Southwest 40% Bonus on Purchased Points, Worth It?

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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? fare (available on basically every flight until the last few days before departure) at a rate of 70 points for $1 of the fare.

That means Southwest points are basically worth about 1.43 cents each. Therefore purchasing them for 1.96 cents each is generally a terrible idea.

The only exception would be if you were just barely short of having enough points for an award ticket and were really cash poor.

Buying the minimum of 2,800 points for $56 could be an OK deal if it saved you a few hundred dollars on your next ticket.