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A big advantage of reward redemption Vs Revenue tickets

A big advantage of reward redemption Vs Revenue tickets

Old Nov 15, 2019, 10:58 pm
  #16  
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If I looked at it and it seems with the 35% discount, you would be paying $.018 each. Redemption is around 1.5 so not making much sense.
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Old Nov 16, 2019, 8:34 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by Often1
If you fly WN a lot, whether the refund is to your CC or RR account is immaterial. Not so if you rarely fly WN and are simply borrowing money on your CC to keep a balance on RR.
When you cancel a WN ticket and create a credit for later use, you must still use your current cash to pay your CC bill (reducing your return on investments) or run a CC balance and pay the interest on your CC. If you do this on a 5% CC for 15 days on a $300 ticket, the cost is approximately $0.60. No big deal. If you keep a WN balance of $5,000 across a year and you have a high-interest card, let's say 10%, the cost of tying up funds is $500, which is a biggish deal.

If you rarely, if ever, fly WN, the value of having a credit to anything other than your original form of payment is $0.
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Old Nov 16, 2019, 12:56 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by Often1
When you cancel a WN ticket and create a credit for later use, you must still use your current cash to pay your CC bill (reducing your return on investments) or run a CC balance and pay the interest on your CC. If you do this on a 5% CC for 15 days on a $300 ticket, the cost is approximately $0.60. No big deal. If you keep a WN balance of $5,000 across a year and you have a high-interest card, let's say 10%, the cost of tying up funds is $500, which is a biggish deal.

If you rarely, if ever, fly WN, the value of having a credit to anything other than your original form of payment is $0.

The value of money "prepaid" is close to NOTHING. Not even a discussion.

(unless of course you are one the insane people that do not pay off a credit card and pay REAL interest to the bank)
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Old Nov 16, 2019, 1:30 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by writetorich
I think the the bonus are not offer with high frequency cause I tend to look periodicly , I am concerned about a devaluation because there seems to be no limit on points purchased , even for non elite.
From memory without checking: Southwest once offered 70% bonus on points purchase. A couple of times 60%. More times 50%. But none of those were within the past couple years.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Southwest 1 to 1 if you have a Sapphire or Ink card. If you also have a Chase Unlimited card you can earn 1.5 points per dollar of spending and send them to Southwest. Other than signup bonuses that's the most efficient way I know to "buy" RR points.
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Old Nov 16, 2019, 3:45 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by NoStressHere
The value of money "prepaid" is close to NOTHING. Not even a discussion.

(unless of course you are one the insane people that do not pay off a credit card and pay REAL interest to the bank)
Or one of those "insane" people who hold an investment portfolio which returns more than their CC interest rate. If your portfolio returns 15% and you have a 5% card, you may or may not be insane to pay off the card balance, but you certainly have a lousy financial advisor.
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Old Nov 16, 2019, 7:29 pm
  #21  
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As an infrequent flyer, you are at high risk of forfeiting the points you purchase if you don't spend it all in two years. A redemption doesn't reset the clock. All you need is for life to happen and you can easily forget about it and let the $1000 vanish. I don't think this is a great deal anyway by buying at 1.8 cents, so I would just skip this "deal". Cash purchases aren't that bad with 1 year expiration and funds tied to your name since there are no change fees.
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Old Nov 16, 2019, 8:12 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by jmw
As an infrequent flyer, you are at high risk of forfeiting the points you purchase if you don't spend it all in two years.
You missed the recent news. Points no longer expire.
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Old Nov 23, 2019, 2:08 pm
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by jmw
As an infrequent flyer, you are at high risk of forfeiting the points you purchase if you don't spend it all in two years. A redemption doesn't reset the clock. All you need is for life to happen and you can easily forget about it and let the $1000 vanish. I don't think this is a great deal anyway by buying at 1.8 cents, so I would just skip this "deal". Cash purchases aren't that bad with 1 year expiration and funds tied to your name since there are no change fees.
With no expiration date on points, buying points are better value (for me personally) than buying tickets (with 1 year expiration on the value if unused) as unused tickets are a PITA to track especially for 4+ different family members. My preference is to use points whenever possible so that when I cancel a family booking it all goes back to my account.

Last edited by lainys; Dec 11, 2019 at 10:01 am Reason: Editing post for clarity.
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Old Dec 10, 2019, 12:52 pm
  #24  
 
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When I am not 100% sure I will be taking a flight I always use points. I like to keep a bank of at least 50,000 points in my account. I would say I wind up canceling about half the tickets. I use this a lot for tickets for my wife if I am not sure she will be accompanying me on a trip and also if I am not sure exactly what day I will be returning from a trip I can buy multiple point tickets when on sale.
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Old Dec 10, 2019, 3:54 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by lainys
Cash purchases are better value...
How are cash purchases a better value?

Curious as I might be missing something.
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Old Dec 11, 2019, 9:56 am
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by NoStressHere
How are cash purchases a better value?

Curious as I might be missing something.
Ahhh i see how that reads now. I was thinking "cash purchases OF POINTS"! I'll correct my earlier post. My apologies for the confusion.

Last edited by lainys; Dec 11, 2019 at 10:02 am
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Old Jan 22, 2021, 4:30 pm
  #27  
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Is it still the case that award bookings can be cancelled by me with no fee

or Penalty?

If so seems a lot more flexible than revenue tickets. I did indeed bite at 35% and got decent value.

Now its 705

for all those complaining about "devaluation", well cash fares are very low now , so would it not stand to reason that points required would be lower?


Thanks to all for helping this inexperienced SW flyer.
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Old Jan 22, 2021, 5:24 pm
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by writetorich
or Penalty?

If so seems a lot more flexible than revenue tickets. I did indeed bite at 35% and got decent value.

Now its 705

for all those complaining about "devaluation", well cash fares are very low now , so would it not stand to reason that points required would be lower?


Thanks to all for helping this inexperienced SW flyer.
Yes, points bookings are more flexible than cash.
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Old Jan 26, 2021, 12:33 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by writetorich
or Penalty?

If so seems a lot more flexible than revenue tickets. I did indeed bite at 35% and got decent value.

Now its 705

for all those complaining about "devaluation", well cash fares are very low now , so would it not stand to reason that points required would be lower?


Thanks to all for helping this inexperienced SW flyer.
I don't know what any of this means other than I know award tickets can be redeposited without penalty. Because points don't expire and the flight credit you get when you cancel a paid ticket does, I guess that makes the award ticket more flexible. Or less restrictive. Or something.

35% and 705....no idea what you're talking about. Devaluation is another topic...in the Southwest context that would most likely be a discussion of the number of RR points required to redeem an award of a certain dollar value. Nothing to do with the flexibility of the ticket.

My own personal use of WN points is to redeem for my wife and kids. I usually make A-list. They never do. They fly just enough on paid fares to occasionally have enough points for a cheap MCI-MDW ticket, which I redeem from their accounts as soon as it is possible. I tend to hold my points in larger blocks for when we do a family trip to the West Coast and more expensive segments are involved. Then I use my points for their segments.
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Old Jan 26, 2021, 2:01 pm
  #30  
 
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Many seem to use points to speculatively purchase trips when their travel plans are not firm. Hopefully everyone is responsible enough to cancel these reservations well in advance when it becomes apparent that they will not be used - I wouldn't really mind if SWA extracted a penalty for no shows - just to preserve the flexibility for the rest of us who do cancel unused flights in a timely manner.

I often wonder whether a flight purchased on points 4 months out and then canceled two weeks out will go back into inventory at the same low price as originally purchased. Its doubtful, most revenue management programs are tied to load factor and length of time prior to the actual travel date. Most likely flights purchased "early" at low point prices will, after being canceled, appear back in the remaining flight inventory at a significantly higher fare and usually sold at the higher fare. In that scenario, those who purchase speculative tickets early and then cancel are not harming the SWA revenue stream, but actually enhancing it because the seat will now sell (points or dollars) at a higher fare level than originally.
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