So today is supposed to be the day that Southwest devalues their points in some vague, arbitrary way. When they first announced it back a few months ago, they only said:
Beginning April 17, 2015, the number of Rapid Rewards Points needed to redeem for certain flights will vary based on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare class, and other factors. However, there are still many flights which will stay at the current redemption rate. And don’t forget that when fares go on sale, so do the points needed for redeeming for a reward flight on those fares.
The lack of any kind of details was why I suggested that this week (well, by yesterday) was the time to spend any extra Southwest points that you have lying around.
Post April 17th analysis
So, now that it’s April 17th, I thought I’d take a bit of an analysis of if there were any noticeable changes so far.
First off, I took a route of DAL-MDW, for Friday July 3rd. I figured a holiday weekend would be one of the best chances to have fares that were higher than the nominal 70 points / $1 ratio
Dividing each flight’s cost by the points required (and accounting for taxes and fees which are not included in points fares), each one was still $70 / point. So far, so good. I tried several other similar flights – close-in routes, non-stops, direct, and could not find anything that was higher than 70 points / dollar.
Going… international?
My next thought was to check the list of Southwest international flights.
Hmm… what’s 28,000 (points required) divided by $350 (the base fare of the flight)?
80 points / dollar!
I checked some of the other international destinations.
- 70 points / dollar: Mexico City, San Jose Cabo (SJD), Cancun
- 74 points / dollar: San Juan, PR
- ~75 points / dollar: Montego Bay, Punta Cana
- 80 points / dollar: Aruba
Note that on some of the destinations (like Montego Bay and Punta Cana), I couldn’t get an exact dollar value for redemptions. I don’t know if that’s because of user error, or perhaps the calculation is including some of the taxes instead of just the base fare, or perhaps Southwest has just made the point value up!
Still, it looks pretty clear that they are raising the points required on some of the international destinations. The domestic US destinations (as well as Mexico) still seem to be showing at 70 points / dollar, but several other of the Caribbean destinations are more, with Aruba being the most expensive. I guess it’s a good thing I got that “free” trip to San Juan in this past winter!
(EDIT: Per this Flyertalk thread, there are even some domestic flights which are costing more than 70 points / dollar)
There was already some speculation even before today that the move to variable points pricing might be in preparation for increased international destinations (as well as Hawaii) or partnering with other airlines.
What do you think? Are you surprised? Did you already burn all of your Southwest points?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
My thought is this devaluation seems to be relatively minor at this point.
I agree. I think Southwest could do just about anything to their Rapid Rewards program as long as they didn’t touch the companion pass 🙂
70 points per night?! Where do I sign up?
I’m not crazy about point values being reduced, but most of these are still better than anyone else, doubly so with companion pass(es).
LOL Thanks – that WOULD be a great deal! I have updated the post
I don’t understand why Southwest isn’t getting the scorn heaped on them like Delta. They have done exactly the same thing. They have eliminated their reward chart (which was only one line anyway). You tell them when and where you want to fly and they will tell you how many points it is going to be. Sounds exactly like Delta to me, except Southwest only publishes fares 6 month or 8 months out, so nobody has seen how they are going to get fleeced at Christmas. This change is fundamental, not because they have gone to 80 points/dollar on some flights, but because they can give you any rate they feel like whenever they want, no matter what you paid to acquire the points in the first place. They see that a lot of companion passes are being used on a route, no problem, goose the redemption rate to 140/dollar.
That’s a great point and generally I agree with you. I think the one difference (and maybe it’s just semantics) is that with Southwest, you kind of knew that you had to check for deals based on “random” prices anyways. Yes, there was a fixed rate of points / dollars, but the fluctuations in price of the ticket made a lot more difference.
With Delta, they (used to) have a fixed price for award tickets and have taken that away.
But you’re right, it’s pretty similar.
It’s exactly like Delta. I can’t believe some of the comments I’m reading on other blogs. “Oh, it’s only 12%.” Are you kidding me? First off, that’s a lot. Second, that’s the worst we’ve seen so far. The holidays could be brutal.
Fight it folks. Consumers shouldn’t have to put up with this hocus pocus garbage. Join the Facebook page: http://www.Facebook.com/wherestheluv or follow on twitter: @wheres_theluv
Make your voice heard. To remain silent is to be complicit.