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Southwest Airlines gutted a big part of its Rapid Rewards program today with no advance notice. The frequent flyer program will provide members with far fewer miles for lower priced tickets and actually bump up those earned on its highest fares. Earning were cut on its cheapest fares by 67% while its most expensive only see a 17% increase.
The airline has four fare classes and made some drastic changes to earnings today:
- Wanna Get Away® fares drop from earning 6x points to 2x points per $1
- Wanna Get Away Plus® fares drop from earning 8x points to 6x points per $1
- Anytime fares saw no changes and still earn 10x points per $1
- Business Select® fares increase from earning 12x points to 14x points per $1
Those with elite status will see even more severe changes. A-List members receive a 25% bonus and A-List Preferred members earn a 100% bonus. An A-List member booking a Wanna Get Away® fare would earn 2.5x points per $1 versus the 7.5x points per $1 that they would have earned. An A-List Preferred member would see their earnings drop from 12x points per $1 spent to earning 4x points per $1 spent.
Southwest is struggling to be profitable and is looking to do anything it can to change course. This is a drastic move and one that is likely going to anger many loyal flyers.
Anthony’s Take: This is a huge change for Southwest loyalists. Southwest is clearly saying that it needs you to buy its most expensive tickets in order to be rewarded while sticking it to those buying less expensive fares.
(Image Credits: Southwest Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
