Update 2: The deadline for transferring Starpoints to Southwest credits will be 3pm EST on 02/28! After 3pm you will no longer be able to transfer Starpoints to Southwest!
Remember you can only transfer a maximum of 60,000 Starpoints (technically 79,999, but then you would lose out on transfer ratio) to an airline within a 24 hour period!
Act now if you want to earn that 2 year companion pass (with a mimimum of 12 free tickets) for 120,000 Starpoints as described in the update below!
Update, 01/08/11: Southwest has announced that on March 1st they will be gutting their program (Of course the PR folks don’t spin it that way ;)) They will switch from a credit system where 16 credits can get you a free last minute Round Trip flight worth many hundreds of dollars to a points system where each point is worth just a penny each.Ā You can read more about the new program here.
However in the meantime there’s a unique opportunity. If you rack up 100 credits from any source by the end of February you not only will get the 6 free round-trips under the old rules, but you will also get a free companion pass (good on paid and free tickets) valid until 12/31/12 instead of the normal 1 year expiration! Plus Southwest will continue to allow you to renew the expiration of the free round-trips for up to a year as long as they’re renewed within a year after they expired. So free tickets earned in January 2011 could still be used in January 2014.
You can earn the 100 credits with transfers from Starwood (It would take 120,000 Starpoints to get 100 credit if you have none) or from the Southwest credit card if you apply soon.
Originally posted on 09/16/10:
Related links:
Starwood Consumer AMEX LinkyĀ
Starwood Business AMEX LinkyĀ
Southwest Visa Linky (Earn 16 credits with your first purchase.)
Starwood quietly added Southwest Airlines as an airline partner for Starpoint transfers.
For most of the airlines you can transfer 20,000 Starpoints into 25,000 miles.Ā For Southwest it’s a little more complicated.Ā 20,000 points becomes 16.5 Southwest credits. 60,000 points becomes 50 credits.
If you earn 100 Southwest credits in a year you get a free companion pass for free. So if you transfer 120,000 Starpoints to Southwest you will get 100 credits, which are enough for 6 free round-trip tickets, as well as a 12-month companion pass.
As long as there is a seat available on the flight your companion can travel for free, there are no capacity controls on it.
The free companion ticket is even available when you are traveling on a free award ticket! In other words you will get 12 free round-trip tickets for 120,000 Starpoints.Ā Plus of course checked bags are free on Southwest.
After selecting your companion, you are able to change the name of your companion up to 3 times.
Curious about the other 29 Starwood transfer options and ratios? Here they are!Ā With so may different airlines to transfer to it’s just a matter of figuring out which one has the lowest rates to where you want to go.Ā I’ve separated them by alliance so you can know which airlines are partners and will therefore let you book award travel on partner airlines.Ā Of course airlines also have lots non-alliance partners, but by definition they are partners with all airlines in the same alliance.
OneWorld Alliance:
AA: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
British Airways: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
JAL/Japan Airways: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
LAN: 20,000 Starpoints=50,000 kms
Mexicana: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Skyteam Alliance:
Air France/KLM Flying Blue: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Alitalia: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Delta: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Star Alliance:
Air Canada: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Air China: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Air New Zealand: 20,000 Starpoints=385 points
ANA/All Nippon: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Asiana: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Continental: 20,000 Starpoints=12,500 miles
Lufthansa Miles & More: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Singapore: 20,000 Starpoints=12,500 miles
Thai: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
United: 20,000 Starpoints=12,500 miles
USAirways: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Unaligned:
Air Berlin (Joining Oneworld in 2012): 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Alaska : 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Emirates: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Hawaiian: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Kingfisher (Joining Oneworld in 2011): 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Qatar: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Saudi Arabian: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
Varig: 20,000 Starpoints=12,500 miles
Virgin Atlantic: 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 miles
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34 Comments On "Starwood’s 30th Airline Transfer Partner: Southwest Airlines."
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions arenāt provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Thanks Dan. Don’t forget that after the 12 tickets on SW are used up, you can still fly 2 for 1 for the remaining time in the 12 month period!
Slight correction
LAN: 20,000 Starpoints=50,000 KM’s (not miles)
What are the best benefits that come with this card?
Hi Dan,
Please could you help
1 have the following:
17.5 -Southwest Points (i earlier this month transfered from spg but transfer did not come in-time)
15,500 spg points
28,000 Chase Saphire Points
55,000 AMEX GOLD Points
I want to consolidate so i can get at least one tick ( if possible) but maybe 2 tickets to ISRAEL
PLEASE HELP, i had a handle on this but things went wrong
When will they add jetblue?
anyone?
regarding the starwood amex….to get the additional 30k points for spending $15k, does that $15k have to be spent in the first year?
also I’ve read a bit in the forums and it seems like amex is much more likely than others to investigate how you earn your points. is it a bad idea to buy coins or use other similar methods on the starwoods amex?
@Mordechai:
The Starwood card is the most rewarding card out there.
You can read all about if with these search results:
http://www.dansdeals.com/?cat=45&submit=view
@Avi:
You definitely have enough miles for a ticket (or 2)
Try searching or posting on http://www.dansdeals.com/forums for more help on using your miles.
@Ben:
Within 6 months.
@Ben:
AMEX and Chase are wall award of the Mint by now.
An easy way to still buy coins without raising their ire is to buy Gift Cards with your credit card and then use the gift cards to buy coins.
Read about how to buy AMEX Gift cards with waived fees and free shipping in this forum thread:
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=2422.0
is there any airline that the miles gets in on the second we transfer them from spg like amex membership rewards
@MILES:
Nope. SPG transfer typically only happen in batches once or twice a week. There’s a thread on the forum about how long transfers have taken based on people’s experiences.
If i get an exception with the mint and use my Amex SPG card to buy coins i will not get SPG points?
thankx dan
united and continental only gives 12,500 for 20,000 starwood points?
@Moe:
You will get points, but you may raise the ire of AMEX. You’ll be better off doing via gift cards.
Plus by assigning different names to gift cards you’ll be able to get more coins much quicker…
@rosie:
Correct.
If you want to fly on Continental or United you either want to transfer to an alliance partner or find someone to trade Starpoints for AMEX points with at a favorable ratio (as Starpoints are worth more than AMEX points)
Dan: Can my wife transfer her SPG AMEX points into my Rapid Reward account or vice versa?
@Chris:
The safer way to do it is to transfer the Starpoints from her Starwood account to yours. This can be done in 2 minutes by calling up SPG.
After that transfer it to your own SW RR account.
Let us know how long it takes to get the Southwest credits in your account!
I have a ton of El Al points. Anybody want to trade for starwood points? There is no direct way of getting Starwood to El Al.
@Dan/Ctownbochur:
so how cut we hold a booking so long till its gets the miles in there
I have over 400,000 spg point and I would like to purchase 3 coach seats with cash to Italy and use my spg point to upgarde to business class. Do you know how I can do this?
what about jetblue?
think theyll ever join spg???
Are Southwest reward tickets transferable? Are the miles/points transferable?
Can I apply for a Southwest Chase card if I was just turned down for a different Chase card? Don’t I need to wait 60 days?
Sorry for all the question…but if you get for the personal and business cards, will you get 12 roundtrips? with the companion pass, 24?
Thank you, Dan!! I happened to fly Southwest a lot this past year and had 67 credits. I just transferred 40K SPG points to Southwest to get my Companion Pass through 2012 — awesome!! Two questions – do you happen to know if I will receive the new Companion Pass benefits once their new program rolls out in March? And am I correct in assuming the new Companion Pass benefits will include all the benefits of A-List Preferred as well? Thanks again!!
Hey Dan,
Lovin all the tips for credit cards, and I’ve already opened up a couple with you advice. Do you recommend opening up a Southwest card now to get the points, or should I hold out and wait for some sort of better offer from them?
@Lich:
You can book tickets with Southwest Credits for anyone, but you can’t transfer credits.
@Lich:
There’s no hard and dry rule. If you wait 30 days it’s worth a shot.
Also if you apply for a Chase card and get rejected you can call them up for reconsideration, which may include just shifting a credit line over from another card.
Finally, a Chase banker can also help you get approved if you have a Chase bank account and show them the denial letter. They can file a reconsideration letter fro you.
@Terry:
Congrats and enjoy!
You’ll now have 2 years of companion pass!
I’m not sure about the rest though.
@New to this….:
If you want a free ticket under the old rules now would be the last chance to apply and get one.
Hey dan
Thanks for all your updates and advice. I have a history paper due this week, do you help with that too? š
can anyone tell me how to get my lanpass number. I cant find it when i log in to my lanpass account.
thanks
Does SW still offer two free round-trips with credit card sign up?
I slept on this offer & realized working to meet the 100 credits is really not a good deal unless you’ve flown alot & fairly close. But transferring 120K spg points to get 12 swa flights & companion pass…? Figure $300 per swa flight, or round up $4K. For the same spg points 2 people could go 1st class long-haul. I guess it’s all preference, but I’d certainly rather have a 1st long-haul than 12 US swa flights any day.
Hi, I have about 125,000 SPG points. best to transfer somewhere or just use them for free nites that company will reimburse me for as if booked on site? Since not sure if they will do this for all my points, even if second option better, how to maximize rest of points? thnx!
Dan, how can i rapidly earn enough starpoints to qualify between now and 3/1? i have over 100k AMEX points and 400k American Airlines miles – can I transfer? Suggestions appreciated – thanks!
Dan,
Can you tell me if citibank thank you points have good value?
Dan,
I have zero RR credits in the last 12 months. I’m considering applying for both personal and biz Southwest credit cards, each of which provide 32 credits. I could then transfer 36K SPG points for a companion pass. The thing is, there’s no way the 64 credits from the cards will post before March 1 – do you think they will be treated under RR 1.0 rules (since I applied before March 1), or RR 2.0 rules (since they will post after March 1)?
I have 68k SPG points and 175k Amex points. Should I want to get the Rapid Rewards companion pass is it worth transferring the 150k amex points it will take to make up the difference to reach 120k starwood points and then transfer them into the 100 southwest credits?