Southwest Points

Cindy's Mom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
Southwest is running a points sale - 35% off all points. DH and I are headed to FLL for my birthday and was going to pay out of pocket, it would have been $304 RT for the two of us. I bought 16k points for $268 saved us almost $35. No brainer for us. :)
 
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Thanks for the heads up. I just checked my account and they were offering 35% until 8/14.
 
What are the benefits of buying points? I have a 40% off offer in my account. A $100 flight costs 6217 points. With my offer I would pay $99 for 6000 points. That doesn't seem like much of a deal. Am I missing something? I should mention I do have the SW credit card that I would use to buy the points.
 
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In my case, I only buy points if I need a few to add to my existing points then I will buy them when they are on sale. The other thing I will do is like you did, I check the point cost of a trip I normally take, and if buying the equivalent points on sale saves me a few bucks (keeping in mind the 9/11 fee you pay cash for), I will buy them. I have never bought points at full price, no savings - and have only bought them on sale twice before under the aforementioned conditions.
 


One benefit to using points is there are no restrictions if you have to change your flights. If you don’t use points and need to change, you will have to use any credits within a year of the original purchase date.
 
True, did not think of that. It can be a pain keeping track of the unused confirmation number to claim your flight credit. Thanks.
 
What are the benefits of buying points? I have a 40% off offer in my account. A $100 flight costs 6217 points. With my offer I would pay $99 for 6000 points. That doesn't seem like much of a deal. Am I missing something? I should mention I do have the SW credit card that I would use to buy the points.
It would totally depend on your trip - like I said, I saved $35 for pretty much doing nothing. I bought the points at a discount and used them to buy my ticket all in one transaction.
 


One benefit to using points is there are no restrictions if you have to change your flights.

This is my theory as well. After I book them, I stalk my flights to see if they drop. On my January trip to Florida, I rebooked a total of 9 times (2 round trip tickets, flying from different cities). Plus with points, if I book someone else's ticket, I get the price drop rather than them having a credit in their name.

I have a 40% off coupon on points in my e-mail right now and I'm struggling to figure out how many points to get. I have a trip for two of us (again from two different cities) to Orlando in February and another "maybe" trip to Orlando in early December - if I can get the flights to drop to a reasonable level. I want to buy enough to book my flights, but not too many as these are probably the last trips until next fall.
 
I also used to book on points and switch to cash if flights dropped to a low price, just o save the points for flexibility later. I also sometimes would use points to book for family members who do not travel as often as me. It was ok for ME to have a credit to use for the future, but they may not fly again within the time restraints of the credit.

But with SW leaving EWR, and prices fairly high out of PHL, I do not fly SW as often as I used to... it makes me sad.
 
I also sometimes would use points to book for family members who do not travel as often as me. It was ok for ME to have a credit to use for the future, but they may not fly again within the time restraints of the credit.

This is what I am doing with DS’s gf for our trip in May. Her tickets will be the first I book with points *just in case*. Should something happen with them, then the points go back into my account. Next will be DS’s ticket and then DD’s. You just never know...
 
I'm looking at this 40% offer....It says I can buy 43,000 pts + 17,200 bonus pts for $1182....I calculated via the SWA site that 60,000 total pts would = 6 one way flights of $150....6 X 150 =$900....the math says i'm paying $282 more by buying points instead of just paying with a credit card.....

What am I missing??
 

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