Southwest: double tier qualifying credit through November (registration required)

Southwest Airlines has announced three overlapping promos meant to smooth the path towards elite status for Rapid Rewards members. Starting today, Southwest will be applying all award flight segments earned since 1/1/22 towards segment requirements for A-List or A-List Preferred status. In addition, Rapid Rewards members will continue to earn flight segment credits on award travel flown through 11/30/22.

Lastly, Southwest also announced that all paid travel will earning double-tier qualifying points between 9/21 and 11/30/22. While no action is required for the retroactive elite-qualifying segments portion of the promotion (which in fact had already been applied about a week ago), registration is required for the other two promotions.

The Deal

• Southwest Rapid Rewards is offering double elite qualifying points when you register, book, and fly between September 21 – November 30, 2022
• Southwest Rapid Rewards is also counting award flights towards elite-qualifying segments when you register, book, and fly between September 21 – November 30, 2022

Direct link to this promotion

Key Terms

Reward travel counts toward tier status

• Only the Member who is flying will receive credit for the travel completed, regardless of who booked the reservation or whose points were redeemed for the ticket.
• The flight segments are awarded after the ticket is flown.
• A flight segment is defined as a one-way trip booked through Southwest® from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest.
• To receive credit for reward flight segments completed between January 1, 2022 through September 19, 2022, no action is needed. Those flight segment credits will be automatically added to the Member’s account provided the Member’s Rapid Rewards number was included in the reservation at the time of travel.
• In order to receive credit for any new reward travel completed between September 21 and November 30, 2022, the Member must register for the promotion before booking and completing travel.
• The flight segment credit will be posted on the My Account page of the traveling Rapid Rewards Member within 72 hours after flight completion. 

Double Tier Qualifying Points

• Member must register for this promotion, then book and fly between September 21 and November 30, 2022 (the “Promotional Period”), and registration must be completed prior to booking and commencement of travel.
• Valid on new qualifying flights booked and flown within the Promotional Period.
• Promotion does not apply to travel booked using Rapid Rewards points.
• This offer does not increment the Member’s points balance.
• Double tier qualifying points will be calculated at 100% of the tier qualifying points earned for each applicable flight and will be posted to the account of the traveling Rapid Rewards Member within 72 hours after the offer ends.
• A qualifying flight for this promotion is a one-way revenue flight on Southwest from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest, or a round trip revenue flight on Southwest from an origin city to a destination city and back to the originating airport or carrier-recognized co-terminal. Flights booked with Southwest Vacations do not count as qualifying flights.

Quick Thoughts

For this promotion, it’s important to keep in mind that you will need to register prior to booking travel. This would mean you need to cancel and re-book all previously-booked travel if you want it to count. That’s annoying, especially if prices have increased on your route. There is no registration required for the retroactive award-qualifying component.

Also note that this promotion only affects tier-qualifying points, not redeemable Rapid Rewards points. Don’t confuse tier-qualifying points with Companion Pass-qualifying points either. If you’re looking at making an end-of-year run towards getting one, this won’t get you any further along the path.

Ordinarily, Southwest flights earn Tier-Qualifying Points (TQPs) depending on which type of fare you book:

• Wanna Get Away fares earn 6 TQPs per dollar
• Wanna Get Away Plus fares earn 8 TQPs per dollar
• Anytime fares earn 10 TQPs per dollar
• Business Select fares earn 12 TQPs per dollar

Those earnings are doubled under the terms of this promotion.

Southwest offers two levels of elite status: A-list and A-list Preferred. A-list requires 25 one-way qualifying flights or 35,000 tier-qualifying points and the benefits are as follows:

• Priority boarding (the system automatically assigns a position 36 hours before your flight (same as Early Bird check-in).
• 25% bonus points earned on paid fares (15x Business Select, 12.5x Anytime, 7.5x Wanna Get Away)
• Free same-day standby (note that this does not extend to any companions on the same reservation)
• Priority check-in and security (where available)

A-list Preferred doubles the requirements to 50 one-way qualifying flights or 70,000 tier-qualifying points and gets the following bennies:

• Priority boarding (the system automatically assigns a position 36 hours before your flight (same as Early Bird check-in). A-list Preferred receives priority over A-list but both are behind Business Select passengers
• 100% bonus points on paid fares (24x Business Select, 20x Anytime, 12x Wanna Get Away)
• Free same-day standby (note that this does not extend to any companions on the same reservation)
• Priority check-in and security (where available)
• Free in-flight Wi-Fi

I don’t really value Southwest elite status enough to make any effort or go to any additional expense to get it, although I know it can be a valued perk for frequent Southwest flyers…especially A-list preferred. 100% bonus points, free same-day standby and free wi-fi are great add-ons for folks actually spending a lot of butt-in-seat time on Southwest. If you have travel plans on Southwest and had already made a chunk of progress towards elite status, this promo will undoubtedly be nice to see.

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