canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2023-06-01 03:14 pm
canyonwalker) wrote2023-06-01 03:14 pm
Southwest Status: More than Halfway There
With my travel this past week I'm more than halfway to renewing my elite statuses with Southwest. For A-List Preferred I'm actually well over halfway now, with almost 59,000 points vs. 70,000 needed for requalification. For Companion Pass I'm at 76k out of 135k. The bar on CP is higher this year than in the past. But I've got a plan to make it— I think.
Why do I care? I pursue these statuses because they make a material difference. I travel a lot, and Southwest works as an airline for a lot of the places I want to go. With A+ status I get perks like early boarding so I don't have to play the check-in-exactly-24-hours-ahead game with Southwest (technically my boarding order is reserved 36 hours in advance, well before virtually anybody else gets to check in) and free in-flight wifi. The wifi is nominally worth $8 per flight. I wouldn't buy it for $8 a flight but I would if it were... I dunno, maybe $5? With as much as I travel that's easily worth $100 right there. And even that's a small perk compared to A+ giving me a 2x multiplier on redeemable points earned. That's worth hundreds a year. There are other perks, too.
The value of Companion Pass is all the virtually free trips I get to bring Hawk on. The way CP works is when I'm flying— whether it's on cash or points— my companion gets to join me at a nominal cost. Last year I used it 14 times (14 one-way trips). This year I've used it 8 times already and hope to hit at least 14 again. The value of CP— when we're traveling frequently— is in the thousands.
Why do I care? I pursue these statuses because they make a material difference. I travel a lot, and Southwest works as an airline for a lot of the places I want to go. With A+ status I get perks like early boarding so I don't have to play the check-in-exactly-24-hours-ahead game with Southwest (technically my boarding order is reserved 36 hours in advance, well before virtually anybody else gets to check in) and free in-flight wifi. The wifi is nominally worth $8 per flight. I wouldn't buy it for $8 a flight but I would if it were... I dunno, maybe $5? With as much as I travel that's easily worth $100 right there. And even that's a small perk compared to A+ giving me a 2x multiplier on redeemable points earned. That's worth hundreds a year. There are other perks, too.
The value of Companion Pass is all the virtually free trips I get to bring Hawk on. The way CP works is when I'm flying— whether it's on cash or points— my companion gets to join me at a nominal cost. Last year I used it 14 times (14 one-way trips). This year I've used it 8 times already and hope to hit at least 14 again. The value of CP— when we're traveling frequently— is in the thousands.