mile ho

If you book your hotel through Southwest's portal, they are doubling the points earned through May 12, 2020. Some have higher than normal points, too.

There are some good deals it appears. Found a night at Fairfield Inn in St George, Utah for $85 getting 2k points, doubled that goes to 4k points making it almost 50pts per dollar.

Anyone know if you do the boost (adding 2k points for $35 when selecting the room) if those points are normally doubled, too, during these double your points promos? First hand knowledge, anyone?

These extra hotel points could be helpful for CP.

synergistic

95% sure that it doesn't double the '000' earning rates, only the earning rates based on dollars spent. I did happen to book one last week, I'll let you know if I get more points than expected .

Edit: I think this because of the phrasing, 'Earn 2 times more points or up to 10,000 points per night at select properties.' That 10k limit is the normal limit. Also, I've booked during prior 'double' promos and have never received more than the normal promised/purchased points. Unfortunately, the linked T&C page is to the generic program terms, not anything specific to the promo.

mile ho

The current promo states it will be at least 64 days before the double points will be posted. I did one of these back in early March and am still waiting patiently based on that language, which I believe was on that double points promo.

So you have booked on one of these promos and never received the promised extra points?

synergistic

Correct, I've been using this to earn CP points since January 2019, and have never received extra points during these promotions, and I believe this is because all of my bookings were for thousands of points, not the points per dollar bookings. Do you think that the statement should be parsed as 'book a room that earns 5k or less and your points will be doubled?' I do believe it is the same phrasing as in the past.

I do hope that this conversation spurs the @swa folks to look into this, as it's not cool (imo) to release a promo without governing terms. This shouldn't be something that's debatable, we should be able to look at the terms and know for sure if we're eligible for extra points.

mile ho

It seems to say plainly that you will receive double the points, without restriction, other than the 10k max per night. That's what it says. But I have just sent an email to Southwest to try to get some clarification.

The current promo says the additional (double) points will be added after at least 64 days. So that implies that there are additional points coming. The regular points post quickly. I only have one stay that I've done so far, which was in early March. So I'm coming up on the time when I should be getting the additional points. With the email and the time coming up, I'm hoping to get more clarification.

Maybe you need to ask for the points you should have gotten under the double your points promos?

braddqq

I actually talked to the customer service agents at Southwest Hotels last year about this - and confirmed, it does NOT apply to the high earning points properties, only based on dollars spent. Any property that was 2k points per night before this promotion are still 2k points.

Side note, the new UI is AWFUL. Riddled with spelling/grammar mistakes (e.g. bottom left in the filters "See all neighborhood") half of the properties that were there before are not there anymore. And try searching for Maui - you will get Waikiki as the top result. I complained about this the day it rolled out and they did nothing about it. Horrible technology they use there.

mile ho

I'll report back what I hear from them. This really needs to be made clear on the website. It certainly appears that whatever you get will be doubled, up to 10k points. This is terribly misleading, especially because of what spend it would require on a regular hotel to get to 10k points. That number would seem to intimate that the ones who are paying the ,000 amounts can be doubled up to 10k.

They'll get an earful from me if that's the case.

braddqq

yep, definitely confusing. I talked to someone senior there - it's definitely the case that it doesn't apply to the big point earners.

braddqq

I also think he said the points you see is what you will earn - so it's not like it doubles later on.

synergistic

Promo back through June - have you heard anything back?

mile ho

They told me that was all I was going to get. I think it's booking.com that's running it and the promo is very, very misleading. I won't be doing that again.

synergistic

My chief complaint is the lack of promo specific T&C. I'm completely unsurprised they have no intentions of doubling the 'featured' earnings, but it should be transparent. I'm sorry you got bitten, I hope your bookings were a decent value otherwise.