It’s no secret that how you feel about a company can have a big effect on how often you choose to fly with them. To keep your business, some airlines will go to great steps to make things easier that are known to be difficult, like the boarding process.
Others, on the other hand, think it’s worth it to spend in loyalty programs that offer perks and benefits to customers who buy from them again. Now Southwest is one of the newest airlines to say it will be making big changes to its frequent flyer program. Find out how the new method might change the way you travel by reading on.
Southwest is a popular major airline with passengers because it has a lot of built-in comforts and cheap policies, like not charging for a passenger’s first two checked bags. However, there have been some problems with recent plans to change its unique boarding process.
This simple method also shows in the company’s Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program, which doesn’t use the complicated systems used by other companies but instead has two levels: A-List and A-List Preferred.
At the moment, customers who become A-List members by taking 25 one-way flights or spending 35,000 tier qualifying points on co-branded credit cards each year can enjoy faster security lines in many airports, faster check-in and boarding, and a 25% rewards mileage bonus on flights.
They can also change their flights the same day. If you take 50 one-way flights a year or earn 70,000 tier qualifying points, you’ll be considered A-List Preferred. This gives you the same benefits as A-List members, plus you get 100% bonus miles and free WiFi on trips.
Things are about to get a little easier for people who have always been just short of the number of flights needed to get perks. That’s because, according to The Points Guy (TPG), Southwest said it would lower the level of rank needed to get Rapid Rewards.
Start date: January 1, 2024. To hit the A-List level, visitors will only need to take 20 one-way trips before the end of the year. Also, the number of one-way flights needed to become an A-List Plus member will drop to 40 per year.
Even though you’ll still need the same number of tier qualifying points to hit each level, it’s getting a lot easier to get them. People with Southwest co-branded credit cards will only need to spend $5,000 to get an extra 1,500 points. This is a 50% drop from the $10,000 that was needed before. TPG says that the policy also says that users can earn as many extra points as they want through milestone buying.
In the flight business, change is nothing new. However, Jonathan Clarkson, Southwest’s vice president of marketing, said that the latest changes show how flying has changed since the COVID-19 outbreak.
“There’s been a shift from business to leisure travel,” he shared with TPG. Thus, these changes are more in line with what we see from those tourists. Also, our co-branded credit cards get more use, so these changes made sense.
This comes just one month after Delta Air Lines got a lot of bad feedback from customers about changes it planned to make to its SkyMiles points program. The rival airline’s new rules will not only make it much harder to become a status member, but they will also take away popular benefits like access to lounges for many people who currently enjoy them.
Clarkson said that the low-cost company talked about its possible changes with other people before putting them into effect. “This is another example of Southwest deciding to zig when everybody else zags,” he said to USA Today. “We have a program we want people to use and get the benefit of.”
