It’s now possible to book Southwest flights through the Chase travel portal. It looks like you can only book Wanna Get Away and Wanna Get Away Plus and even then not all flights will show up on the portal. There are three main reasons you’d want to book via the travel portal vs transferring points to Southwest directly (keeping in mind Southwest points are worth ~1.4¢):
- When you hold a Chase Sapphire Reserve points are worth 1.5¢ towards travel
- You earn points when booking through the travel portal
- The portal offers some additional insurance
All of that being said from my quick search Chase seemed to usually be more expensive than booking directly on cheap Wanna Get Away fares and those are the flights that I usually book with Southwest. If you hold the CSR it might be worth doing some price comparisons but in most cases it doesn’t seem worth it. You also lose some flexibility when not booking directly as you can’t easily change your ticket if the price of a flight drops to get a refund.
Hat tip to Parts_Unknown-
Is it correct that a cancelled WGA flight would result in flight credits or would it still be effectively fully refundable in points similar to booking with SW directly? (My portal shows this warning with a test-booking, but maybe it is because I don’t have enough points on-hand to book without Cash&Points).
How is it handled if you have to cancel wanna get away fares?
The unfavorable cash price on the Chase portal sometimes comes up with other airlines as well. That erodes the 1.5cpp value of the redemption we all think about and, as you suggest, can make the approach not worth it. Buyer beware.
I’ve never paid more for a plane ticket via Chase portal versus the airline. Always compare.
Pay closer attention to the fare types and what’s showing on Chase vs the airlines. The cash price is the same between the two, you just frequently don’t see the cheapest “basic” class fare on Chase. The main/economy fares have always been the same in my experience.
Oh nice, interesting they did this right after Southwest announced their 2024 devaluation.
CSR might actually be worth keeping for me.