You might think of Southwest as a rather basic program, but there are some things to be aware of to maximize what you get out of it.

For this post, I’m not going to get into the details of the elite status aspect of the program and instead focus on the redemption side of the program.

Details on updates to earning Southwest points can be found here.

Only one bank transfer partner

Southwest Airlines can only be found as a transfer partner of Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program. You’re not going to find them available from any other bank program. That shouldn’t be surprising since Chase is the sole issuer of Southwest credit cards. To be clear, you could get Southwest miles from transfers of hotel points, like Marriott’s 3:1 transfer ratio. But I’m ignoring those transfers because (1) they’re slow and (2) the transfer ratio is so poor.

It’s also important to note that points transfers into your account do not count towards earning a Southwest Companion Pass. There was a time in the past when they did but those days are long gone.

Southwest only has one airline partner (Icelandair)

Their first airline partner Icelandair became a partner in February 2025. That helps for earning Southwest miles, but there are no partner redemptions available… yet. The Points Guy reported that redemptions on Icelandair are expected to commence in 2026. While we’d love for the points rate to generate real value for the program, I’m guessing the pricing won’t be better than what Alaska Airlines charges today.

The main reason I hesitate to expect excellent value is that Southwest is ultimately a low cost carrier. Those airlines aren’t traditionally focused on earning a revenue premium (though JetBlue’s Mint service is an outlier). But I’d love to be wrong!

Southwest releases availability in batches

The Southwest Rapid Rewards program likes to release both cash and award space in batches. As an example, on this post’s date of publication, the current window allows you to book through November 1, 2025. But on March 27, 2025, the window will extend to January 5, 2026. There unfortunately isn’t a fixed pattern as to when the dates get released.

Why is this important? The obvious reason is if you know you’re going to book a flight during that window. But if your trip falls over the busy holiday travel period in November and December, your best bet is to book your flights immediately when they become available.

No fees… as of now

One of the best things about Southwest is its aversion to charging fees when you book their flights. Everyone gets two free checked bags, which is well-known at this point. They also don’t charge any cancelation fees when redepositing your awards or cash fares. Note that when you cancel a cash fare, it will be converted into a future flight credit. But if you cancel an award, you can refund the tax portion back to the original payment method.

This flexibility means that Southwest is a great program for you to use as a backup flight or as a positioning flight. When you’re not sure if your current flight is actually going to take off, you can book Southwest to travel later that day, but cancel that flight if you end up not needing it. And I’ve certainly used Southwest for positioning flights–when we have an international flight out of a different city and we need to fly there to make the connection.

Southwest’s pricing model will be completely shook up when seat assignments arrive. Hopefully they don’t start introducing other negative changes and reduce the compelling value they currently have.

Awards are worth a flat amount towards flights… almost

So you built up your points and are looking to book an award flight. Take this set of options between LAX and PHX when booked with cash.

Switching over to points, we can see what the program will charge us for one of these flights. It’s a simple calculation to follow to calculate cents per mile ([cash price] – [taxes required for rewards]) / points required. Using that for each displayed rate and you get a fairly consistent 1.4 cents apiece.

You can choose a different route and sometimes see the same rate, but there are times when a different rate emerges. Take this route from LAX to LAS:

And the points price ultimately implies a rate of 1.6 cents/point.

The logic behind the fluctuating value

Why is it not just a flat amount for all routes? That has to do with the taxes and fees charged. Let’s take this flight between ATL and SEA. The Wanna Get Away fare is $329.

The points cost for the same flight is 23,409 points plus $5.60.

Now let’s drill into the cash price a bit more. Continue on like you’re booking and you’ll find a fare breakdown.

The base fare is $282.03, which is what your points are being used to offset. Divide the 23,409 points by the $282.03 base fare and get 83 points/dollar, which is consistent between all Southwest flights. Southwest will pass along the 9/11 Security Fee, but it eats the Transportation Tax (7.5% of base fare), the Flight Segment Tax ($5.20 per segment), and the Passenger Facility Charge (up to $4.50 per airport). Check the Airlines for America website for more detail on these taxes.

Since Southwest doesn’t pass along these other taxes, it stands to reason that your points will go farther if the these fees are higher. Generalizing this a bit more results in the following, if you want your points to last longer:

• Look for cheap flights. Cheaper fares will mean the flat Segment Tax and Facility Charge amounts will represent a higher proportion of the overall total cost.
• Take more connections. Not that you’d necessarily want to be in the air longer than you need to, but more connections (for the same base fare) means more Segment Tax and Facility Charge amounts that you don’t need to pay.

Taxes and fees assessed by foreign governments are passed along to you when redeeming points.

What are the sweet spots?

Once you “crack the code” on how to value Southwest flights, you’ll find there are no real “sweet spots” in the traditional sense. You could see points values as high as 1.6 cents/point as mentioned above, but you’ll be hard-pressed to do much better than that. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to get more value.

Fare sales

As mentioned above, cheap cash fares mean your Southwest points likely go farther. So if you see a cheap fare for where you want to go, that’s a better use of your points. When fares are high (not necessarily due to many connections), you’re better off paying with cash.

Cheap lap infants on international flights

Want to know one of the best programs for booking lap infants? You found it! I bet you weren’t expecting that accolade for Southwest. Other programs might charge 10% of the cash fare even if booked using that program’s mileage currency. But Southwest charges nothing for wholly-domestic awards and just the taxes/fees for international travel.

Granted, Southwest doesn’t fly to many international destinations (mainly Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America) and there aren’t premium cabins (yet). But if you’re looking to travel with infants to a destination serviced by Southwest, you should at least consider them.

Southwest Companion Pass

The Southwest Companion Pass is a way where you can bring a buddy with you for just the cost of the taxes (generally $5.60 one-way within the United States). What’s nice is that there isn’t any limited availability to worry about when booking. If there is a revenue ticket for sale on the flight, you can add your companion. The pass works with both points and cash bookings across the whole route network (even international destinations like The Bahamas).

The pass works with points bookings as well. Of course, you might then ask does it mean your points are worth double if someone flies free with you? No, that’s not how math works. Because when you have the pass, your options are either to pay cash for one ticket or use points to offset the base fare for one ticket. In either case, the second passenger flies free. The only way the value of the points would double is if the Companion Pass worked only on award bookings (not the case).

How to Best Search for Availability?

I don’t have any tricks to share here. Southwest generally doesn’t like their flights being visible on any website other than their own (and now Expedia). That means if you want to understand availability and pricing, you need to go to the Southwest website and search it yourself.

The good news is that Southwest does allow points bookings anytime a cash fare is present. You might not like the price, but it is available.

Do Miles Expire?

No, miles do not expire. In fact, travel credits (from canceling paid flights) also do not expire.

Anything Else?

While not related to points, it’s worth mentioning that there are two types of travel credits when you cancel your paid flights. If you booked and subsequently canceled a Wanna Get Away fare, the credit issued would only be useable by the same person on the original ticket. But other fares (including Wanna Get Away Plus) provide a credit that can be transferred to someone else. That can bring up an interesting scenario if you normally book the cheapest Wanna Get Away fares.

• John Doe purchases a Wanna Get Away fare, and then (more than a day later) decides to cancel the ticket.
• John Doe receives travel credit for the full value of the original flight cost to use later. This credit is only usable by John.
• Jane Doe, John’s wife, has a need to fly Southwest without John.
• Rather than having Jane use cash, John first books a Wanna Get Away Plus fare for himself using his flight credit.
• John waits longer than a day and then cancels his flight to receive a transferrable flight credit.
• John transfers his flight credit to Jane.
• Jane uses the flight credit on her flight.

Note that these flight credits can only be transferred once. Jane couldn’t just send it on again to her friend to use.

Transferring the credits to someone else is simple. Just log into your account and go to My Account > View Travel Funds > Transfer to someone else. You will need the other person’s name, email, and Rapid Rewards account number to process the transfer.

Full details can be found here.