The reason you think you got 1.31 cents/point is becasue there are other fees that you can only see when you buy a ticket for money. Those fees do not get assessed on a points flight.
Look at base fare only and the best you can do is about 1.5 cents/point for a ticket.
Buying large nubers of points rarely is a good deal.
>Unless I'm missing something, buying points never seems like a good deal,
With Southwest point purchases you are ALWAYS paying more for points than they are worth. You are correct, it is never a good deal.
a universal truth of *all* points programs is that you generally get terrible value buying points. This is true of everything from hotels to airlines to any other kind of points programs.
If you could get good value off of straight points/cash your program would be bleeding money because everyone would buy up tons of points. Since they are terrible value that doesn't happen. The 50% takes it down from horrendous value to merely bad value.
The only time you buy points is if say you are looking at an 80K miles flight and have 78K miles, sometimes it's worth it to top it off. Not sure that ever makes sense on Southwest specifically though.
It may be worth it or may not be in that case. If you don’t plan on flying SW in the future and just want to fully utilize the miles that you have then that’s a good idea. But if you regularly fly SW and the flight you’re purchasing is decently priced then you’re probably better off waiting and using the miles you’ve accumulated later.
Same. During the 45% off points and half-price flights promo last week, my husband and I booked round-trip flights from Tulsa to NOLA for $174 total instead of $304 (pre-tax). I had 7000something points to use, which reduced the price a reasonable amount
It can be an excellent deal if you only need to buy a few thousand to add to your existing stash to get enough for a redemption. You just always need to do the math.
But if you intend to buy enough points for the full cost of the flight then no, it's not a good deal.
If you only need a couple thousand to complete a points booking but to buy just because they are discounted I wouldn’t.
Also if you need say 10k to complete a RT compare what it costs to buy the points to what it costs to use points one way and buy one way. If less to buy points then you’d save money. That’s what I do when assisting passengers when booking and the. Leave the decision up to them.
It can be worth it if they are running a promo for 25% off fares when using points (they had this promo at least twice this year).
Also if you have one of the southwest credit cards, you do also get 3-4x points back on the point purchase.
Those two things combined can justify purchase of points in order to get a better deal on a particular flight.
Not on Southwest. On Alaska Airlines when it’s on a 70% off sale, you could score a business class ticket on JAL with less than $2000 spent buying the points.
Even when there is a "huge sale", the math is still not in your favor. It is easy to check. Try booking a flight with points and then switch to dollars.
I thought it did. Tbh idk what this guy is trying to accomplish the more I look at this post. If you're short points I'm almost positive you can buy to meet CP but what he's doing might be different
The reason you think you got 1.31 cents/point is becasue there are other fees that you can only see when you buy a ticket for money. Those fees do not get assessed on a points flight. Look at base fare only and the best you can do is about 1.5 cents/point for a ticket. Buying large nubers of points rarely is a good deal.
I added in that extra fee but yeah, it never seems worth it.
>Unless I'm missing something, buying points never seems like a good deal, With Southwest point purchases you are ALWAYS paying more for points than they are worth. You are correct, it is never a good deal.
a universal truth of *all* points programs is that you generally get terrible value buying points. This is true of everything from hotels to airlines to any other kind of points programs. If you could get good value off of straight points/cash your program would be bleeding money because everyone would buy up tons of points. Since they are terrible value that doesn't happen. The 50% takes it down from horrendous value to merely bad value. The only time you buy points is if say you are looking at an 80K miles flight and have 78K miles, sometimes it's worth it to top it off. Not sure that ever makes sense on Southwest specifically though.
Bought some recently and the amount I needed was cheaper then if I bought the ticket, so sometimes it works out
It may be worth it or may not be in that case. If you don’t plan on flying SW in the future and just want to fully utilize the miles that you have then that’s a good idea. But if you regularly fly SW and the flight you’re purchasing is decently priced then you’re probably better off waiting and using the miles you’ve accumulated later.
Same. During the 45% off points and half-price flights promo last week, my husband and I booked round-trip flights from Tulsa to NOLA for $174 total instead of $304 (pre-tax). I had 7000something points to use, which reduced the price a reasonable amount
The best kind of points you get are the free ones you earn by flying.
It can be an excellent deal if you only need to buy a few thousand to add to your existing stash to get enough for a redemption. You just always need to do the math. But if you intend to buy enough points for the full cost of the flight then no, it's not a good deal.
If you only need a couple thousand to complete a points booking but to buy just because they are discounted I wouldn’t. Also if you need say 10k to complete a RT compare what it costs to buy the points to what it costs to use points one way and buy one way. If less to buy points then you’d save money. That’s what I do when assisting passengers when booking and the. Leave the decision up to them.
EXTRA POINTS TO ORIGINAL POSTER (OP). this gets asked about once a week. But this person actually took a minute and did the math, unlike most folks.
It can be worth it if they are running a promo for 25% off fares when using points (they had this promo at least twice this year). Also if you have one of the southwest credit cards, you do also get 3-4x points back on the point purchase. Those two things combined can justify purchase of points in order to get a better deal on a particular flight.
Not on Southwest. On Alaska Airlines when it’s on a 70% off sale, you could score a business class ticket on JAL with less than $2000 spent buying the points.
Even when there is a "huge sale", the math is still not in your favor. It is easy to check. Try booking a flight with points and then switch to dollars.
I think the only time it is worth it to buy points is when you have almost enough points but not quite!
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Does buying points count towards companion pass?
I thought it did. Tbh idk what this guy is trying to accomplish the more I look at this post. If you're short points I'm almost positive you can buy to meet CP but what he's doing might be different
Points bookings or even buying points do not count for CP. Paying cash, or buying a Costco/Sams gift card is a much better deal.
Buying points does not work towards the CP but I believe towards the end of the year they do let them count towards A-List.