Rapid Rewards Program at Southwest Airlines gets a major makeover

Southwest Airlines has unveiled a vastly improved Rapid Rewards program designed to make earning and redeeming points easier for members.   

Key changes include:

1.  No blackout dates – members can redeem points every day on every flight

2.  Every Southwest Airlines seat is a reward seat with no seat restrictions or capacity controls.

3.  Points never expire as long as members fly on Southwest or use a partner airline once every 24 months (the current system deletes any points not used with 24 months).

Ryan Green, Senior Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships for Southwest, wrote in a blog post on the airline’s website that the company “conducted months of customer surveys, focus groups, and research to find out what travelers like about our current program, what they don't like, and what they'd like to see changed."  In the company’s press release about the upcoming changes, Southwest's Chairman, President, and CEO Gary Kelly said the result of all that research is that "We took our award-winning program and made it even better by giving our members more flexibility and control over how and when they earn and redeem their points."

Rapid Rewards members will earn points based on the price of the flight and the type of fare purchased.   In changing the way rewards are calculated - by revenue rather than miles – Southwest presents a real challenge to other airlines.  Because airlines’ frequent-flier programs tie in with other processes and services that they offer, making such changes would require them to revise reservations software and websites and to retrain employees for the new system.

Southwest’s new Rapid Rewards Program will launch on March 1, 2011.