Yesterday Bilt Rewards added Southwest Airlines as its 19th transfer partner.
Today they announced Southwest as their partner for May 1 Rent Day, with up to a 100% points transfer bonus that day:
- Platinum: 100% transfer bonus
- Gold: 75% transfer bonus
- Silver: 50% transfer bonus
- Blue: 25% transfer bonus
I was a bit non-plussed by Southwest as a transfer partner. Even before their recent devaluation, transfers made little sense most of the time.
- Points had a fixed value, and you wouldn’t do much better than buying their flights directly through a portal that offered 1.25 cents per point in value.
- You used to need the full points balance to redeem for an award, so you might transfer to top off an account for a redemption. But at the beginning of the year Southwest launched cash and points, so you can redeem whatever points you have and just top off with cash.
But I’m a Bilt Platinum and with a 100% transfer bonus I’d surely get 2.5 cents per point in value here. Southwest Airlines is by far the largest carrier at my home airport in Austin. I should be all-in for this!
In fact, I should go for a Southwest credit card, spend a bit on top of the initial bonus offer, get my companion pass back, and then effectively get may 5 cents per point from my Bilt balance right? And yet! Here’s Bilt’s full slate of transfer partners:
- Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United Airlines MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles, TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- oneworld: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Iberia Plus, British Airways Club
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Southwest Airlines, Aer Lingus Aer Club
- Hotels: World Of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, Accor ALL – Accor Live Limitless
Cathay Pacific First Class
I took advantage of 150% transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic and to Air France KLM Flying Blue. I used some of the former for four first class tickets on Hawaiian at 40,000 points apiece back in August and some of the latter for Air France A350 business class for four back from Paris last month.
Before Bilt, these sorts of transfer bonuses were unheard of. And they’ve offered transfer bonuses four months in a row for Rent Day. It ironically the rich bonuses – that should encourage redemption – create a certain fear of missing out and a desire to hoard my points! I didn’t take advantage of last month’s opportunity for a 100% bonus to British Airways and I probably should have!
The ‘option value’ of Bilt points, either to transfer to one of so many different places, wherever I need them when the need arises, or to use them for whatever big bonus is next just seems stronger than for any other currency. As a result it takes a lot to tempt me to redeem, and a 100% bonus to Southwest doesn’t seem to quite clear that hurdle. Maybe it should. Am I thinking about this the wrong way by holding off?
May 1 Rent Day also features Bilt’s slate of neighborhood dining, comedy show, and fitness offers as well as capped double points on their co-brand credit card. Their ‘Rent Free’ Family Feud-style game will be giving away money for student loans this month in addition to rent to highlight the new option to redeem Bilt points at a penny apiece towards loan repayment.
I’m platinum, too. I’ll pass on this one and wait for something better.
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: No freaking way.
Nice try, BILT (and thank you, Wells Fargo for allowing Ankur to keep the dream alive). More options are usually good, but Elliott (mis)Management has caused a figurative ‘vote of no confidence’ in this airline as they stripped everything good and decent about it (no seat assignments, two free checked bags, and a devaluation of Rapid Rewards, all under their watch). Get real, folks. It’s cooked.
Then you have to fly Southwest….
Considering you can use Southwest points for international flights at ~1cpp I suppose it’s not the worst redemption?
@Jon — “You Mustn’t Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling.” Please, Hyatt is often 2-3 cents per point on redemptions. Garsh, even transfer to United over this. Have some self-respect, sir.
The promises from Southwest CEO that were broken within, what, 2 months? That’s what makes this a non-starter, unless you’re willing to tolerate the high risk that they’re going to “change the deal” on Companion Pass or points before you can take advantage of it.
BTW, the cash + points option from Southwest offers are $0.01/pt IME. You’re giving up about 25% of value by going that route, based on the couple of times I’ve checked.
@jamesb2147 — This guy gets it. Jordan destroyed consumer trust. And the headwinds of a pending recession are going to crush him and the airline. Get that golden parachute ready, then flee the country (he’d fly private, or on a more luxurious foreign carrier, of course), because there’s about to be a shortage of pitchforks, metaphorically.
In – yes. All-in – no.
If you normally fly Southwest then this is a good deal. But, I just don’t get excited about Southwest like I would over many other transfer partners. It is a balance.
Southwest is the largest domestic airline by passangers traveled in the US. They offer a large intra-CA service (a big advantage for airline) and provides non stop service between midsize cities where the legacies require traveling through a hub. Their devaluation of RR seems to match Delta’s sky pesos strategy and every airline charges for bags. Like all the legacies, they will lose money on flying paxs but will make money with their Chase relationship. Economy flying is a commodity product, Southwest is becoming like the rest of the pack just proves it.
“go all in” the breathless hype for this vapor ware program is nauseating
@Greg — Speaking of ‘hype,’ if only Gary would have included other buzzwords, like ‘bespoke’ and ‘curated’ or ‘sustainable’ and ‘green’ then, and only then, would I have gone ‘all-in!’ It’s equivalent to the ‘dot-com,’ ‘Fintech,’ ‘’quantum,’ and ‘AI’ speak of the last several pump-and-dump cycles in the markets. Our economy really is just creative lying to each other at times.
@BrianW – Nobody said they didn’t have some strengths.
However, CA will not provide profit. Southwest already lose money on flying. The question in this transition is whether they can become profitable by becoming undifferentiated. Considering the history of the industry (all airlines EXCEPT SOUTHWEST losing money for decades on end), I think it’s appropriate to be skeptical.
But hey, we can check in in about 2-5 years and observe whether a) Southwest still exists and b) whether profits have grown, shrunk, or stayed the same.
Gary, while the question on what to do is valid you have a whole lot of moving parts here, among them:
– Your current Southwest balance.
– Why you haven’t already gotten a companion pass if that’s so valuable to you.
– Your other mileage totals as well as transferable currencies. You’ve alluded to having 7 figure reward account balances so you’re not hurting.
– Whether you tend to fly Southwest for work or leisure. If work then you’re being reimbursed which makes all this less relevant.
– If you think you’ll be flying Southwest much with the changes.
I don’t expect a response but we don’t have enough to work with in giving a reasonable reply. I will say thanks for not asking questions like this when you’ve already decided what to do as Lucky does. It’s engaging but also a bit insulting when a blogger asks for opinions then ignores what so many readers advise enough times that it becomes obvious that the question was simply intended to gather clicks.
Let us know what you end up doing if you would.
@Christian – I had Southwest Companion Pass 2020-2023. My current Southwest balance is very low because I spend the points as I earn them (no reason to save them). I have seven figure balances to work with in Chase and Amex, I have a larger balance with AA, I recently dipped below seven figures with Aeroplan.
I fly Southwest for work DCA-AUS (they’re the only one legally permitted to fly the route) and for leisure where they have the best schedule. I will fly Southwest on Tuesday. I dislike that Southwest is squeezing legroom in standard coach, and that they’re going to sell extra legroom but not blocked middles.
Since Southwest is the largest carrier at my home airport I will still fly them occasionally, but paying extra to avoid shrunken legroom, paying for bags, and they still have the worst wifi in the country and don’t have much seat power, I can’t use DL/UA/AA lounges when flying them they’re sort of a bottom choice. But as I say, that bottom choice is often the choice because a third of the flights from Austin are on Southwest!