Following shortly after their latest point devaluation, Southwest has introduced a new way to buy points at a discount: Rapid Rewards® Points Subscription Plans.
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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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.
Since the purchase is not processed by Southwest directly, it won’t code as an incidental.
I assume it’s processed by Points.com like points purchases, but do we actually know that’s the case for the subscription?
The press release was put out by Points.com so yes we know.
https://www.swamedia.com/releases/release-82cbf944d0e782c7bbd20a7225fd9e37-points-expands-partnership-with-southwest-airlines-as-carrier-launches-rapid-rewards-points-subscription-plan
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.
Good point!
Dont count toward CP nor status.