How to Exploit the Southwest-Airtran Merger

Deal originally posted April 22, 2012. Deal ends November 1, 2014. Post updated 10/13/14:

Southwest Airlines and Airtran Airways' three-year merger is almost complete. For over two years, transfers have been allowed between Southwest's Rapid Rewards loyalty program and Airtran's A+ loyalty program.

These transfers present an arbitrage opportunity that caps roundtrip award flights at 19,200 Southwest points (the normal cost of a $274 award.)

This is a cool trick that can save you major Rapid Rewards.

750 Free Southwest Rapid Rewards for 20 Seconds of Work

Three weeks ago I got an email from AirTran A+ Rewards with the subject "Get 750 Rapid Rewards Bonus Points."
The email explains that Rapid Rewards and A+ Rewards, Southwest's and AirTran's loyalty programs will merge on November 2, 2014. (Southwest acquired AirTran in May 2011.)
If you verify your A+ and Rapid Rewards accounts to make that combination easier on the airline, you can get a quick 750 Rapid Rewards, worth about $11 in free flights.

Southwest and AirTran Get Cozier: What It Means For You

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, Southwest Airlines has started to display bookable AirTran flights on its own website. The first AirTran city pairs offered on Southwest.com are Atlanta <-> Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta <-> Fort Myers. A sample screenshot of the newly available flights is below.

These flights are still bookable on AirTran's website.

Reader Question: Should I transfer Southwest Points to AirTran Credits?

Joanne writes:

"I have accumulated approximately 55,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards. I see that I have a Southwest flight credit that is expiring, and Southwest wants me to use 18,000 points to create a reward flight. I have my eye on a roundtrip award to Phoenix that costs 29,000 points. Is it worth it to do this? I am so confused. Any help is appreciated."

I can sympathize with Joanne's confusion.

Master Thread of Which Airline Gift Cards American Express Reimburses

The American Express Platinum Card is one of the best credit cards for frequent travelers. The card comes with Delta, American, US Airways, and Priority Pass Select lounge access. (American/US lounge access ends 3/22/14.) Coupled with no foreign transaction fees and $100 towards Global Entry, this is a great all around travel card.

Many people balk at this card due to the $450 annual fee.

Free Giveaway and Nuggets 9.21.12

1. Frugal Travel Guy posted an awesome rundown of the major credit-card issuers' rules on how far apart applications must be and how churnable their bonuses are. I have it bookmarked for my future use.

Free First Class Next Month: Signing Up for Airline and Hotel Programs

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the second post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

The Five Types of Frequent Flier Miles

There are five basic types of frequent flier miles. I'll detail each, including how best to take advantage of them. Then I'll explain why it's important to diversify across the types (not just across frequent flier programs.)

1) Region-to-region based miles. American, Delta, United, US Airways, etc

Region-to-region miles are the most common type of miles. These miles can be redeemed according to award charts, so a flight from North America to Europe costs a certain amount of miles regardless of where in North America and where in Europe and regardless of the (valid) routing.