Summary
- Southwest Airlines has reintroduced an incentive program to help Rapid Rewards members advance their status faster.
- The program offers several ways to reach status faster through flight bookings, reward travel, Chase credit cards and partners.
- Southwest Airlines stands out for its low-cost model, its domestic presence with 121 destinations and its unique operations that primarily use Boeing 737 aircraft.
Southwest Airlines the world’s largest low-cost carrier, recently announced the return of its popular Tier Accelerated program. This program makes it possible for Fast rewards Members can achieve status faster. Starting today, Rapid Rewards members have four ways to accelerate their earnings to A-List and A-List Preferred status.
The Dallas-based airline is a major player in the US aviation market. Although the airline only has narrow-body aircraft in its fleet (and is the world’s largest operator of the Boeing 737 family), it is very successful domestically and in the countries it serves. The airline operates on a low-cost model and is headquartered in Love Field, Dallas, Texas. The airline serves 121 destinations in the United States and neighboring countries and has consistently been one of the largest airlines in the domestic market.
Photo: Abdul N Quraishi – Para | Shutterstock
The airline’s latest incentive includes qualified flight purchases (cash or through points redemption, credit cards and partner spend). Jonathan Clarkson, Vice President & Chief Product Officer at Southwest Airlines, explained:
“We’re bringing back this popular promotion to give our Rapid Rewards members an extra push to reach our coveted A-List and A-List Preferred status faster, allowing them to enjoy all the benefits of our Rapid Rewards program, such as early boarding, increased points, free same-day standby tickets and same-day rebooking. A-List Preferred members enjoy the same benefits, plus free WiFi and premium beverages.”
Let’s earn
Simple Flying offers numerous ways to collect additional status and points and shows you how easy it can be:
Earn double qualifying status points on Southwest-operated flights.
Registered Rapid Rewards members can purchase qualifying flights on Southwest through November 30th and earn double the qualifying points for the remainder of 2024 and through the end of 2025 to achieve A-List or A-List Preferred status. Business travelers can also participate by booking through their normal Southwest Business channels and earn up to three times the qualifying points on travel through November 30th.
Reward trips
Passengers redeeming miles will be rewarded when they use their award travel on a Southwest flight segment. Each eligible one-way flight counts as one qualifying flight for those enrolled in the promotion. This is valid for travel through November 30. This promotion does not apply to award travel booked before the start of the promotion.
Earn Rapid Rewards with the Chase Credit Card
Between September 1 and November 30, Rapid Rewards credit cardholders can earn up to 2,000 points on every $5,000 in purchases made with their Rapid Rewards Priority, Premier and Plus consumer credit cards and Chase Premier, Plus and Performance business credit cards. Points will be added to the points cardholders have already earned.
Earn with Rapid Rewards Partners
This new initiative allows members to earn the next tier faster with the help of their Rapid Rewards car rentals, hotels and other select partners. For each Base Point members earn between now and November 30, they will earn an additional Qualifying Point in addition to each Base Point. This initiative has a total cap of 5,000 Qualifying Points.
Photo: Chase Bank
What are you waiting for?
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards wants to make it easy for anyone to join and achieve A-List and A-List Preferred status faster, so anyone can join and participate. The Rapid Rewards program wants to make earning free flights faster and easier. There are no blackout dates, points don’t expire, and if you want to join, just go to Southwest.com and sign up now.
Some history of Southwest Airlines?
The airline was founded in 1967 by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King and adopted its current name, Southwest Airlines Co, in 2017. It began operations within Texas, initially between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, before adding interstate flights in 1979. Today, the airline serves 42 states and numerous destinations in Central America.
The airline uses a unique business model that differs from other traditional U.S. carriers. Because it operates a rolling hub and point-to-point networks, it also encourages passengers to use their baggage allowance to avoid cabin congestion, allowing passengers to board and disembark quickly and achieving optimal turnaround times. The airline operates exclusively Boeing 737 jets, employs over 66,100 people, and has over 4,000 departures per day during peak season.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
Many of the airline’s regular customers will wonder why the airline uses the two-letter IATA designation WN for its operations. The simple answer is that SW was already in use by African airline Air Namibia at the time Southwest was registered. Urban legend therefore says that WN was chosen because Keller’s former legal secretary and later president of Southwest Airlines, Colleen Barrett, liked Wille Nelson. The truth, however, is that when the airline was founded, the letters WN were simply available, so Southwest Airlines took them and has used them ever since.
Keller made several offers to Air Namibia for the SW code, but the African airline demanded an astronomical amount to make the transfer worthwhile, so the purchase has since been dropped from consideration.
