Southwest Rapid Rewards subscription: A new way to pay too much for points

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Following shortly after their latest point devaluation, Southwest has introduced a new way to buy points at a discount: Rapid Rewards® Points Subscription Plans.

a table with numbers and a few points

By subscribing to monthly points purchases, you can lock in discounts as follows:

  • 30K Plan ($51.56/Month) = 2.1 cents per point
  • 40K Plan ($64.16/Month) = 1.9 cents per point
  • 80K Plan ($119.16/Month) = 1.8 cents per point

Quick Analysis

While it’s possible to get better than 1.8 cents per point value from Southwest points, it’s very rare.  In fact, most of the time you’ll get less than 1.5 cents per point value. You won’t even earn a travel bonus with your credit card for this spend since the points are purchased through points.com rather than through Southwest.

I can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to sign up for this “deal”.  Don’t do it.

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Nun

If it posts as a WN charge on Amex, it might be interesting for people who have no other way to burn their airline incidentals. That’s the only use I can imagine. Still expensive.

ActualMichael

Since the purchase is not processed by Southwest directly, it won’t code as an incidental.

Nun

I assume it’s processed by Points.com like points purchases, but do we actually know that’s the case for the subscription?

Aloha808

If they counted for CP I’d argue a case could possibly be made for them in certain situations…. but there’s zero mention about that, and SW is usually pretty good about letting us know when points are CP-eligible.

Mike C

Dont count toward CP nor status.