually, uh, remember you?

I think they'll actually implement a very simple, three-question wizard when you book. Somthing like this:

1-Where would you like to fly?
2-How many points do you have?
3-Send them in...

Welcome to Southworst Airlines

How about we start organizing community charter flights instead of taking yet another one of these 'enhancements' in the keister? This is just outrageous. First Delta, now these &%@#$@$#^@#$^.

Hello American. At least until you screw me over too, which I expect about 6-12 months after the merger is complete.

toomanybooks

As I posted once, under current conditions it is a really bad idea to redeem points for AT or BS almost always.

Instead, convert your WN points @ 1 cent into a WN GC, then use that to buy the ticket. You'll get the same price (essentially), but also:

1. 10 or 12 points (at least) for the flights.
2. Credit toward A-List/+
3. Credit toward CP.

Only reason I can think of not to do this is that you don't want to risk getting TTFs if you have to cancel.

Of course, next they might "break the penny."

mastermind85

This is one of the worst announcements I've ever seen. Are they intentionally trying to freak everyone out with the vagueness?

italdesign

Look, this sucks, but at least we're given plenty of advanced notice, albeit obscurely.

FindAWay

I agree. I'm hoping that a separate thread with datapoints will help us see patterns to the changes in award redemption rates.

nsx

I'm hoping that Southwest will just tell us what the new rates are. I'm pretty sure they don't have fancy enough software to support a variety of points per dollar rates, let alone to support points prices completely disconnected from the cash prices. So it should be a different exchange rate for different fare classes. That would be the simplest way to implement it.

guflyer

Of course, they could always be like Delta and not let you know what the rates are so that if an award is mispriced to your detriment, the mispricing is the new official price.

rsteinmetz70112

I think that's exactly what they just did.

ursine1

I very much doubt it. If it were a simple formula they would have shared it already.

People who think WN's IT can't support a dynamically variable points redemption system should consider that this area is directly related to their bottom line; it's not comparable to something like fixing the "remember me" bug. As I mentioned earlier, I suspect this change is a result of (or alternately, could have been the reason for) the "under the hood" IT changes WN has been working on with their bookings systems.

They already have dynamic fare pricing that uses a complicated set of variables to control yield; I suspect a similar algorithm will be put in place to apply a points calculation to those cash fares.

Of course, experience with WN's IT has shown us that this could also turn out to be a huge cluster f.

I guess we'll see after April 17.

nsx

You presume a degree of sensitivity to customer perceptions that is not in evidence. Southwest has always been much more reactive than proactive in seeing the customer's point of view. Even under Herb.

Robl

Actually I'm more afraid of an end to CP. With CP I'm getting almost 3 cents/pt which is better than any other airline.

rsteinmetz70112

Not for a while, they have just launched an promotion in Atlanta offering CP for three round trip flights before mid May.