<p>I am looking at purchasing a flight on Southwest Air. I can price the ticket in terms of dollars or in terms of points, and the number of points that the ticket costs seems tied to the dollar price of the ticket. This suggests to me that if I have the points I should go ahead and use them. Unlike, say, Delta, where I have to think about whether I should use 25,000 points for a flight that costs $200, or whether I should pay for the $200 flight and save the 25,000 to use for a flight that costs $500. Am I correct that Southwest calibrates the points to the ticket price, so there is no point (ha!) in saving them? </p>
<p>I just got a southwest credit card for the 50,000 point bonus. Yes, there is a $ amount associated with the points, but it is not that simple. For wanna get away fares, it is $1 = 60 points. For anytime fares, $1 = 100 points, and for business select, $1 = 120 points. I always use the wanna get away fares, so I don’t have to think much about it, but you may have to consider the point differential.</p>
<p>mamabear, is that points you get for purchasing tickets or for redeeming points. If you purchase a wanna get away fare for $100, you get 600 points, but is the reverse true? I don’t know because I have only redeemed one ticket since the switchover to the new system, and I didn’t pay attention.</p>
<p>It’s my understanding that the points you get or spend are directly related to the value of what you are getting. So I think the answer to Amesie’s question is “yes, there’s no point in saving them.”</p>
<p>(I have redeemed many SWA flights under the old system - none under the new system yet.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I also got the Soutwest credit card for the points–that was a good deal. I am now trying to figure out whether to use the Southwest Visa as our primary card, instead of the Costco AmEx that we have been using. Any thoughts? Also, I looked up the benefits of the Southwest Visa and it is pretty straightforward, except this part I didn’t understand:</p>
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<p>Can someone explain, what are Tier Qualifying Points?</p>
<p>To get to “A” list and whatever the next level up from that is. I’m “A” list and I, literally, will take an extra flight this year if I have to in order to make sure I re-qualify. It has been wonderful! I get automatic check-in and some other benefits.</p>
<p>Thanks MoWC. I am on a roll procrastinating this morning, so I looked up my Southwest frequent flier status. I would need more than 18,000 Tier Qualifying Points between now and the end of the year to get to “A” list, and that’s with already having about 16,000 points. So 1,500 points are not going to help me very much.</p>
<p>The 2 points for every dollar spent on Southwest tickets means that I will use the Southwest Visa for those purchases, but 1 point per dollar on other purchases means that we probably will be sticking with the Costco AmEx for most everything else.</p>
<p>I have used the Southwest Visa for years & have enjoyed many wonderful free flights. Unfortunately, the switch to using points to purchase - rather than receiving awards to be used - makes the program less desireable for me. :(</p>
<p>Hubby just found out something else about SW flights. If a free flight expires, you can buy it back for $100. Wish we had known that earlier. We have lost more than one flight because the time expired.</p>