I imagine most CPs are "earned" through Credit Card Bonuses, and a lot of the holders use those miles to travel so many probably don't have A-List.

And I would be one of those people if RR 1 still existed. I used to have only a few paid short haul flights on WN a year (DTW to either MDW or BNA) and most of my credits were earned back in the days when Chase was generous with churning and through Hilton stays. I had a companion pass for at least four years with only a paid few WN flights a year.

Not sure how many CP's are earned through Credit card spend now that there is RR2.

When RR2 was rolled out, combined with a change in business travel resulting in a lot of long hauls which Delta better served, it paid me to move all my travel from WN over to Delta.

I prefer to fly into MDW and out of ORD. MDW is more convenient but if there is an IROPS situation there's not much to do at MDW and since I'm flying to DTW there are other flight options out of ORD if my flight cancels or is too severly delayed there are other flight options out of ORD where I'm basically stuck if it's MDW since Delta and Southwest don't interline.

Marriott Travel Packages have been my historical path to CP, doing one every four years or so (usually in January) and then using the points for a period of U.S.-intensive travel.

Sadly, hotel conversions no longer count towards CP. I'll enjoy the one I'm on now through 12/31/18.

I also remember doing an Alamo rental run during a 4x promo to finish off a CP under RR1.0 about 10 years ago. That's the only time I can recall something besides a TP pushing me over the top.

The other benefit of not having assigned seating, especially for Alisters etc is that if you standby for an earlier flight, you will at least get a decent seat on WN, where as with the legacies, you'll most likely be in the middle or by the bathroom. It's happened to me...

My experience has been the opposite. I thought WN wouldn't let you SDC unless you paid to upgrade to a full fare. Since it would be past t-24 wouldn't you get stuck in the C group? Or if you clear standby wouldn't you be one of the last to board? Or does WN allow A listers to board at the end of A?

I've never had an issue with a bad seat on Delta when I do a SDC and in fact quite a few times my upgrade into first will still clear. If I fly standby the GA will usually hold C+ or other decent seats that they upgrade people on the upgrade list out of for elites.

You can board after a60 if you're a list. And boy you have some delta luck. As platinum, for the routes I fly my luck has been awful.

If you're a PM you should still have good luck getting a decent seat. If you SDC and end up in a middle seat it looks like your upgrade won't clear just talk to the gate agent as soon as they open the flight and see if they will give you an aisle seat when they clear someone out of it into first or C+ and most are pretty accommodating. On some flights the bulkhead seats are held back for passengers with disabilities and I've had luck sometimes with the GA clearing me into the bulkhead as well when asking.

I know a lot of people don't like RJ's but that's one nice thing, there are no middle seats.

Not just spend, bonuses. If one is clear with Chase (ie no 5/24 issues), one can get both the SW and SW Biz cards in the same year. Spend $3k to get 50k bonus on each = 100k points + 6k points from the required spend and you're only 4k points from CP. Can only be done every 2 years due to Chase bonus limits, but there are plenty of threads here on timing it (ie get cards/bonus in Jan, have CP for almost 2 years, do it again in Jan/Feb 2 years out)

Me too. I've SDC from WU and instantly upgraded to RU. The 'worst' SDC I've done as a PM on DL was to a window exit row when C+ was full.


What routes?

I just did a SDC yesterday for a flight today from an EWR/DTW to LGA/DTW flight today and only middles were available in C+ but did get an aisle exit row (upgrade cleared into F so didn't matter anyway). That's another advantage of using a legacy over southwest for me, I can co-terminal for free on a SDC and use any of the three NYC airports. AFAIK WN doesn't allow that benefit for A-list plus members. It's a benefit I've used a lot lately

I've asked about three wn agents and all of them have said you can standby for a coterminal. It was also discussed in the new stand by policy thread.