Book Southwest Airlines On Travel Portals
I have some good news to share with Capital One Venture X and Capital One Venture Business X cardholders. If you have struggled to redeem your $300 annual travel credit then there may be a new option available to you. That addition would be the option to book Southwest Airlines on travel portals, at least for some people. I am not sure if this is slowly rolling out to some cardmembers, as I did not see their flights populate on my Venture Business X travel portal, but several people are seeing Southwest flights show in searches. It was first notated by Reddit user UnitedWillow. We have been able to confirm that Southwest is showing on some other travel portals too, including Chase!
Why This Is Good News
Even though we caution people to stay away from bank travel portals whenever possible, because it can lead to a big time headache, sometimes it is unavoidable. One such instance is the $300 Capital One Venture X and Capital One Venture Business X yearly travel credits that require you to book through the Capital One travel portal. This is also true with the newly increased Chase Sapphire Preferred welcome offer, which includes a travel portal credit.
Not only does this add another option for booking when using those credits, but it is one that has never been an option on the portals before. Maybe this is another move for Southwest to seek out more profitability, like their upcoming flight and seating changes. In the past one had to call the Chase travel portal to have them book a Southwest flight at the increased 1.5 cents per point with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. You should hopefully be able to do this online now directly within the Chase travel portal too.
Why Things Are A Bit Different With Southwest
There are a few other reasons that Southwest Airlines is a valuable add to these travel portals. The first one being that Rapid Rewards, their frequent flyer currency, is not worth all that much. They are actually worth less than the 1.5 cents you would get booking through the Chase travel portal with the Sapphire Reserve. Rapid Rewards are worth closer to 1.3 cents per point on average. That doesn't even include the miles and points you would earn for the flight since it is considered a cash booking.
More so than that though, Southwest has a pretty forgiving cancellation and rebooking policy and they don't have complicated international itineraries. That makes the potential for major headaches to be quite a bit less than other airline travel portal bookings. They also shouldn't be treated like a low cost carrier on bookings, which can lead to extra hoops to jump through on cancellations or changes.
Where Rapid Rewards Points Still Reign Supreme
I should notate that Rapid Rewards offer a flexibility that cash bookings do not though. You would not be stuck with an expiring travel voucher if you need to cancel, change or rebook your flight. Even if it is just to take advantage of a lower fare when one of their sales launch. This is especially true if you like to book a lot of speculative flights, or use Southwest as a backup flight option.
Book Southwest Airlines On Travel Portals: ToP Thoughts
I have reached out to Capital One for comment on this change, and I will update the post if I hear anything from them. Hopefully the ability to book Southwest Airlines on travel portals finds its way to every cardmember's account in the near future. This gives us another really good option for burning those yearly travel credits if they were a struggle to use previously.
What do you think about being able to book Southwest Airlines on travel portals? Does that make your Capital One cards a bit more valuable? Does it make your Chase Sapphire Reserve a bit more valuable too? Let me know your thoughts over in the ToP Facebook Group!
