Southwest Airlines has launched a new promotion for buying or gifting Rapid Rewards points at a 75% bonus through September 28, 2020.
You can buy 60,000 Rapid Rewards points in a transaction, which is also the daily maximum. Southwest doesn’t limit the number of points you can purchase in a calendar year.
You can access this offer on Southwest’s buy Rapid Rewards points website here.
Price of Rapid Rewards point at 75% bonus:
The cost of a Rapid Rewards point purchased under this at the max level offer is 1.57 cents each.
Does it make ANY sense to buy Rapid Rewards points?
The value of a Rapid Rewards point used for Wanna Getaway fares is 1.4 cents, 1 cent for Anytime fares, and 0.83 cents for Business Select fares. Southwest devalued the value of Rapid Rewards points last time on April 17, 2015 (read more here)
It makes very little sense to purchase Rapid Rewards points at 1.57 cents each when the maximum value you can get out of them is capped at 1.4 cents.
The only time I would consider buying would be if I needed to top off an account (a small number of points) for award redemption.
Note that paid fares would EARN more Rapid Rewards points. Certain taxes are not applicable for award tickets issued using Rapid Rewards points, and tickets are cancelable.
Conclusion
Buying points even at this 75% bonus doesn’t make much sense. This is one of those sales that are very difficult to justify unless you need to top up your account for an award.
Here are the terms and conditions of this offer:
Offer is valid between September 18, 2020, 12:00:01 a.m. CT and September 28, 2020, 11:59:59 p.m. CT. Rapid Rewards® Member will get 75% more points as a bonus when the Member purchases or gifts 3,000 or more Rapid Rewards points. A valid credit card is required to purchase or gift points. A minimum 3,000 points purchase threshold must be met on a per transaction basis in order to qualify for the bonus. Transfer point purchases are not included in this offer. Points can be purchased and gifted in blocks of 1,000 and a daily maximum of 60,000 points can be purchased by a Member with no annual maximum. Transactions are non-refundable and non-reversible. Purchased and gifted points do not count towards A-List, A-List Preferred, or Companion Pass qualification. Prices are in U.S. dollars and include all applicable taxes. Please allow 72 hours for points to post to the applicable Rapid Rewards account. Prices for the purchase and gifting of points are only valid while a Member is currently logged in to Southwest.com® and such prices are subject to change. All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply and can be found at Southwest.com/rrterms. Southwest® reserves the right to amend, suspend, or change the Rapid Rewards program and/or Rapid Rewards program rules at any time without notice. Rapid Rewards Members do not acquire property rights in accrued points. The number of Rapid Rewards points needed for a particular Southwest flight is set by Southwest and will vary depending on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare type, point redemption rate, and other factors, and is subject to change at any time until the booking is confirmed.
The email address provided here is only used for confirmation of your Points purchase and will not alter the email address currently stored in your Rapid Rewards profile.
Prices are in U.S. Dollars and include all applicable taxes. Prices for the purchase or gifting of points are only valid while a Member is currently logged into southwest.com and such prices are subject to change. Purchased points are nonrefundable and nonreversible. All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply and can be found at Southwest.com/rrterms.
