Southwest variable award pricing is live and values range from 1.1 – 1.7 cents each

Southwest Airlines has been hacking away at many of the most popular elements of its business model and rewards program over the last couple of weeks. The airline has announced that it’s reducing earnings on paid flights, bringing back expiration dates to flight credits and will soon begin charging for checked bags. These are all […] The post Southwest variable award pricing is live and values range from 1.1 – 1.7 cents each appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Mar 27, 2025 - 15:54

Southwest variable award pricing is live and values range from 1.1 – 1.7 cents each

Southwest Airlines has been hacking away at many of the most popular elements of its business model and rewards program over the last couple of weeks. The airline has announced that it’s reducing earnings on paid flights, bringing back expiration dates to flight credits and will soon begin charging for checked bags. These are all things that, until recently, would have been considered brand heresy.

Southwest Featured Image

As part of those inauspicious changes, Southwest also said that it would soon begin instituting “variable” award pricing:

We are changing our redemption rates factoring in how much demand exists for a flight. For example, flights with lower demand will have a lower redemption rate, and flights with peak demand may have a higher redemption rate, and some flights will have the same or similar redemption rates as they do today.

Southwest awards have always priced dynamically, meaning that the price of an award fluctuates in concert with the cash price. However, the value of points when used towards awards were fairly static. Most recently, Nick found that they averaged around 1.4 cents each when redeemed for flights.

Now, the actual value of points will change according to the what Southwest ascertains the “demand” is for a given flight is, meaning that your points will be worth less for higher demand flights and more when the demand is lower.

This pricing change now appears to be live and, at a quick glance, I’m seeing prices that range between 1.1 – 1.7 cents per point in value.

Southwest Variable Pricing

Looking at award pricing between LA and Honolulu on May 15th, here’s what I see for award prices:

Let’s compare those to the cash prices:

All three of the connecting flights are pricing out at ~1.1 – 1.15 cents per point (cpp) value, while the nonstop is slightly better at ~1.2cpp. However, all of them are significantly below the ~1.4 cents per point that we’d normally expect for Rapid Rewards points. Those general ratios hold through all four fare classes.

As another example, let’s take a look at Oakland to Phoenix on September 24th, further out in the schedule. First, the cash prices:

Now, let’s again compare those to the prices in Rapid Rewards points:

The first three options offer exceptional value for Rapid Rewards points, at just over 1.65 cents each. The fourth is much worse at just over 1.1 cents each. Yuck.

Quick Thoughts

I searched through 12 different route combinations over five dates throughout the current schedule and seemed to find a similar theme. The low end of Rapid Rewards award redemptions provides ~1.1cpp in value, while the high end is now between 1.6-1.7cpp. There were still plenty of examples that were hanging out in the old 1.4 range, which makes it seem like those might now be the general “low,” “standard” and “peak” ranges.

It’s hard to say definitively how this affects the overall “value” of Rapid Rewards points. If 1/3 of redemptions are ~1.1cpp, 1/3 are ~1.4 and 1/3 are ~1.7, it may average out to more or less of a wash. However, at first glance, I’m seeing many more flights that are pricing in the 1.1 – 1.2 range than at 1.6 – 1.7. We’ll have to do a more systematic analysis, but if that initial impression pans out, it would represent an overall decline in the power of of Rapid Rewards when used for award bookings.

How you feel about all this will probably depend on how captive you are to Southwest points. If they’re the primary currency you use for flights, you could be stuck having to redeem them at the low-end, in which case this represents a decided devaluation. On the other hand, if you utilize a variety of airline currencies, this could provide an opportunity to get better value for Rapid Rewards points than you have over the last several years, as you’d be able to pick and choose when you use them for maximum effect.

That could be a hard pill to swallow for those who have been most loyal to Southwest and might provide solid motivation to begin collecting different currencies in addition to Rapid Rewards.

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