Redeeming Your Points (Part 1): Introduction and Southwest Airlines

You've signed up for a credit card, completed the promo to earn the bonus and you are now ready to unleash the point beast to do your bidding and spirit you to faraway lands.

Whether that point beast is a demure little thing that makes it easy for you to plan your trip or a too-high of a level Pokémon that ignores you when you need it most (I'm looking at you, Charizard!), is completely dependent on the program from which you are redeeming.

Some are fantastically user-friendly and easy to redeem while some are notorious for their limited seats/schedule.

This is the first of a multi-part series on point redemption; this post will focus specifically on my experiences with Southwest Airlines.

Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal's article, Best and Worst Airlines for Redeeming Miles, is an interesting piece that looks into the ease (or difficulty) of redeeming miles with various carriers. This is a great article to read BEFORE you sign up for a promo, because frankly, what is the point of earning billions of miles for a program that makes it near impossible for you to redeem?

BUT! While some airlines point redemption programs aren't as user-friendly, they might be more cost-effective. Look for a more in-depth discussion on that in a future post, and don't make all your point-earning decisions based on this one WSJ article.

But enough about professional journalism, this post (along with the rest of this series) is about my own experience in point redemption.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES (SW)

Southwest Airlines' Rapid Rewards is my favorite airline point system to work with! For simple single destination flights anyway. I've redeemed three flights on their website without any trouble at all. Here are some screenshots that show how easy it is to book:

I can tell SW if I want to purchase with money or with points by clicking on either the "DOLLAR" or "POINT" option.

If easy-to-redeem ranks as your highest priority, SW's Rapid Rewards is the way to go and these following cards will help you build a strong stock of Rapid Rewards points:

• Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier
• Chase Sapphire Preferred (Chase's Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to Rapid Rewards at a 1:1 ratio.)
• Chase Ink Bold(Chase's Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to Rapid Rewards at a 1:1 ratio.)

NEXT IN THE SERIES:
Redeeming Your Points (Part 2): Partner and Alliance Networks