mdurette

I ask this thread to be constructive with ideas on what your Plan B will be, please don't complain on this thread, there are other threads for that.

Even with the news, my goal hasn't changed much. I still want to use points for free flights (on whatever airline) and SW will most likely still be my go-to airline.

The Marriott 7 night TP is still a good deal.
120,000 SW points for 270,000 MR points

A direct transfer from MR to SW is 50,000 SW points for 140,000 MR points.

I will wait and research a bit before I order the TP, but this is my 1st thought.

Mr. Vker

Tough call for me. I was going to go for my first CP today-that would have lasted 2 years. I live in Baltimore, so BWI has MANY nonstop flights to desirable locations. However, AA also is a possible choice for my MR TP. That will force me to connect, but economy saver seats are often less than RR seats. My AA CC gets me a bag checked and lounge access. I get to select a seat and possible upgrade.

I am really torn on this now.

robbert

The United transfer is now a better deal at 132,000 miles. I'll still fly WN when it makes sense but with their pricing AA/DL crediting to AS will come out better in many cases (DL until April). With this change I'm not going crazy trying to reach A-list again.

floridatraveler90

Glad someone made this thread. I can't say I was shocked when I heard the news but I was very upset because I had just previously purchased 30,000 spg points the day before to get the travel package deal to get CP. I had also recently signed up for the Marriott card with this in mind too. Now I'm stuck with how I want to use about 60,000 spg points and 85,000 marriott points. Anyone have any good ideas outside the travel package?

Mr. Vker

The TP is still the best use of MR points as it allows 1:1 ratio of points to miles (or WN points). I personally wouldn't deviate from that, but might consider another airline???

floridatraveler90

Do you know if any of the other airlines post as elite qualifying?

bgriz18

Travel packages are still an amazing deal.

For me, the main purpose of travel packages was to get the CP with the added bonus of 7 nights at a hotel. Instead I will save more MA points to go for a more aspirational hotel. Probably go for UA miles because of higher bonus and I will be moving to a star hub soon.

toomanybooks

I am now 100% free agent, looking for best deal on all trips, vs. sort of defaulting to WN. That will often be AA henceforth, especially as that is my chosen Amex Plat airline.

Mr. Vker

I don't think any do. In fact, WN didn't post as elite. The points wouldn't get you status such as A list, but did get the CP. To get status, you have to get miles from a butt in a seat.

escapefromphl

I had a CP for the last 2 years which just expired, I was going to redeem via Marriott again. While I had the CP, accruing WN points for car rentals, online purchases etc was a no brainer. I even took more solo WN flights for work because the points value for Anytime fares was so good with a CP. We got pretty good use out of it, a couple of Mexico trips and multiple weekend getaways. So I will probably go back to flying WN less, it does adjust the equation quite a bit.

lexdevil

^^^This.

But anyone interested in getting the better transfer rate for United needs to remember to sign up for Rewards Plus PRIOR to making the transfer. The 20% discount on transfers to United requires you to sign up for the program first. If you do not, your points will transfer at the usual rate, which is found on the second table on this page.

Also, I would recommend that whatever airline you choose to transfer to (Marriott has a LOT of transfer partners), you wait until there is a transfer bonus offer with that airline. You just missed one with United that ended in November. It offered a 25% bonus on hotel point to mile transfers, for a maximum 20,000 point bonus. And it worked with the Travel Package, so you could get 152,000 points instead of the usual 132,000 points for the mileage portion of your Travel Package.

The previous transfer bonus period with United was last spring, so it would not be surprising if there were a new bonus offered in the next few months.

Other airlines offer similar bonus programs. The best way to learn about them is to join their frequent flyer program and sign up to receive announcements of special offers. If you don't authorize them to send you announcements, they are not going to. If you don't want to have an inbox filled with airline SPAM, monitor the FlyerTalk Forums for the airlines you are interested in.

Also, if you choose to go the United route, I recommend that you pick up one of the Chase United credit cards. They often come with LARGE sign up bonuses (50-100k miles). They will also get you a free checked bag, which is important when flying United. The benefits of the Explorer card (the cheaper of the two) are here. The benefits of the Club Card (expensive!) are here. Before signing up for either, be sure to watch for the best sign up bonus offers. The Explorer card is cheap enough that if you and a companion each check bags on a United round trip once, the card will have paid for itself. The more expensive Club card only makes sense if you 1. want to use the United lounges (you need not be flying on United to do so), and if you want to pile up a lot of United miles for uncategorized/unbonused spend (the Club card gives you 1.5 miles per dollar of uncategorized spend on the card).

ehallison

Why not use them for hotel stays for which the 5th night is free? Everyone touts that vacation packages are a better value because the air add-on is point-for-point, and Southwest points (& other air miles) are worth twice as much as Marriott points. But my husband and I are always hotel-point poor and airline-mile rich. (of course we will have a higher burn-rate for air miles now that the legacy carriers have gutted the earning for flights. But I'm still planning on using our Marriott points for otherwise expensive hotel stays.)

floridatraveler90

I'm quite the opposite really. I am airline miles poor. I have about 600,000 ihg points that I use for hotels when I need them. I was excited to finally have some way of getting a bunch of domestic flights with the CP.

wetsand

You can get elite points in 1500 increments for putting 10k spend on the Chase SW premium credit cards. Up to 15,000 yearly points count toward A status. So not only butt in a seat.

Mr. Vker

Thanks. I did not know that.