Alex covers Southwest Airlines with regularity. He likes accumulating their points and redeeming for coach flights within the continental United States. I know he’s not alone in seeing the value in Southwest’s loyalty program. But that program isn’t immune to devaluations as we are seeing with the one they’ve just announced to members in an email.

The points required for an award will increase to 70 points from 60 points for reward flight bookings made on or after March 31, 2014. We received this letter from Southwest announcing changes.

We want to inform you of an upcoming change to the Rapid Rewards® Program that will affect the number of points needed for reward travel. Wanna Get Away® reward flight bookings made on or after March 31, 2014 will require 70 points per dollar. This is an increase from the 60 points per dollar currently required. Anytime and Business Select® reward flight redemption rates, as well as the points per dollar you earn when flying, will remain the same as they are today.
Rest assured, Rapid Rewards will continue to provide industry-leading benefits that you enjoy today—including unlimited reward seats, no blackout dates, and points that don’t expire*. We hope you understand that in order to continue providing these benefits, we must make changes to the Rapid Rewards Program from time to time.

Thank you for your continued loyalty, and for more information about redeeming points, please visit southwest.com/redeem

Bottom Line

Southwest award redemptions just got about 15% more expensive.

Members can still have time to earn a bonus 50,000 points with both the personal and business versions of the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card before the devaluation hits in March of next year.

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• 50,000 Points With The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card
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• Southwest opens up schedule into April 2014
• Live TV on Southwest still free, still awesome

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