Southwest Airways as soon as prided itself on its “transfarency” philosophy — low fares and no change charges, hidden charges or sudden bag charges. Subsequently, it was no shock that some TPG staffers regarded Southwest as one in every of their high airline selections.
Nonetheless, following a number of (largely unfavourable) current bulletins, from new checked-bag charges to decrease points-earning charges, the airline is “quickly” altering and not the beloved quirky standout it as soon as was.
Associated: What we all know concerning the surprising modifications from Southwest — and what you must do now
Even with the latest program modifications, Fast Rewards factors are a few of the most simply redeemable loyalty rewards. Preserve studying to discover ways to earn, redeem and maximize Southwest Fast Rewards factors.
Southwest Fast Rewards program overview
Like Southwest Airways itself, the Fast Rewards frequent flyer program has amassed a loyal following. Regardless of not having an ordinary award chart or being a part of an airline alliance, its promise of no blackout dates and the flexibility to earn Southwest’s well-known Companion Move make Fast Rewards a wonderful selection for {couples}, households and people with not-so-flexible schedules.
As with JetBlue’s TrueBlue program, all Southwest award tickets are priced primarily based on the ticket’s money worth. This implies the dearer the ticket you wish to e book, the extra factors you will want. TPG values Fast Rewards factors at 1.35 cents per level in our March 2025 valuations, that means 10,000 factors ought to offer you round $135 in worth.
Nonetheless, relying in your ticket, you could get roughly.
Southwest lately introduced plans to regulate award costs to make them extra “variable.” Whereas Southwest didn’t reply to TPG’s request for additional particulars in time for publication, this will imply that you could possibly get hold of greater than 1.35 cents per level on low-demand flights; this worth could drop sharply on high-demand flights the place award costs could improve.
Southwest elite standing
Southwest provides two elite standing tiers: A-Record and A-Record Most popular.
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Southwest A-Record elite standing
To qualify for A-Record standing, you will need to fly 20 qualifying one-way Southwest flights or earn 35,000 tier qualifying factors in a calendar 12 months.
Tier qualifying factors embody these earned from paid flights booked with Southwest or by way of qualifying purchases made with Fast Rewards companions. As of Jan. 1, members earn tier qualifying factors on the money portion of flights booked utilizing Southwest’s Money + Factors. You too can earn 1,500 tier qualifying factors for each $5,000 spent on the Southwest Fast Rewards® Precedence Credit score Card, the Southwest Fast Rewards® Premier Credit score Card, the Southwest® Fast Rewards® Premier Enterprise Credit score Card or the Southwest® Fast Rewards® Efficiency Enterprise Credit score Card. Bought factors, tier bonus factors, flight bonus factors, companion factors, and factors earned from Fast Rewards program enrollment and bank card bonuses don’t rely towards A-Record or A-Record Most popular standing.
The knowledge for the Fast Rewards Premier has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
With Southwest A-Record standing, you will get the next:
- Two free checked luggage (for bookings made out of Could 28)
- Precedence boarding
- 25% bonus on factors earned from paid flights
- Free same-day standby/modifications (taxes and charges could apply)
- Precedence check-in and safety lane entry
- Devoted A-Record member telephone line
Southwest A-Record Most popular elite standing
A-Record Most popular standing requires you to fly 40 qualifying one-way Southwest flights or earn 70,000 tier qualifying factors in a calendar 12 months. You may obtain all the advantages of A-Record standing, in addition to:
- 100% bonus on factors earned from paid flights
- Free inflight Wi-Fi
- Two free premium drinks on choose flights over 250 miles
Associated: Southwest A-Record standing: What it’s and the best way to earn it
How you can earn Southwest Fast Rewards factors
There are just a few methods to earn Southwest Fast Rewards factors — and a few do not require flying.
Earn Fast Rewards factors by flying
As you may count on, you’ll be able to earn Fast Rewards factors each time you fly on a paid Southwest Airways flight. The variety of factors you will earn is determined by the price of your flight, your elite standing, the kind of ticket and your cost technique.
Southwest has 4 ticket lessons. Every consists of totally different advantages, with the very best fare — Enterprise Choose — together with precedence boarding and a free alcoholic drink on board. Here is what number of factors every fare class earns:
- Wanna Get Away: 2 factors per greenback (a brand new Fundamental fare can be launched beginning Could 28)
- Wanna Get Away Plus: 6 factors per greenback
- Anytime: 10 factors per greenback
- Enterprise Choose: 14 factors per greenback
You may earn factors in your ticket’s base fare, excluding any related taxes and charges. Moreover, in case you e book a flight utilizing Southwest’s Money + Factors, you’ll earn Fast Rewards factors on the money fare of your ticket.
If you buy a Southwest ticket, you’ll be able to view your flight’s base fare on the airline’s web site. So, in case you bought a Wanna Get Away fare with a $100 base value, you’d earn 200 Southwest Fast Rewards factors after you’re taking your flight. However, a Wanna Get Away Plus ticket would earn 600 factors, an Anytime ticket would earn 1,000 factors and a Enterprise Choose ticket would earn 1,400 factors.
As talked about, Southwest A-Record and A-Record Most popular members earn much more factors on paid flights. Every standing tier earns the next bonus on paid flights:
- A-Record: 25% bonus
- A-Record Most popular: 100% bonus
Utilizing the above $100 base fare instance, an A-Record member would earn 750 Fast Rewards factors on a Wanna Get Away Plus fare, whereas an A-Record Most popular member would earn 1,200 Fast Rewards factors. The factors bonus is arguably probably the most precious perk of Southwest elite standing and can assist you rack up tons of additional factors all through your travels.
Earn Fast Rewards factors with Southwest bank cards
Southwest Airways has a number of cobranded bank cards issued by Chase. At the moment, the airline provides three private and two enterprise bank cards with various advantages, welcome bonuses and annual charges.
At the moment, you’ll be able to earn 30,000 bonus factors and a Southwest Companion Move (good by way of Feb. 28, 2026) after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening on these playing cards:
Southwest additionally provides the next enterprise playing cards:
Along with a gorgeous welcome bonus, every card has distinctive advantages. For instance, the Southwest Precedence card consists of an annual $75 journey credit score and seven,500 bonus factors (price $101.25 per TPG’s March 2025 valuations) in your cardmember anniversary. Collectively, these may offset the cardboard’s $149 annual price and assist you earn extra factors all year long.
Moreover, you’ll be able to switch factors from Chase Final Rewards to Southwest Fast Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. For those who do not thoughts lacking out on the Southwest-specific perks, you could contemplate making use of for the Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card because it earns 2 factors per greenback spent on journey and three factors per greenback spent on eating purchases.
Earn Fast Rewards factors with Fast Rewards Eating
Like many airways, Southwest provides a eating rewards program the place you’ll be able to earn factors. Create a Fast Rewards Eating account and hyperlink your bank cards to earn Fast Rewards factors each time you dine at a collaborating restaurant. That is along with the rewards you’d earn with a bank card, so hyperlink a card that earns bonus factors on eating to maximise your points-earning.
If you enroll in Fast Rewards Eating, make certain to enroll in electronic mail notifications. This lets you earn 3 factors per greenback spent at collaborating eating places. Opting out of electronic mail notifications will drastically minimize your earnings to 1 level per $2 spent.
The Fast Rewards Eating program provides a gorgeous set of welcome bonuses. You may earn 500 bonus factors after you spend $25 and overview a collaborating restaurant within the first 30 days, and you may earn further factors by leaving opinions and performing different duties. You possibly can seek for collaborating eating places on the Fast Rewards Eating web site.
Earn Fast Rewards factors by way of Fast Rewards Purchasing
You possibly can earn bonus factors whenever you store on-line with Fast Rewards Purchasing. As with Fast Rewards Eating, the factors you will earn with this buying portal are along with the factors you earn with a bank card.
Utilizing Fast Rewards Purchasing is straightforward: Join an account, discover your service provider on Fast Rewards and click on by way of its hyperlink earlier than making a purchase order. Factors are often credited to your Fast Rewards account inside per week of constructing a purchase order, however some retailers could take longer to course of.
The variety of factors you will earn per greenback spent varies by service provider and modifications steadily. The portal typically has promotions that provide bonus factors whenever you spend a set sum of money, so keep watch over the Fast Rewards Purchasing web site to see when these promos are taking place.
Earn Fast Rewards factors by reserving resorts
Southwest has partnerships with a few of the main resort firms, permitting you to earn Fast Rewards factors as a substitute of resort factors on stays. However we usually do not suggest this selection as a result of the incomes charges are low.
Reserving resort rooms with Southwest Inns or Rocketmiles can earn you as much as 10,000 factors per evening. At all times verify charges with each, in addition to different choices like bank card journey portals, earlier than deciding which platform most closely fits your wants.
With Southwest Inns, the variety of factors you will earn typically correlates to the value of your resort room, and you may earn extra factors whenever you e book Factors Plus properties. Do not forget that you can not earn resort factors or use resort elite standing advantages on these bookings; you will usually have to e book instantly with the resort to make use of these advantages.
Many boutique resorts can be found by way of Southwest Inns, so reserving these by way of Southwest could also be price it in the event that they in any other case would not earn factors. Examine pricing with the resort’s web site to make sure you get a comparable fee by way of Southwest Inns or Rocketmiles.
Associated: Simple methods to earn extra Southwest Fast Rewards factors
How you can redeem Southwest Fast Rewards factors
There are a number of methods to redeem your factors, however you will virtually all the time get probably the most worth in case you use them for journey on Southwest flights. Different redemption choices, like present playing cards and merchandise, yield a lot much less worth.
The method for redeeming Fast Rewards factors for flights is basically the identical as reserving a paid flight. Head to the Southwest homepage, enter your search standards and choose the “Factors” possibility. Click on the yellow search button to see your flight choices.
You may see award pricing to the best of every obtainable flight. You possibly can filter flights by the variety of layovers and departure occasions utilizing the buttons on the high of the web page. Then, click on on the ticket value of your required flight and observe the on-screen prompts to e book.
Which fare kind ought to I select?
You possibly can redeem factors for flights in any of the 4 Southwest fare sorts. The least costly possibility, Wanna Get Away, is greatest for many vacationers. As with all fare sorts, for flights departing earlier than Could 28, Wanna Get Away fares embody two free checked luggage and no change or cancellation charges. Though these tickets are nonrefundable, you will get a flight credit score in case you cancel — or, in case you booked with factors, you will get your factors and charges refunded.
Wanna Get Away Plus is barely extra versatile, with free confirmed and standby same-day flight modifications. Moreover, these fares allow you to switch flight credit to a different individual in case you cancel your flight.
Anytime fares have the identical advantages as Wanna Get Away Plus, in addition to precedence safety and EarlyBird Verify-In. Anytime money fares are absolutely refundable, however keep in mind that all fare sorts are refundable when booked with factors.
Lastly, the advantages of Enterprise Choose fares are hardly well worth the further value. These tickets embody A1-A15 boarding, expedited safety at choose airports, two free checked luggage for bookings from Could 28 onward, and a free alcoholic drink on board. Often, this fare prices greater than triple the factors of a Wanna Get Away fare, so we suggest avoiding this redemption generally.
Starting Could 28, flight credit will expire primarily based in your fare class. Fundamental fare credit will expire inside six months whereas Wanna Get Away Plus, Anytime and Enterprise Choose fare credit will expire inside 12 months.
Can I modify Southwest award tickets free of charge?
You possibly can change or cancel Southwest award tickets free of charge. For those who decide to alter a ticket, you are solely accountable for paying the brand new ticket’s fare distinction if it is dearer. However, in case you swap to a less expensive flight, Southwest will refund the distinction in factors. With this in thoughts, we extremely suggest keeping track of award pricing after you e book a flight — if the fare decreases, you will be refunded the factors distinction.
Canceling a Southwest award ticket is simply as easy. If you cancel your ticket, the factors you used to e book can be refunded to your Fast Rewards account with no cancellation charges.
Do I’ve to pay taxes and charges on award tickets?
You will need to pay sure taxes and charges when reserving Southwest award tickets, beginning at $5.60 one-way. For those who cancel your award flight, the price can be refunded to your cost technique.
Maximize your factors with the Southwest Companion Move
You possibly can earn a Companion Move by flying 100 Southwest one-way flight segments or — extra virtually for many — incomes 135,000 qualifying factors. Qualifying factors embody Fast Rewards factors earned by flying, spending on bank cards and making purchases by way of Fast Rewards Eating and/or Fast Rewards Purchasing.
Sadly, transfers from Chase Final Rewards don’t rely towards the Companion Move.
Your Companion Move can be legitimate for the rest of the 12 months through which it is earned and everything of the next 12 months. For those who plan on incomes your Companion Move by way of a bank card welcome bonus, attempt to time your spending to earn the required factors firstly of the 12 months. This offers you probably the most time to take pleasure in your hard-earned Companion Move.
You possibly can solely designate one companion at a time, however you’ll be able to change your companion 3 times per 12 months. You possibly can change your companion by way of your Southwest account; in keeping with the airline, permit as much as 48 hours for the change to course of. Do not forget that your companion is not going to earn Fast Rewards factors on their flight however you’ll nonetheless earn factors in case you fly on a paid ticket.
Associated: 15 classes from 15 years of getting the Southwest Companion Move
Backside line
Southwest Fast Rewards factors are simple to earn and redeem, and the extremely precious Companion Move units Southwest aside from different airways. Do not miss your quick monitor to a Companion Move with the best cobranded bank card.
Nonetheless, the airline is quickly altering, and plenty of bulletins have been met with confusion, frustration and dismay by its most loyal clients. Given the velocity at which these modifications have been introduced, extra will doubtless come. Nonetheless, this system stays in style with every kind of vacationers, particularly households.
Now you understand how to make an knowledgeable determination about Southwest’s Fast Rewards program so you’ll be able to resolve if it is best for you.
