Overnight, your Southwest Rapid Rewards points changed in value thanks to the airline's shift to “dynamic award pricing.” But you don't necessarily have to run and hide from this news – the airline might actually be giving travelers with Rapid Rewards something to cheer about here.
This might seem hard to believe, given Southwest's recent track record. In just the last few weeks, the airline made it harder to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points when flying, announced the end of its free checked bags policy, introduced basic economy fares, and nixed its divisive boarding protocols. To make matters worse, the airline turned to trolling after facing fierce backlash from its most loyal customers.
Buried in those sweeping changes was the news that Southwest Rapid Rewards points would soon be priced dynamically, too – which most travelers (us included) feared would be a change for the worse. But pump the brakes … because early signs show that the dynamic pricing made many Rapid Rewards redemptions more valuable.
Until today, every Rapid Rewards flight price has been tied to the cash rate of the flight at a rate of 1.15 cents per point. That means, a $100 Southwest flight would generally be bookable for 8,700 Rapid Rewards points. No matter how the fare fluctuated, the points price would go with it. Not anymore, though.
With our initial searches, it seems you can generally get between 1.1 and 1.5 cents per Rapid Rewards point. While that might mean you're getting less value from your points on some days and routes, your points may go further on others.
Let's use this flight example: Phoenix (PHX) to Denver (DEN) nonstop in June.
These Wanna Get Away fares (soon to be Basic Economy, RIP) will cost you $90 when paying cash. But when you toggle over to “Points” instead of “$” on the top right of your screen on Southwest.com, you'll see the same fares for 6,000 points.
That means you're getting 1.5 cents per mile in value for your points – way better than the 1.15 rate of old. Interestingly, however, those highest-end “Business Select” fares on the left side are only a 1.19 cents per point. That's still a little better than the old way, but much worse than the Wanna Get Away fares … and it's the perfect example of how this dynamic pricing works in practice.
This is just one flight, though. Here's another example.
To fly from Baltimore (BWI) to San Diego (SAN) this June, you'll need about $271 on these specific days. But if you toggle over to “Points” it's 21,500 Rapid Rewards, giving you a still-better 1.26 cents per point in value.
Finally, let's look at a much more popular route, like Honolulu (HNL) to see if this holds for even the priciest flights.
The weekend of Memorial Day, a nonstop flight to Hawaii easily falls under the category of “high demand,” so how is Southwest pricing these $332 Wanna Get Away fares when using Rapid Rewards?
At 29,000 points, you're getting 1.14 cents per point in value – so slightly below the old 1.15 threshold, but not by much. The lesson learned is that you're not getting a better value on every flight – especially not on the highest demand ones.
It would be impossible to run through Southwest's entire network to see if the pricing is a better or worse value than it was yesterday, but it's clear that this Southwest news is a bit of a mixed bag. And while points and miles people love award charts – which give you consistent pricing for your points based on how far the flight is – dynamic pricing's rise isn't universally bad news.
Delta was one of the first airlines to switch its SkyMiles program to dynamic pricing and this gives us the perfect example of what it means for travelers. While you'll often find Delta asking for an exorbitant amount of SkyMiles on a given route, especially if you want to fly in the comfy seats, it has also led to countless Delta SkyMiles Flash Sales allowing travelers to save big.
Last year, Virgin Atlantic also shifted to dynamic award pricing for its own flights booked with Virgin FlyingClub points, and while we braced for the worst, it also led to huge discounts on Virgin flights … at least some of the time.
Airlines like Air Canada, American, United, and more have all started shifting to more dynamic awards to mixed results, but it's clear that dynamic awards can create massive value for travelers if they know where to look, or let a service like Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alerts handle the heavy lifting for you!
Bottom Line
Southwest Rapid Rewards flights are now being priced dynamically, meaning you won't be getting the consistent 1.15 cents per point that you did just a few days ago.
But that doesn't mean it's all bad news. Many of the flights we searched offered better value for your points, even if some higher-demand flights got more expensive.