Southwest Slashes Earning Rates on Flights

The largest U.S. airline by domestic passengers carried has just made a big, and negative, change to the way people earn points for flying. Southwest Airlines has greatly reduced points-earning rates for most of its fares.

Let’s see what has changed.

Southwest’s New Earning Rates Explained

The news is that Southwest Airlines has slashed the number of base points earned in every fare class, except for the higher fare tiers.

This will reduce, in some cases drastically, the number of points most flyers earn in the airline’s Rapid Rewards loyalty program.

This was first reported by Danny the Deal Guru, and confirmed by visiting the Southwest page, where you can calculate the new rates.

Wanna Get Away fares, the cheapest and most restrictive, are slashed from 6x points earned per $1 spent to just 2x. Wanna Get Away Plus fares drop less in relative terms, from 8x to 6x points per $1. Anytime fares are unchanged at 10x, and Business Select fares — the highest and most flexible — go up from 12x to 14x points per $1.

The latter is the only positive change, but since those fares are typically purchased by business travelers on company accounts who need the most flexibility, it does nothing for the bulk of Southwest flyers.

Here is a table summing up the changes in terms of points earned per $1 spent:

Bonuses for members holding elite status still apply, and are unchanged.

Southwest A-List elite members will still earn a 25% points bonus on every qualifying flight. Top-tier A-List Preferred members still double their earnings, thanks to the unchanged 100% bonus.

Reaching those status levels will be harder under the new policy. The thresholds are unchanged, but getting there on points will require spending much more. Southwest A-List status is earned after flying 20 qualifying one-way flights or 35,000 tier-qualifying points in a calendar year, while A-List Preferred status requires 40 qualifying one-way flights or 70,000 tier-qualifying points.

Earnings, Southwest reminds flyers, are determined by “the amount you spend on your flight, the type of fare, your tier status, and the payment method you choose.” (The latter reference is to Southwest co-branded credit cards, which earn 2x, 3x or even 4x Rapid Rewards points on Southwest flights purchased with the card.)

Final Thoughts

There’s no sugarcoating it: This drastic reduction of earnings rates for Southwest flights is a negative change for all but a few of the airline’s dedicated customers.

While casual flyers who only use Southwest once a year may not feel the sting, frequent Southwest flyers who collect and use Rapid Rewards points will not be happy about this change.