Combine this post with the last few hotel reviews, and it looks like I’m slumming it!
I’ve flown Southwest in the past. But, it’s only out of necessity. I don’t view Southwest like Spirit Airlines. My sister loves Spirit. I would never fly them. Southwest, on the other hand, has a great business model. It’s just not one that fits me. I want all my domestic air travel to contribute to my ability to fly to exotic international donations. Southwest can’t do that for me.
I do (did) value Southwest points for us to buy tickets for family members. I’ve given a bunch away to family and friends while I hoard my more valuable miles. Serena and Ron get my apologies, as they just used the last of my Southwest credits. Love you guys!
Now that I don’t have any Southwest points left, I took a few minutes to figure out where I should credit my car rentals going forward. I don’t rent many cars for leisure, so don’t see much value there.
Up until recent changes in the Southwest program, I thought it represented a great value for crediting car rentals to. It took less than 20 car rentals to earn a free ticket, and sometimes much less with promos. Under the new system, it would take me about 25 car rentals to earn a free ticket. I generally rent about 30 cars a year, so this means about a year before I will be able to effectively use any of these points. I can’t bring myself to buy Southwest points to top off a reservation, either. I had to do that this weekend for my cousins and got a little nauseous.
Crediting them to AA gets me a worse conversion rate. Based on an average car rental price of $250, I figured it would take 45-ish car rentals to earn a free ticket. Longer to earn a free ticket, but amassing points in a program where I can readily dispense awards. And, frankly, with the pace of Southwest accruals now, it’s really more like 2 years before I can redeem, as I’m unlikely to give away ONE ticket.
I’m leaning towards AA, but need to do a bit more research. Some people have suggested Virgin Atlantic as an alternative. I believe I have a Flying Club membership, though I don’t think I’ve ever used it.
What’s a Southwest point worth to you? For those that rent from Hertz, where do you “park” those points?
To me Southwest points have NEGATIVE value. Since if I accumulated enough of them, I might at some point decide to fly Southwest. And that would seriously detract from my happiness.
As for where to credit car rentals..
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2012/01/10/best-current-rental-car-rewards-offers/
I credit one-day Avis rentals to Virgin Atlantic for the flat 1000 miles per rental regardless of rental length. I credit three-day Avis rentals to US Airways, there’s an offer that’s set to expire March 31 but that keeps getting extended for 3000 US Airways miles on a 3+ day rental (requires using coupon code MUAA044 which does not influence the rate).
I stopped paying attention to Hertz when their bmi relationship ended, that had given 1700 destination miles per rental and of course a bmi mile was perhaps the most valuable currency out their with their cash and points award chart (with the BA acquisition of bmi, may she rest in peace).