Southwest Airlines new Rapid Rewards program: what it means for travelers

by McLean Robbins on

Today Southwest Airlines announced changes to its popular rewards program, Rapid Rewards. the all-new program, which promises to eliminate blackout dates and allow redemption for international flights for the first time, will launch March 1 and will will allow members to redeem points for any seat on any flight, with no blackout dates or seat restrictions.

AOL Travel has covered the basic information about the Rapid Rewards program restructuring, but we’re offering a bit more insight into what the program will mean for travelers.

A Brief History of the Rapid Rewards Program

Southwest’s frequent flyer program, Rapid Rewards, previously allowed customers to earn a free roundtrip ticket to any of their domestic destinations after the accumulation of 16 credits per 24-month period. The program also allowed a half-credit for using a Southwest partner to book car and/or hotel stays. Members also earned one credit per $1,200 spent on Chase’s Rapid Rewards-branded credit cards. Select merchants can earn double reward points.

In February of 2006, Southwest issued capacity control limits on its Rapid Rewards redemptions. This potential travel blackout will be removed with the new program. Details of how the Rapid Rewards program will integrate the A+ Rewards program of recently-acquired AirTran Airways have not yet been released.

According to FlyerTalk.com member NSK:

Rapid Rewards 2.0 is a perfect fit with Southwest’s brand as a no-gimmicks airline. The program may not be the most generous, but it is simple and completely free of any hidden catches. Unlike mysterious capacity controls, price-based redemption provides us an excellent ability to predict ability to redeem for free travel.

How Is Rapid Rewards 2.0 Different?

Southwest has assured its customers that existing credits and travel awards will remain available for use after the new system takes effect on March 1. Instead of a one-for-one system, travelers will now accrue points based on the fare and type of fare purchased, and redemptions will work the same way.

Wanna Get Away fares, the cheapest available, will accrue 6 points per dollar; Anytime fares 10 points per dollar, and Business Select fares 12 points per dollar. Travelers can also earn miles from shopping and dining partners.

Members’ accounts will automatically be transferred to the new program on March 1, 2011; no re-enrollment is needed. Points will not expire unless members have no earning activity in a 24-month period.

Truly frequent fliers will benefit from enhanged A-List and Companion pass award availablity. A new status, A-List Preferred, will accure 100% earning bonsuses. A-List Preferred can be achieved by flying 50 one-way trips or accruing 70,000 tier points. The highlight of this elite status is the 100% earning bonus as well as priority standby, sercurity and early boarding status, free Wi-Fi and a dedicated phone line.

Similar to other airline reward programs, members can also purchase points through the new program in 1,000 point groupings. The minimum purchase is 2,000 points.

A major program change is the ability redeem award points any of the more than 800 destinations in the Chase travel program, including internationally. More information about the Chase integration is expected to be released early next week.

Will the New Rapid Rewards Program Mean to Consumers?

Initial consumer feedback indicates that Rapid Rewards 2.0 makes earning and achieving reward travel slightly more complex, but more in line with other major carriers like American Airlines, United and Continental. A positive outcome suggests that because award redemption is now based on length of flight, travelers wishing to redeem awards for short-haul travel won’t feel as if their certificates are used in vain.

The basic component of the program – one free trip for every eight – is still in place.

Frequent flier Mark V. suggests that for long-haul and travelers frequently purchasing Business Select seats, the new program will actually enhance overall customer experience, allowing for faster rewards.

NSK says that “Elimination of extraordinary effective rebate ratios makes [Rapid Rewards] 2.0 much less interesting to FlyerTalkers than programs that still offer such opportunities,” but acknowledges that the program’s greater ease of redemption may be appealing to travelers who “decide that they prefer a program that delivers what it promises without any drama.”

Mark V. champions Southwest Airlines’ transparency in rolling over old credits in to the new program, stating that the shift is “nothing like what other airlines have done in the past. Earning opportunities are still there, and current points are not being devalued like mainline carriers have done in the past.”

NSK admits that “although the new program is significantly less rewarding than Rapid Rewards 1.0 for short-haul discount fare customers, it is financially sustainable and it is customer-friendly enough that we will learn to love it.”

Travelers hoping to use short-haul travel to accrue longer rewards tickets will suffer most, Mark V. notes. “The sport of flying cheap to get free awards is pretty much over.”

Naturally, we at Gadling will keep you updated on new developments as they arise. Feel free to weigh in with your opinion in the comments section below.

[Image via Flickr user ColumbusCameraOp]

Gadling’s favorite airlines for 2011

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Even with airlines falling over themselves in an effort to generate profits out of new fees and charges, flying retains some glamour and excitement. No? Not working for you? Well there are mileage programs to exploit and perks to chase. And even in the direst landscape for customers, there are always new routes to sample, smiling flight attendants to befriend, and reliable pilots to thank for safe landings.

Going into 2011, it appears that Virgin America is Gadling’s favorite airline. Virgin America sails above the competition with their standard of service, their appealing overall product, and their general freshness.

Other airlines we especially like or tolerate for one or another reason include easyJet, Qantas, VAustralia, Air France, Philippine Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Jet Airways, Continental, Alaska Airlines, and Porter.

We begin with the observations of Kent Wien, Gadling’s resident pilot-contributor and the motor behind two Gadling features, namely, Cockpit Chronicles and Plane Answers.

Kent Wien. Air New Zealand. I don’t know if I was more impressed with their new line of coach sleeper seats or the friendliness of their flight attendants. Either way, Air New Zealand has managed to capture much of the recent jump in tourism traffic to New Zealand by offering an innovative cabin design and enhanced service which includes an in-flight concierge for the entire airplane. They’ve changed the look and feel of their galleys by hiding them away during boarding, since the first thing passengers see when stepping on to an airplane is the in-flight kitchen. And most of these changes were accomplished even after they were named by Air Transport World as the airline of the year for 2010.

Mike Barish. I continue to love Virgin America. They’re willing to show personality. They have a sense of humor and their use of social media is phenomenal. They have really embraced customer service and care about humanizing their brand.

Annie Scott. Air France has the best coach class of any airline I’ve flown this year, but Philippine Airlines gets ten points for calling their economy class “Fiesta Class.”

McLean Robbins. Virgin America. Am I one of many?

Meg Nesterov. Turkish Airlines has become my default carrier of choice, which is fine given their excellent service. How many other airlines will let you cancel and rebook a flight last minute and only charges a small change fee? Their in-flight meals even in coach are reliably good and always free.

Melanie Nayer. Props to Cathay Pacific. Great in-flight crew, and any airline that makes me a grilled cheese sandwich in flight is tops in my book!

Alex Robertson Textor. Porter, hands down. I like the airline so much I found a way to write a piece for their in-flight magazine. I want two dozen regional Porters around the globe, each with limited route maps, quiet, fuel-efficient planes, friendly fight attendants, and a single class of service.Catherine Bodry. Alaska Air.

Grant Martin. Virgin America & VAustralia. All of that positive press is happening for a reason. These two airlines have the best service out there, and their hard products are equally gorgeous. Get to Australia next year while competition is still high and ticket prices are rock bottom.

Karen Walrond. I fly mostly on Continental because I live in its hub city and that’s where my airmiles are. Here in Houston, we’re nervous about the merger between Continental and United. We hope nothing will be ruined in the process!

David Farley. Jet Airways.

Sean McLachlan. easyJet. Everyone complains about them, myself included, but damn they’re cheap and convenient. And hey, at least they aren’t Ryanair!

Laurel Miller. Qantas for their consistently excellent service, staff, and on-time departures.

[Image: Flickr | LWY]

Infographic: Is it safe to fly this holiday season?

by Scott Carmichael on

The holiday season is often the time of year a lot of people take to the skies that are not frequent fliers. And if you combine this with the recent bad news about air safety, you can’t blame people for asking themselves: is it safe to fly this holiday season?

With news of exploding engines, bombs in printer cartridges and enhanced security at the airports, the media would make it seem like flying is more dangerous than ever.

So, the artists at The Friendly Planet Blog have collected some data, and turned it into a brilliant infographic. With numbers collected from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Air Transport Association, the infographic shows what most of us already know – air travel is safer than ever.

The numbers don’t lie – on over ten million flights in the U.S. last year, only 50 people died in a flight accident. You have a much greater chance of dying in the car on the way to the airport than you will when you are on board your flight.

In the coming weeks, we’ll have some great survival tips on how to get through the hectic holiday travel season, and after the jump you’ll find the full version of the graphic with lots more statistics to prove just how safe air travel is.

Click on the image for the full size version. Thanks to blog.friendlyplanet.com for providing the infographic!

Continental Airlines iPhone app includes Point Inside airport maps and more

by Scott Carmichael on

Continental Airlines has jumped on board the “make an app” bandwagon. But unlike a lot of branded travel apps, this one is amazingly well designed.

At the heart of the app are all the things you’d expect from an airline app – flight booking, flight status and links to contact information.

But in designing their app, Continental went way beyond the ordinary – for starters, the app includes airport maps from Point Inside – one of my personal favorites. Inside the app, you can also check in, pull up your mobile boarding pass, view reservations and even enable push notifications of flight status messages.

They didn’t even stop there – under the “more” button, users will find a currency converter, a DirectTV program schedule (for in-flight live TV), games, links to Presidents Club locations, a timetable, recent Continental Airlines Tweets and an overview of reservations.

I’ve seen an awful lot of travel apps, but Continental Airlines really shows people how an app should be – a huge amount of handy tools, and all the features a Continental traveler needs to access their reservations. Well done Continental!

All I can hope for is that United Airlines does something similar soon…

You’ll find the free Continental Airlines app in the App Store, or through this iTunes link.

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New Continental – United combination already leading on-time performance charts

by Scott Carmichael on

The new combination of Continental Airlines and United Airlines is already off to a good start – the two just took the top spots in on-time performance for domestic scheduled flights among the leading carriers in the country.

The Department of Transportation measures the on-time performance, and the information is published in the Air Travel Consumer Report. Continental ended the month with 87.1% of their flights arriving within 14 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, and United followed with 85.1% of their flights.

Yes – there is plenty to complain about in the world of aviation, but I’m sure we can all agree that having flights arrive on time is a great piece of news. Full press release is after the jump.

[Photo: AP/Michael Stravato]


CONTINENTAL AND UNITED LEAD IN ON-TIME PERFORMANCE FOR AUGUST 2010

CHICAGO, Oct. 12, 2010 – United Continental Holdings, Inc. today announced that Continental Airlines was first and United Airlines was second in on-time performance for domestic scheduled flights among America’s five largest global carriers* for August 2010, as measured by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and published in the Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

Continental ended the month with 87.1 percent of flights arriving at their destinations within 14 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, according to data published by the DOT. United was second in August with 85.1 percent of flights arriving at their destinations within 14 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, according to monthly data from the same report, when comparing Continental and United with Delta, American and US Airways – the five largest U.S. global carriers by revenue, available seat miles or passengers flown.

“These results demonstrate our commitment to get customers to their destinations safely and on-time,” said Pete McDonald, executive vice president and chief operations officer of United. “Ranking highest in on-time performance among our peers reflects the combined efforts of our teams at both airlines.”

About United Continental Holdings, Inc.

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is the holding company for both United Airlines and Continental Airlines. Together with United Express, Continental Express and Continental Connection, these airlines operate a total of approximately 5,800 flights a day to 371 airports throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa from their hubs in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Guam, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark Liberty, San Francisco, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. United and Continental are members of Star Alliance, which offers more than 21,200 daily flights to 1,172 airports in 181 countries worldwide through its 28 member airlines. United’s and Continental’s more than 80,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. For more information about United Continental Holdings, Inc., go to UnitedContinentalHoldings.com. For more information about the airlines, see united.com and continental.com, and follow each company on Twitter and Facebook.

*According to arrival data published today in the U.S. Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report, Continental was first and United was second in on-time performance for domestic scheduled flights as measured by the U.S. Department of Transportation (i.e., flights arriving within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival time) for the month of August 2010, when compared to the largest U.S. global carriers based on available seat miles, enplaned passengers or passenger revenue, which includes American, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways.