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Transfer RR to another airlines

mactoolsix
Explorer C

We have about 117,000 RR points. We would like to book a flight to South America however Southwest does not fly past Costa Rica. Is there any way we can use our RR points on a different airline?

9 REPLIES 9

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A
Solution

Yes, the More Rewards program will let you book trips to places Southwest does not fly. 

You can get more information at https://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/redeem-more-rewards

 

I don't have any experience with the program or knowledge of its value, perhaps others can comment on that. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

dfwskier
Aviator A

Be sure to check how much more rewards is charging you for this.

 

SW values it's points, when used for SW flights, at about 1.67 cents each. If more rewards gives you significantly less valuet han that, you might want to save your points for SW flights instead.

 

More rewards has to make a profit to stay in business. It likely does that by giving you less than 1.67 cents /point.

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Some detail:

 

Currently, Southwest awards flights cost 78 points per dollar of the base airfare. That would make the fixed, nominal value of a Rapid Rewards point $0.0128.

 

However, because points flights do not incur taxes and fees which are collected on cash fares, the realized value of a point  is somewhat higher. Further complicating things, points flights come with full refund ability, which also has a certain value. But points bookings do not earn points, which reduces their value slightly. Because of these variables (and some others) it's impossible to put an exact number on the value of a Rapid Rewards point, however most people consider them to be on average worth approximately $0.014 to $0.016.

 

(Additional factors, including Companion Pass usage, can skew the value of a specific redemption much higher, but the above is considered a good standard for average point value.)

 

Points redemptions for international flights through More Rewards have a significantly higher cost than flight redemptions through Southwest, which reduces the value of your Rapid Rewards points. Redemption rates vary, however expect to get between $0.004 to $0.007 per point in value.

 

Obviously, each individual will need to determine if this usage of their Rapid Rewards points makes sense for them.

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

mactoolsix
Explorer C

WOW - this is great information, however following the suggested link gets me to https://www.southwest.com/html/generated/help/faqs/rapid_rewards_more_rewards_faq.html?CLK=SITESEARC...

 

Entering the suggested link www.southwest.com/morerewards simply goes to a screen for booking SW flights.

I'm at a loose as to how to actually compare flights or book a flight.

 

Thanks for the infromative replys! I'll keep searching.

 

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

dfwskier
Aviator A
Solution

https://www.qrttravel.com/search.jsp#/air

 

Well apparently a direct link won't work

 

 Here's how I got to where you want to be

 

1) open the southwest website, logon,   and click on rapid rewards

2) click on redeem points for gift cards and more

3) click on shop now

4) click on airfare

and you'll be at the website above

 

getting to the right place is not intuitively obvious

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

chgoflyer
Aviator A

They certainly don't make it easy. Direct links mostly generate "session timeout" messages.

 

I've found it's best to start by logging into your Rapid Rewards account. For internatinal flights, select Rapid Rewards > Redeem Points for Gift Cards & More > Travel > International Flights.

 

 

 

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

mactoolsix
Explorer C

That is exactly what I did (suggested by chgoflyer) and here's an example of what I found:

 
When used to book SW flights, SW points are worth about 1.7 to 2.0 cents each.
 
A bit different when using SW points to book a different airline flight:
I priced a flight to Buenos Aires, cash price is $753, using points was 217,500 points. This puts the value of each point at 0.346 each. (100 x 753 / 217500)  Guess I won't be using SW points on other airlines.
 
Here's a handy website that does a quick calculation to determine Pay with Cash or Points.
 
Thanks to everyone for the help!

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@mactoolsix wrote:

That is exactly what I did (suggested by chgoflyer) and here's an example of what I found:

 
When used to book SW flights, SW points are worth about 1.7 to 2.0 cents each.
 
A bit different when using SW points to book a different airline flight:
I priced a flight to Buenos Aires, cash price is $753, using points was 217,500 points. This puts the value of each point at 0.346 each. (100 x 753 / 217500)  Guess I won't be using SW points on other airlines.
 
Here's a handy website that does a quick calculation to determine Pay with Cash or Points.
 
Thanks to everyone for the help!



 

Nice! If you are able to get 2 cents worth of value out of your Southwest points you're doing well.

 

As you've discovered though, points usage through More Rewards for international flights is not a great value. $0.0036 (or about 4/10ths of a cent) in your example is pretty awful.

 

 

Re: Transfer RR to another airlines

andrew1NM
Explorer C

chgoflyer, I think that every flight academy should consider about cooperation with air lines, if they still don’t have such cooperation, and after courses hire all the students to those airlines, or at least give them some kinda great tickets offers. Talking of which, here is a service I’ve got recently ( url: https://airbusinessclass.com/ ), which has been developed by a student of your flight school, as I know. It helped me to find the cheapest ticket from USA to Asia two weeks ago, in business class.