A big advantage of reward redemption Vs Revenue tickets
 

I am a very infrequent flyer on SW. I have no elite status and never did. My recollection is that prior when redeeming points, the flight cpould be cancelled by me ( prior to departure) and simply redeposited back into my Rapid rewards account.

Is this still the rule. No penalty, , no catch and full flexiability on redepositing points from cancelled flighrs?

If so the 35% bonus does not look like that bad a deal.
( of course its their ballpark and they can unilaterally change the rules at any time)

Interesting purchase is 60,000 points per day .
Does not seem to be a limit on even non-elite purchases.

Is the program stable. Do others see a devaluation coming?

Thank you for your time and patience

What?

You are correct, when you cancel a reward ticket on WN, the RR points go back to your account with no fees. They are worth around 1.4¢ per point. Who knows if there will be a devaluation, but its unlikely since the points required for a ticket are closely tied to the cash price. The flexibility of making changes or cancellations without penalty definitely adds value.

Right. I have a stash of points I use to book hedge flights when necessary. It's much more efficient than using a CC.

.You are correct, but remember that the $5.60 tax that you pay with a credit card ( you cannot pay that with points ) will only come back as travel funds good for 1 year from the date of purchase.

You get a choice of Refund to Credit Card or Hold for Future Use for the $5.60

And technically, you don't even need to cancel the flight; no-show on points gets the points automatically redeposited to your account

I always have the $5.60 refunded to my credit card - not to travel funds.

Though WN currently will cancel and refund points for you - not cancelling yourself is totally wrong. By not cancelling, WN can not sell that flight, and they keep expecting the flyer to show up.

This is incorrect. I get the $5.60 refunded to my credit card all the time. No need for travel funds.

Back to the OP's point -- this is why the value of a RR point is difficult to quantify. While 1.4 cents is a good approximation of the value one gets by simply looking at the money being saved over purchasing the ticket with a credit card, I think the real value is a fair amount higher because it permits me to make reservations that I'm not sure I'm going to use and then simply cancel when I make a final decision even if that's at the very last minute. There's no other airline that does this that I'm aware of, and I use this flexibility frequently.

Cancelling a BA Avios ticket is close. 24+ hours out all you lose is the $5.60 fee.

Which is why almost all my points/miles bookings are on WN or BA. Highly underrated benefit IMO for people w/o status especially.

The frequent 40% bonus transferring Amex MR to Avios helps also.

This indeed. I only pay actual money for flights which I know I'm not going to cancel no matter what.

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.

Borrowing money?
Keeping a balance?

I am confused.

Is 35% good historically , or have better bonuses been offered
 

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.

Southwest has made (I believe) three devaluations now since points first started being closely tied to the cash price. ;)

It seems the OP is really asking about the advisability of buying points. Even with the 35% bonus offer, you're still paying more for points than their value. Full refundability has a value, but only the OP can know if it's worth it to them.