25% Discount on Southwest Points Purchase, WHAT!?

Yup, Southwest is offering a 25% discount on Southwest points purchases until May 31st, 2014!

Now obviously it does not make sense to pay more than what something is worth and it could never be more true than in the case of miles and points, however, sometimes it can be to our benefit. If you are short a few thousand points and are looking to complete then you’re going to have to do a little bit of math:

Scenario in your favor: Paying $200 for points to complete a flight purchase that will otherwise cost $600. GREAT! You are saving $400!

Remember that Southwest’s redemption is fixed and with the 25% discount reflects the point’s value as $00.0143 (rack rate is $00.020625).

Another concept circulating is the Southwest points and AirTran credits transfer. Keep in mind that one credit is equivalent to 1,200 Rapid Rewards points.It costs 8 A+ credits for a free one-way and 16 for roundtrip. The 16 A+ credits would require 19,200 Rapid Rewards points. With the 25% discount you’re looking at paying $412.50 for 20,000 points (or $206.25 for 10,000 points to redeem for a 1 way flight). So as long your free flight is worth more than $412.50 round trip or $206.25 one way then purchasing the discounted miles and transferring them to AirTran credits would be worth it!

Too good to be true? Well, AirTran’s free tickets are capacity controlled so you will want to call them and verify the availability. SOLUTION: Keep in mind that if you are looking at dates that are not considered blackout then ask the Representative to override the availability,  since they have the power to do so it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Also it’s my understanding you can transfer from AirTran to Southwest to redeem in the same fashion (8 credits one way, etc.) and this would mean it would cost you the same amount of money and you would ride Southwest instead of AirTran!

Enjoy the savings!

-FuFu