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.

This is the nineteenth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flyer miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

I've covered how to earn miles and the redemption options for miles.

Until July 31, 2014, you get a 40% bonus when purchasing Southwest Rapid Rewards points.

You can buy points here and the bonus is automatically coded into the purchase.

With the 40% bonus, the all in price is 1.96 cents per point, and you can buy in increments of 1,400 points.

Is buying Southwest Rapid Rewards for 1.96 cents each a good deal?

There are very few circumstances in which I would buy Southwest Rapid Rewards for 1.96 cents each.

Southwest points can be redeemed for any Wanna Get Away?

Commenters are not having success with calling in. Writing a Secure Message is still untested. If you want a 50k offer, just wait a few months. They pop up every few months.
I got an email from Southwest over the weekend with the subject "Get 2 Roundtrip Flights along with a $50 statement credit for EarlyBird Check-In" that advertised the best Southwest credit card offer I've ever seen.

The offer is for 50,000 Rapid Rewards (worth over $700 in free Southwest flights) after spending $2,000 in the first three months after opening the account.

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.

According to the Wall Street Journal, airlines are opening up more award space this year compared to last year because of pressure from banks, accounting rules, and consultant studies.

In the short term, that's good for us. More award space: woohoo!

But in the long run, these pressures could cause more airlines to move to revenue-based frequent flyer programs. Revenue-based redemptions: boohoo!

Every year IdeaWorks comes out with one of the worst-conceived studies imaginable in an attempt to quantify which frequent flyer programs make redemptions the easiest.

Southwest and Chase market their Southwest card in a misleading way. The big bold letters say:

The 50,000 points the card offers in no way correlate with two roundtrips.

Southwest Rapid Rewards points are currently worth 1.69 cents each. Starting Monday, March 31, 2014, they will be worth about 1.44 cents each.

What is the exact devaluation?

Among the Six Types of Frequent Flyer Miles, Southwest has a fixed-value program. For every dollar of the “Wanna Get Away?” base fare, you have to spend 60 Rapid Rewards for an award ticket.

So a $220 Southwest ticket with a $200 base fare would be 12,000 Rapid Rewards + $5 in taxes as an award.

There were some great deals this week:

US Airways Share Miles with 100% Bonus = 1.13 Cent Dividend Miles
Citi Offering 3 AAdvantage Miles Per Dollar on Gas, Groceries, and More.