Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program changes: Here's how you get A-List status now
Southwest Airlines wants to make it easier for you to get status in its Rapid Rewards program.
Beginning Jan. 1, it’s lowering the threshold to qualify for A-List and A-List preferred status.
According to the airline, the new requirements will be 20 qualifying one-way flights for A-List status, down from 25, and 40 qualifying one-way flights for A-List Preferred status, down from 50. The thresholds to earn those statuses through tier qualifying points (TQPs) will remain at 35,000 and 70,000 respectively.
Jonathan Clarkson, Southwest’s vice president of marketing, acknowledged that these changes are going against the grain of other updates in the airline rewards realm.
“While I’d love to say that we’re so nimble we did an immediate response, it just isn’t the case. We’ve been working on this for a while,” he told USA TODAY, referencing Delta Air Lines’ recent changes. “At a time when other programs, plural, are making it harder to achieve tier status, we’re making it easier.”
Southwest is also lowering the spend-to-earn threshold on its co-branded credit cards. Rapid Rewards Premier, Priority, Premier Business, or Performance Business cardholders will now receive 1,500 TQPs for every $5,000 in spending, down from the current $10,000.
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Other frequent flyer programs have seen a swelling of their elite ranks in recent years, diluting the benefits for some loyal travelers, but Clarkson said he’s not concerned about a similar scenario unfolding at Southwest.
“That was one of the criteria we used when we talked about how we arrived at these benefits. Foremost was ensuring that whatever changes we make didn’t result in bloating the program,” he said. “It will result in a larger program we anticipate, but not to the point where it erodes the benefit of the people who get to take advantage of it.”
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The airline announced other changes to Rapid Rewards benefits as well, including the option to book tickets using a combination of cash and points. Previously, Southwest tickets had to be purchased using all cash or exclusively points.
Clarkson said A-List Preferred members will also be entitled to up to two free alcoholic drinks per flight. He added that vouchers for those drinks will be embedded in the passenger’s boarding pass scanner code, rather than travelers needing to present physical certificates onboard.
Customer feedback has been positive about the changes so far, according to Clarkson. He said the changes were workshopped with frequent flyers before they were announced.
“This is another example of Southwest deciding to zig when everybody else zags,” he said. “We have a program we want people to use and get the benefit of.”
JetBlue, Frontier Airlines and Alaska Airlines all moved to capitalize on Delta’s unpopular changes to their loyalty program by enticing flyers with generous matching programs.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Southwest Airlines announces updates to Rapid Rewards earning
