Southwest Airlines makes major change to its loyalty program

Southwest Airlines does not offer some of the perks that other airlines offer.

The airline does not offer business- or firstclass seating, so it can’t reward its most loyal passengers by bumping them up to better seats.

In fact, the airline has built its entire system around a fairly democratic seating policy, where everyone gets treated mostly the same. Nobody gets an assigned seat and most passengers get their places in the three-tiered regular boarding system when they check in 24 hours before their flights.

Top-tier members of Rapid Rewards, the airline’s loyalty program, do get checked in earlier than other passengers. And if an A-List or higher member does not get an A group boarding position, they can board after the As and before the B group.

That’s a subtle perk, and many would argue that it’s the biggest benefit of reaching a top tier within Rapid Rewards, but compared with most airlines’ programs, the Southwest rewards are fairly limited.

Southwest’s core perk, however, is that it awards passengers points for miles flown. The points you earn go up based on your loyalty tier and the types of tickets you fly on, and when you earn enough points, you can redeem them for free travel.

But a problem arose. If a Rapid Rewards member had one less point than a flight required, the member could not redeem points toward the flight.

The airline has now changed its point redemption system to fix that problem.

Southwest now offers Cash + Points, a flexible payment option for Rapid Rewards members. Members now can use a combination of points — as few as 1,000 points — and other eligible forms of payment to purchase Southwest flights, the company said in a news release.

What seems like a small change makes Rapid Rewards points more valuable as they can now be used to discount a fare, not just to purchase a full ticket.