Southwest Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the U.S. by number of passengers served, is known for its low fares and multitude of routes throughout the United States. If you’ve traveled around the U.S. on a budget, there’s a good chance you’ve flown on Southwest Airlines. And, if you’re flying on Southwest, you may as well earn rewards points through the airline’s Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program.

These Rapid Rewards points can be redeemed in several ways, but the best way to use them is for flights. The number of Rapid Rewards points required for each award flight is directly tied to the cash price of that flight. This is because Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards uses a dynamic pricing model to set the rates for their award flights.

Because of the Rapid Rewards program’s dynamic pricing model, you’ll pretty much always get a value of between 1.3 to 1.5 cents per point when redeeming for award flights. While this value isn’t bad (and is actually fairly high for a program that uses a dynamic pricing model), it’s worth noting that certain other frequent flyer programs that use fixed award charts offer considerably more potential value per point.

This is important to consider when you’re choosing where to transfer your points. For example, if you have a stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you have the option to transfer them to the Rapid Rewards program, but you can typically get more value through Chase’s other transfer partners.

In this article, we’re going to look at how award pricing works in the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program.

Southwest Airlines 737

Award Pricing for Flights on Southwest Airlines

When redeeming points for flights, Rapid Rewards points are typically worth about 1.3 to 1.5 cents apiece, which is better than the value you’ll get through a lot of other programs that use dynamic pricing models (many of which offer just around 1 cent per point/mile).

For example, we searched for a round-trip flight from Denver (DEN) to Phoenix (PHX) on October 19, 2024, and found that this flight would cost $396 in Business Select, $346 in Anytime, $286 in Wanna Get Away Plus and $266 in Wanna Get Away.*

*Note that these fare names will change this year. Wanna Get Away will become Basic, Wanna Get Away Plus will become Choice, Anytime will become Choice Preferred, and Business Select will become Choice Extra.

Award Pricing for Flights on Southwest Airlines Cash Cash

If you were to purchase the same exact flight on the same date with Rapid Rewards points instead of cash, it would cost you 29,408 points in Business Select, 25,548 points in Anytime, 20,915 points in Wanna Get Away Plus and 19,371 points in Wanna Get Away.* Regardless of which fare you book, you’d have to pay government-imposed taxes of $5.60 on each of these award flights.

*Note that these fare names will change this year. Wanna Get Away will become Basic, Wanna Get Away Plus will become Choice, Anytime will become Choice Preferred, and Business Select will become Choice Extra.

Award Pricing for Flights on Southwest Airlines points

Regardless of which class you choose, you’d get a value of slightly over 1.3 cents per point.

Award Pricing for Upgrades on Southwest Airlines

One of the best aspects of the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program is that you can change or cancel flights for free, including award bookings. This includes upgrading to a higher fare class if there’s availability. While you won’t have to pay a fee for changing your flight, if you’re upgrading to a higher fare class, you will have to pay the difference between your original fare and the higher-class fare.

You can pay for upgrades on Southwest Airlines flights with points. And, when doing so, you should get the same value that you get when redeeming for award flights: between 1.3 and 1.5 cents per point.

The Bottom Line

Southwest Airlines is an airline that most U.S. citizens will fly with at some point in their lives. And, since you can’t credit Southwest flights to any other frequent flyer program, you may as well credit them to the Rapid Rewards program. Unfortunately, Rapid Rewards points can only be redeemed for Southwest flights, which are priced using a dynamic pricing model.

The fact that the Rapid Rewards program uses a dynamic pricing model means that you’ll get a fairly fixed value of between 1.3 and 1.5 cents per point when redeeming for award flights. While this value is pretty good for a program that uses dynamic pricing, you can still get considerably more value through many frequent flyer programs that use fixed award charts.

So, if you’re flying with Southwest Airlines, you may as well earn some Rapid Rewards points toward your next award flight. However, if you’re considering transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to the Rapid Rewards program, just be aware that you can get much more potential value through other airline transfer partners.