Southwest Airlines' 'variable' Rapid Rewards redemption rates take effect
Two weeks ago, Southwest Airlines revealed it would bring new "variable" award pricing to its Rapid Rewards loyalty program.
Now, it's here.
Last week, the airline quietly began rolling out its far more fluid redemption rate for customers looking to book flights using points, a spokesperson confirmed to TPG Wednesday.
Going forward, how much value you'll get out of a Southwest point will vary — perhaps significantly, in some cases — from one flight to another.
It's a shift Southwest executives revealed March 11 as part of a much larger overhaul to the carrier's commercial strategy, which also included the end to its long-standing "bags fly free" policy.
'The Day Southwest Died': Reactions pour in about the carrier's big changes
How Southwest Rapid Rewards redemptions are changing
To be clear, redemptions on Southwest were already dynamic, in a sense: They fluctuated based on the cash price of a flight but at a relatively fixed (and predictable) rate.
While the setup didn't lend itself to the sweet spots historically found on airlines that used an award chart for mileage redemptions, it offered relative consistency.
TPG's March 2025 points and miles valuations peg the value of a Southwest Rapid Rewards point at roughly 1.35 cents — in line with a JetBlue TrueBlue point and a United MileagePlus mile but slightly more than the value of a Delta SkyMiles mile.
What we're seeing
TPG is currently reviewing the changes to Southwest's redemption rates to see how they'll affect the next trip you're hoping to book with points and will report back on what we see.
Here are just a few examples, though.
On this flight during the week of July 4 from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), the one-way, $597 flight can be redeemed for 54,000 points. That's a rate of 1.1 cents per point — well beneath TPG's previous rate of 1.35 cents.
On the other hand, for this Tuesday flight in September from PHX to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (OAK) in California, you can get just over 1.7 cents per point by redeeming 7,500 points instead of paying the comparably cheap $129 for the flight.
For flights on one Friday in June from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) to Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), redemption rates are currently hovering around 1.2 cents per point. That same day, redemption rates for flights from Cancun International Airport (CUN) in Mexico to Houston's William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) are on par with historical marks (between 1.3 and 1.4 cents).
Meanwhile, you'll get around 1.17 cents per point in value for a Memorial Day weekend departure from Chicago's Midway International Airport (MDW) to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY).
Hit particularly hard: flights to and from Hawaii, Bay Area-based family travel blogger Leslie Harvey, of Trips With Tykes, told TPG after checking award prices for about 100 flights on Wednesday.
"I'm seeing mostly across the board that Hawaii flights are a worse value than other sort of more standard, mundane flights," Harvey, an avid Southwest flyer, said while discussing some of the changes she observed with TPG. "I think it's mostly negative. I have seen a couple of flights that have been I guess, better than I'm used to seeing. But they seem to be true outliers."
We'll keep crunching the numbers and report back on trends we find.
Bottom line
Southwest's shift on Rapid Rewards redemptions came just weeks after the airline slashed the number of points passengers could earn on its lowest fare classes.
Wanna Get Away Plus flyers now earn just 6 points per dollar, down from 10 points per dollar previously.
Wanna Get Away passengers earn only 2 points per dollar, down from 6 points per dollar previously. Effective May 28, Wanna Get Away will be replaced by a new "basic" fare class.
However, Business Select passengers will continue to earn two free checked bags — even after the "bags fly free" benefit ends — and will earn more points per dollar (14) than they did previously.
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