Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
This month, the Southwest Air 50,000 point card(s) are back for a limited time. There are 2 personal and 2 business cards that are all offering 50,000 points. They are all different products .
50,000 points is a lot of points even with the news this week that SW has devalued their redemption starting March 31st by 15%. There are still a lot of places you can fly for that many points.
However, I am not a fan of SW plus I have to drive to Chicago to fly and pay for Chicago parking and tools – ugg. I would rather not ever fly them unless I am doing something like a positioning flight for a DELTA mileage run then there can be real value. But for me personally, I have other redemption goals with my SW points.
I decided to redeem some points from my last round of cards for Walmart gift cards. There are those in the frequent flyer community will yell that is a horrid value (these are the same knuckleheads who say Skymiles are worthless btw). To me, NOT having to fly SW is a GREAT value. Plus, I do shop at both Sams Club and Walmart so getting some free shopping is sweet to me.
But that leads me up to today’s SWAG question for you to answer for a shot at, what else, a $50 Walmart gift card that I got from my points! First the rules for each week’s event are HERE so please read them. Next, you have to tell me, if you think redeeming SW points for gift cards is a good choice or a bad choice. Neither answer will improve your chance to win as I will use Random.org to pick! – Rene
UPDATE: Drawing will be VERY LATE Sunday night!
▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information
.
.
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I think redeeming Southwest points for gift cards is a bad/low value. From just two Southwest cards we got flights for two with the Companion Pass for 5+ trips!
Its not a bad choice if it is of value to you.
Good choice.
Good Choice…… its SW… AKA avoid at all costs!
Bad choice for a bad redemption value
Good choice being loyal to Delta!
Good choice if you value the gift cards.
Sounds better than flying SW.
Good choice if they are of value to you
Good choice If you don’t like to fly the airline
Well gift cards from anywhere beat Flying like cattle with SW
Good choice since you are satisfied with the result.
Take the cards. Maybe low value but anything is better than flying SW
I think redeeming them is a good value. Using them is better than wasting them!
Use them as you wish! You earned them, you burn them! “Whatever floats your boat!”
good choice if southwest does not fly to your local airport or you don’t like flying with them
Good choice since you are only giving up SW flights.
Flight redemptions on SouthWest with a Companion Pass!
To each his (or her) own. For us, our daughter and 2 grandchildren live less than 10 miles from an airport with many SW flights, so it would be a poor choice for me.
good choice
Good choice if Southwest is not a convenient airline for you.
I think it is a good choice because gift cards offer a lot of flexibility.
Good choice – value is determined by the individual using his/her value equation.
I have never done it…all my miles have gone to plane tickets.
i think it is a good choice!
Gift cards are awesome!
I always check out various ways to spend points and miles to make sure it is a good value. Some times they is and some times they ain’t.
I think anything that keeps from flying Soutran is good even if you have to pay. And gift cards at Sammy’s help a lot and go a long way.
Not so good, would rather fly a friend or family member somewhere…..
it is a good value if it your other options are lesser values
Usually I feel redeeming points for gift cards are not worth it but like you I have zero desire to fly SW especially since I’m in the NYC area w/ limited SW flights anyway. So with SW points to burn I guess gift cards are fine. I would always keep enough SW points on hand for a free flight as you never know when you’ll need a position flight for MR or emergency travel for issues that come up.
To me, very bad choice. Especially if you do have a companion pass. That essentially doubles the value of the point from 1.67 cents to 3.34 (at least through march 14.)cents a mile for redemptions, compared to 1 to 1.25 cents( depending on promos) redemption rate getting gift cards. But that is just me. Everyone has their own reasons.
I wouldn’t be likely to do this, but glad it works for you!
It is a good choice.
I am just a beginner at this game so I don’t have my own opinion of SW yet, but I tangible card is always great.
Poor value. Poor choice.
Good Choice
Good choice!
Good value.
For me bad choice. Close to DAL airport and have the companion pass through next year.
It would be a good choice in my opinion and now will have to investigate my orphan mile balance.
Using SW miles for a gift card you would use NOW is a better use than keeping them for a SW flight you don’t want to take and that you may NEVER take…
BUT have you considered using your SW points to buy tickets for friends and relatives who like to fly SW?
Bad choice
i think redemption has bad value, but if you don’t see yourself flying on Southwest, it may be better.
I would never do that, but I live near several big SW airports so the free travel is much more attractive to me!
Great redemption. Flying SW is one step above midieval torture.
Depends on who is asking. I wouldn’t do it.
Bad! But because it’s Walmart, not because “it’s not southwest.”
Not a good choice
Would not do it myself, but people need to decide based on their own needs and circumstances.
Well, a point is worth at most a penny so I’d say the value is poor if you can use them for flying instead but OK if you have to burn them anyhow.
I think it’s a good choice. Otherwise you might wonder why the heck you are in the air in coach, not even collecting MQMs.
I think there is nothing wrong with using your points for gift cards – I do it for things I want all the time!
If you want to fly Southwest, then no. But if your preferred airline is not Southwest, gift cards are great.
Not awful. It’s currently around 45% less value than max value (1 cpp v 1.7~ cpp).
So given your flight redemption of this morning (250k skymiles for $6800) of 2.7 cpp.
the equivalent redemption for delta skymiles would be @ 1.588 cpp.
There are people that would be happy to redeem skymiles for 1.588 cpp.
SO if you look at the equivalence of the redemption for Walmart GC. Not awful. I’d still rather redeem for airfare.
Probably a bad choice if you would have flown WN sometime soon. However, “good vs. bad value” is in the eye of the beholder … If you found value in using WN points for gift cards, then it’s a good value.
Personal choice but I wouldn’t personally use WN miles for gift cards. I’m using WN miles for a positioning flight to allow my family to be in Rome on FF miles from AA for Christmas. Sure it increases the overall award cost but it is an experience we will have that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Nope ! Miles or points for gift cards never are !
Not the best choice!
Bad choice — just not a great redemption. Would rather use for someone else. Lots of SW options from the LAX area.
Redeeming points for non travel is usually a bad idea.
Good Choice – spend the redemption as you see fit!
Based on the devaluation, if you’re not going to use them by then, I would say it’s a good idea.
Good choice if you value Delta, bad choice if you value SW RR. Can you recommend good option to redeem Delta Skymiles?
Its a bad choice. Even if you do not like to fly Southwest it would be a shame to take such a low redemption.
For me, redeeming SW points for gift cards is a good choice (not sure I’d pick Walmart) since I don’t care to fly SW nor is it convenient for me from any of my surrounding airports.
Gift card redemptions are not the best use of WN points.
Whatever makes more sense for you.
Good choice, especially if SW doesn’t fly to your home aeroport. I try to minimize my outlay of money, so this would be a goodr exemption for me.
Not optimal choice if your local airport is a Southwest hub… Plus you can always buy gift cards at a discount at Cardpool.
Good choice since prompted you to give them away!
An award is a good value if you value the award! cpp is only one way to measure value!
I think it’s a good idea if the points redemption isn’t valuable to you (Southwest would also not be valuable to me).
Bad redemption, though I do love my wm. Also, delta miles have value?
It’s ok, if you.like southwest. Thanks!
It´s not a bad choice if you don´t fly SW.. so sure, giftcard!
bad choice.
Good choice for you, but I do find the whole companion pass offer tempting. We have small children so there is a limit to my wife and I getting away. If we had more time I would be all over that SW pass.
Not a bad choice if you do not fly SW.
Bad Choice.
Good choice if you do not use SW points to fly with them.
not the best choice but if you have points leftover, you might as well before they expire.
Probably poor value but good choice which I might be doing as well. Since I’m not a fan of SW, I will either use my points to fly friends or get some gift cards. I actually have the companion pass where I wish I wasn’t one of the people who HAS to fly. Would prefer to fly two friends with my points. As Matt R. said, good to keep some SW points in case of emergency travel.
The. Value lies in the beholder.
For me, I’d rather use them for travel. Like you said, they’d work fine for a positioning flight, and being in MSP, that’s often necessary to get the right deal on Delta.
If you don’t use miles to fly, then and only then use it to get gift cards
I find the CP to be of great value. Disappointed to know that it will be ending this Dec. Even then with planning I think is better than any gift cards. The name of the game is to use miles and points.
Good Choice! Anything is better than flying Southwest. I’ve flown SW on one trip and coming home from Florida I could have almost driven the miles quicker than bouncing from TPA-CMH-MDW-DTW
Bad, bad choice. SW points get you fully refundable flight bookings!
Not a bad choice if you don’t need the miles, why not spend them for a good steak ?
Good choice! I go for the gift cards all the time.
For me, using southwest points for a gift card is NOT a good value. I would much rather use points to book a wanna get away fare to travel!
Well, I’m of the opinion that gift cards are usually not a great value, but they do serve a purpose and are a good choice if — as in this case — using points to fly is not convenient or desirable for you.
Value of redemption is what you the individual see as the most valuable. But true points per dollar not a great “value” if getting the GC.
Southwest points are good value since award flights are not capacity controlled. In addition, Southwest flies a lot of regional airports which may be more convenient for some.
Good choice if it works for you!
good value
Michael M MA
What do you mean about the cp ending?
I think SW points are best used for flying, not hotels, etc.
Companion pass makes this no-brainer – SW points win!
Bad choice…terrible redemption value
Not the best choice for me, but if it works for you–perfect!
Bad idea…devalued!
Good choice for you. I am thrilled southwest has entered my marketplace especially when it runs sales like the current $69 one way!
No SW points so I have no opinion. I live in ATL so Delta is it. If awarded the points, I would probably go with the GC since I do not see alot of reward flights on SW in my future.
It’s a better choice than flying with SW.
Yay!!! I finally won DeltaPoints Saturday Swag! Oh, sorry… Just practicing for Monday 😉
Anyways, I think converting the Rapid Rewards points into gift cards is better than flights because SWA “Wanna Get Away” fares are usually fairly inexpensive.
To me, free money is free money. They may have low redemption value, but, for example, $50 at Wal Mart used on essentials or groceries can go a long way and help you to save money for future flights with other carriers.
Well (insert sing-songy teacher voice here) you have to decide what it is worth to you personally and if getting the gift card is worth it to you, then it is a good choice 😉
It’s a great choice if it works for you! Personally, I would redeem it on Southwest though.
First, I would not accumulate SW points, seems like a poor flying experience, so IF I had to fly one flight and accumulate points, then I would spend on gift cards to use immediately, because by the time of my next flight on SW, they would be such low value or expired.
If u aren’t going to fly Sw it’s a good deal.
Good choice!
I think it’s a good use of miles if, like me, you can never find a Southwest flight that matches your needs. One person’s “terrible redemption” is another person’s “surprise extra value shopping trip.”
Not a fan of SW so I would say yes
Good value. I don’t like flying SWA.
Fine choice — if it works for you it is good.
I don’t buy gift cards but i am investigating the vanilla cards to load my Bluebird account
Yes it is a good value. Better then getting nothing.
I don’t really use gift cards either. Its like giving out a free loan…
Hard to say, since you don’t say how many points per dollar of gift card. I’m thinking it’s a bad choice. I live in ATL, so SW also has a hub here now. I’ll take a free flight over a few bucks any day ( even on Southworst).
I actually like flying SWA when it goes where I want to go. OAK > LAX, for example.
Good choice if you value the gift cards
Considering the upcoming devaluation of SW points, I think the choice is good.
My opinion is no, SW points for gift cards is not good choice. Air ticket redemption remains the best value particularly when there are award fare discounts to be leveraged.
I am all for avoiding SW (for my personal flight). For my non-FF wife, sure. Go visit your friend in Dallas on the cheap. I would personally go for an Amazonian gift card. At 5,000 points for a $50 gift card, we are staying at the one cent/point threshold. Plus, we are always scoring details on Amazon, so that is really putting cash in my pocket!
If you are never going to fly SW, then yes but otherwise I’d use them on a flight at some point.
It’s not a bad value if you don’t want to fly SWA.
Bad choice!
Use the earned points or ff miles to fly, but if that’s not convenient, getting a gift card for actual cash value you can spend anywhere or at a favorite store of your choice is a good way of getting those points used!
A good choice!
I could find some uses for flying SW Air from time to time so I would keep the points.
I know the 2.5 hour drive to nashville would be long when knoxville is 30min away but a free trip to puerto rico is always cool. so keep them… I’d say but cash is cash so i understand.