Southwest takes the luv out of flying | Coffee Break Ep48 | 3-11-25

By
Caroline Yoder
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4

Starting May 28 of this year, Southwest will be making some major changes to the things we’ve known and loved. For example Most people will be losing free checked bags on Southwest starting May 28 of this year, they’ll be introducing basic economy, flight credits will now expire (after 6-12 months depending on what type of fare you bought) and the value of points will become much more variable.

Coffee Break: Southwest takes the luv out of flying

Watch the full episode below, or listen on your favorite podcast platform. You can click the timestamps below to navigate directly to a specific part of the episode within YouTube. For a transcript of this episode, click “Watch on Youtube” on the video below, then click the “…more” link in the video description. This will expand full video details. Scrolling down past the timestamps and chapters, you’ll see a “Show Transcript” button. If you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can touch and hold a podcast episode to reveal an option to view a transcript.

Watch here…

Or listen here…

(01:39) – Commenter Brad says: “I’m an accountant who completely understands the math of cutting expenses or raising revenues to increase profit… I don’t understand, though, what the business strategy is here. Building a strategy that revolves around hoping customers won’t notice you’re charging them more for a worse product doesn’t seem like the kind of pitch that would get you an A in an MBA strategy class.”

Read the original post where this comment appeared here.

(03:28) – 2 Bags No longer Fly Free for Most (pricing not yet disclosed)

(05:48) – Basic economy fares

(06:23) – Flight credits will expire (From May 28, 2025)

(08:19) – Variable redemption rates

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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

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Patrick

I don’t understand the variable redemption rate… Hasn’t it always been variable? Higher priced ticket means more points to redeem? What am I missing here?

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Matt

Southwest points prices have always been dynamic but the redemption rates are consistently around 1.4 cents per point. With Variable Redemption, you may get 2.0 cents per point taking the 5:30 AM flight on a Tuesday, or maybe 0.5 cents per point if you want to fly home the day before Thanksgiving.

Last edited 3 hours ago by Matt
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T. Jones

It seems like airlines are no longer striving to be the best.Future success seems to hinge on simply not being the worst…unless you’re a Bonvoy fan, I guess.

Last edited 8 hours ago by T. Jones
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T. Jones

I posted without pausing to think, and I can’t seem to remove my comment with an edit. Sorry for the negativity.

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