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Whether you've got a stash of Rapid Rewards in your Southwest Airlines account or you're eyeballing a five-digit welcome offer on a co-branded credit card, you might wonder what those points are worth. This used to be an easy answer, but recent changes to how Southwest Points are valued have muddied the waters.
Here’s the current value of Southwest Rapid Rewards points and what those numbers actually mean.
Southwest's Revenue-Based Model
Southwest Airlines' loyalty currency, Rapid Rewards points, has always used a revenue-based formula. This differs from airlines that use traditional award charts or fully dynamic pricing models.
Southwest doesn't have an award chart or traditional airline partners to redeem points for a free flight. Outside of a few ancillary ways to redeem points for merchandise and gift cards, the primary (and best) way to cash in Rapid Rewards points is to book an award flight.
Revenue-based programs like Southwest allow passengers to book any open seat with points. However, without an award chart, the award price fluctuates with the cash cost of the ticket. More expensive tickets command more points, and vice versa.
Southwest generally fixes the value of its points within a defined range, which has changed (for the worse) over the years. Let's look at the changes to the value of Rapid Rewards points before landing on where the value stands now.
Changes Over Time in the Value of Rapid Rewards
Southwest shares a commonality with other carriers: a periodic devaluation of its points. Over the years, Southwest Rapid Rewards points have become worth less. Simply, you need to redeem more of them to book a free flight now than in the past.
However, in past years, these were incremental devaluations:
- In April 2021, Southwest devalued its points by 6%.
- In January 2024, Southwest announced an additional 4% devaluation
Even after these changes, the fixed value for Southwest Rapid Rewards points was about 1.4–1.5 cents per point. That's respectable as points and miles go. Even 1.4 cents per point was a pretty decent floor value.
Then, in mid-2025, amongst a slew of changes, Southwest announced that its points would become more dynamic. That meant that the value of the points would be less fixed and could fluctuate up or down depending on factors like time of year, destination, and demand on a certain flight.
So, how much worse has this new dynamic pricing been for the value of Southwest points? Let's dive in.
How Much Are Southwest Points Now Worth?
AwardWallet recently analyzed data from a large selection of Southwest flights. We sampled all four fare classes as well as a variety of city pairs. We also looked at different dates that could be considered peak (think holidays) and off-peak.
The highest value in all the flights we looked at was 1.43 cents, but a majority fell within a tight range of 1.1–1.3 cents per point.
Here are the average results of the current data analyzed for each fare class:
| Basic | Choice | Choice Preferred | Choice Extra | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cents Per Point | 1.21¢ | 1.19¢ | 1.10¢ | 1.10¢ |
For reference, when we went through the same exercise right after dynamic pricing went into effect, we saw a value range of 1.24–1.54 cents per point — with outliers as high as 1.71 cents.
That means the averages are now down significantly — closing in on 1 cent per point. An average moving from 1.5 cents to 1.1 cents after these Southwest ‘dynamic devaluations' represents a 27% decrease in value — ouch!
Some further notes based on the data we accumulated:
- There is not much noticeable difference between the peak and off-peak dates we analyzed, but it's safe to assume high-demand flights will be on the lower end of the valuation.
- Nonstop flights had a very slightly better value versus connecting flights but not enough to make a huge difference.
What about Cash + Points?
Southwest has a payment alternative called “Cash + Points.” This allowed flyers more flexibility to pay with two currencies. For members without enough points to pay for a whole flight, this was a viable alternative. Sounds good, right?
The bad part is that Southwest is only giving a value of 1 cent per point when you supplement a cash fare with points. That means 1,000 points only get $10 off the fare, and so on.
Although 1 cent per point is not much less than the value we are now seeing for Rapid Rewards points, it is still a pretty bad use of points versus an award booking.
Related: How To Choose the Right Southwest Airlines Credit Card
Extracting maximum value from Rapid Rewards points
Unlike nonrevenue-based loyalty programs, you won't be able to get more out of your points than the defined range suggests. That's the downside of fixed-value points currencies.
However, hunting for cheaper award tickets and taking advantage of Southwest sales can stretch your Rapid Rewards. Plus, as point values fall, now may be the best time for the Southwest Companion Pass to get buy-one-get-one flights. This would effectively double your points value when flying with a companion.
Related: Ultimate Guide to the Southwest Companion Pass
Chase Travel portal versus booking direct
Although the focus of this post is the value of Rapid Rewards points, we should note that it is easy to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Southwest. Maybe you have done that very thing to book Southwest award flights. With that in mind, let's look at an alternative scenario for booking flights that may cost fewer points.
When Chase introduced the Points Boost feature for travel booked through its portal, the value of Ultimate Rewards became more dynamic. Now, depending on what card you have, the value of Ultimate Rewards through Chase Travel fluctuates. The good news is, Southwest is one airline that seems to have a higher Points Boost when booking flights.
That begs the question, how does the value of points differ when booking through the Chase portal versus directly with Southwest? The quick answer is, it depends. Let's look at an example. Here are the cash and points total for a nonstop Denver (DEN) to Orlando (MCO) flight. All fare classes come in at around 1.16 cents per point — consistent with our findings above.
However, a Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholder gets a Boost when booking the same flight through the Chase portal. As you can see below, the Basic fare gets around 1 cent per point while all other fares are “Boosted” to about 1.5 cents — quite a bit higher than when booking direct. The Choice fare in particular is 4,606 points cheaper through the portal — about 21% less.
The caveat is that Points Boost can change, so you may see higher or lower values in the portal for each Southwest flight versus booking directly. And it does not apply to the cheapest Basic fare. Nevertheless, with Southwest points continuing to lose value when booking direct, the portal now becomes a potential alternative to spend fewer points on Southwest flights.
Comparison to other airline currencies
So, how does the value of a Rapid Rewards point stack up to other airline currencies? Here's a look at a handful of notable North American air carriers:
| Airline and Loyalty Program | Average AwardWallet Redemption Value |
|---|---|
| Air Canada (Aeroplan) | 1.86¢ |
| Alaska Airlines (Mileage Plan) | 2.22¢ |
| Delta Air Lines (SkyMiles) | 1.34¢ |
| JetBlue (TrueBlue) | 1.24¢ |
| Southwest Airlines (Rapid Rewards) | 1.52¢ |
| United Airlines (MileagePlus) | 2.02¢ |
Based on real user redemptions, Southwest Rapid Rewards fall in the middle of the pack value-wise. Ultimately, Southwest points are valuable, but there are limitations on what you can do with them and where you can go.
Related: Do Southwest Rapid Rewards Points Expire?
Final Thoughts
Whether you're a current or prospective Southwest loyalist, it's important to understand the airline has a proclivity to make awards incrementally more expensive every couple of years. In other words, if you're going to earn Rapid Rewards points, you should prioritize redeeming them before they become less valuable. Seeing the value drop to around 1.1–1.3 cents per point is troubling.
There are still many reasons to love Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards. Among them is a rewarding fixed-value point currency good for one thing: booking Southwest flights. While Southwest isn't a stranger to devaluing its points, the pros of collecting Rapid Rewards can still outweigh the cons.
