ursine1

Just to be clear: Chase and Southwest are two different companies.

Southwest doesn't offer a credit card, has no credit card portfolio, and makes no money off of annual fees or interchange fees or interest charged. They don't set fees or interest rates, or approve individual applicants.

They are not a bank.

Chase does. Chase is a bank.

Southwest sells Rapid Rewards loyalty points to Chase. (And yes, makes a large amount of money doing so.)

Presumably, the threshold for CP earning is being raised (by Southwest) to increase the number of points sold to Chase and other partners, while also reducing the overall amount of CP holders, therefore reducing the amount of "free" flights redeemed.

A potential additional benefit would be additional paid fares sold to those seeking CP via points.

It is true that credit card partnerships are indeed a huge part of an air carriers' business these days. Ultimately, the most significant customer benefit is that they allow loyalty programs to be profitable, and therefore even exist at all.

Iflymci

There is no other airline that is as generous as WN. Hands down, they have the best frequent flyer program. Good luck with your search.

darrenpb

Well, since I no longer have a points threshold to meet with the Southwest card if I am not going after the CP anymore, and since the Chase Sapphire card allows points transfers to the Southwest program as well as a dozen other programs, I would say my search has been successful.

Cledaybuck

I'm not sure about that. There was an article about United and Chase a couple of month ago (I believe it was the WSJ) and it stated United did get a percentage from every transaction. UA was unhappy because less people were using their card and more using the CSR.

Michael El

These changes should not surprise anybody. GK entered WN in the race to the bottom in his quest to become a "legacy carrier" 10 years ago. It's a race he intends to win IMO.

kennycrudup

Eh ... I've been flying WN since 2006 and been a top-level elite since RR 2.0; so far I've been happy with them (being in CA is a large part of this), and I actually fly the airline.

I just did a one-off flight on UA a couple of nights ago, and while some of this opinion comes from having to use SFO vs SJC, I doubt I'd like flying as much if UA were my go-to airline and would no doubt defer on some of the discretionary trips.

Super Mario

Giving away free flights is hardly a little cost.

tom911

Are you familiar with Alaska? Right now top tier elites there can bring in 16,000 miles on transcons from SFO at less than $300. Buy four of those and you have enough miles for a business class award to Australia (55,000).

Can you expand on why you think Southwest has the best frequent flyer program, particularly as it compares to Alaska? I'm curious of how you arrived at that conclusion.

Congratulations on your first post!

Boraxo

Welcome to FT!

A year's worth of flying on UA got me 4 one-way business class tickets on LH from Western USA to Italy. Also 4 one-way tickets on a UA nonstop returning from CUN which are valued at $800 each.

My WN CP got my son a handful of flights last year that were valued at maybe $1000 if I paid cash instead. WN now flies to CUN but would charge me $600pp one-way during the holiday season (or points equivalent)

So I'd have to respectfully disagree.

NoStressHere

Sorry - there is no such thing as "best frequent flyer program".

This could easily turn into a few hundred posts with WN getting thumbs up and few hundred with AA/DL/UA etc being better. Most of the arguments and stories are often useless as they apply to each person and their situation.

* Flights available where YOU fly - frequency and # of stops
* Cost of flights - sometimes an issue, sometimes not
* Status of each flyer.
* Ability to get or not get upgrades
* Cost to change - if even important.
* Luggage cost
* Wifi
* Irrops
* Ability to use miles/points earned
* Company rules/policy for those that book with or through their company
* Feel good stuff

I have been top level on DL for years, but now fly 90% on WN. Does not make WN better (or worse) than DL, but it works right now. Was also elite with other airlines during certain years.

The only thing that is 100% for sure. This statement can be applied to most airlines - but by different people.

The best airline is ________.

Critterlynn

It is when there are empty seats.

kennycrudup

WHS. 95% of my flying is up and down the CA coast and on my own dime; that makes WN best for me. Were I going somewhere else, lived somewhere else, or flying on OPM that would probably be different.

nsx

I have plenty of Alaska miles. How can I find business class seats for 55k each way? I'm not seeing them.

NoStressHere

Not that simple.

The actual cost of that person is marginal - will give you that.

What if those two people were willing to pay for both seats, but now only pay for one?

As to Chase losing out - not sure how. It is WN that is not getting revenue for that seat.

Those signup points you get are a joint deal with WN and Chase. Chase offers many credit cards without that bonus of course.

As to flights not selling out - WN flies lots of planes that are sold out, so in those cases WN does not get revenue for that "little cost seat".

nsx

The airline estimates that it loses a significant fraction of the cash fare by giving you an empty seat. Not because someone else might have bought the seat, rather because YOU might have bought it.

This is EXACTLY the same reason that you value FF miles/points more than a cash rebate.