[Post below has been updated]
Southwest has added an option for those who don’t have a Southwest credit card to redeem points for gift cards at around 3/4 of a penny per point. Previously, only card-holders were able to redeem for gift cards.
Southwest cardholders are able to redeem points at $.01 per point toward gift card redemptions (slightly lower value for the lower $25 denomination). Non-cardholders can now also redeem for gift cards at the lower .74 cents per point, or roughly 3/4 cent per point (the $25 denomination is around .62 cents per point). They have lots of great gift cards available like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and more.
It was – and is – a better value to redeem Southwest points for flights, but given the fixed-value nature of Southwest points, it’s not a terrible deal to redeem points for Amazon gift cards if you weren’t finding the Southwest points useful. Those without a Southwest card can only get .74 cents per point making the math worse.
