In the past few months, news that many longtime Southwest Airlines (LUV) customers found less-than-pleasing has been announced by the low-cost airline based in Dallas.
At the end of July, chief executive Bob Jordan finally confirmed rumors that the airline would replace its decades-old policy of open seating to be more in line with almost all other airlines, due to an urgent need to bring in more money.
Investment company Elliott Investment Management, which recently bought enough stock to become one of its biggest investors, has instigated a proxy battle in which it seeks to replace Jordan and board chairman Gary Kelly entirely. The airline's shares are also down by more than 13% from last year.
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Between all of this, the airline is in desperate need of something positive to share with its customers and, this week, it brought back an acceleration program in which certain frequent flyers can earn status faster.
This is how you can speed up points-collecting with Southwest
The latest version of the promotion (Southwest regularly launches such programs to encourage more spending) allows passengers who register online to earn double the points needed for A-List and A-List Preferred status by spending with the airline with either regular money or rewards points or using the credit cards it has under Chase (JPM) .
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A-List status, which is earned by either taking 20 one-way flights or earning 35,000 tier qualifying points in one calendar year (using the Southwest credit card gets one 1,500 TQPs for every $5,000 spent along with more earned for purchases with Southwest), gets one priority boarding and free same-day changes.
A-List Preferred takes 40 one-way flights or 135,000 points to earn and also includes free in-flight Wi-Fi, a dedicated phone number for faster access to a Southwest representative and faster points collection to carry on status into future years.
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These are the perks you can get with Southwest status (and how to earn it)
"We're bringing back this popular promotion to give our Rapid Rewards Members an extra boost to reach our coveted A-List and A-List Preferred tier status faster, so they can take advantage of all the benefits that our Rapid Rewards program has to offer, such as earlier boarding, boosted points, free same-day standby, and same-day change," Southwest VP and Chief Product Officer Jonathan Clarkson said in a statement.
Those who want to earn through the credit card route will get 2,000 instead of the usual 1,500 points for every $5,000 spent while flights purchased with rewards points (normally not eligible to earn points for status) will count as one segment toward the flight count needed to reach status. Any travel needs to be booked and completed before the end of Nov. 30.
"For the first time, members can earn their way to tier status with qualifying purchases made with rapid rewards car rentals, hotel bookings, and other select rapid rewards partners," Southwest clarifies. "Every base point earned on qualifying purchases made with select Rapid Rewards partners between now and Nov. 30, 2024, counts as one tier qualifying point, up to a maximum of 5,000 total tier qualifying points."
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