Southwest Launches “Wanna Get Away Plus” Fares

Southwest Airlines has launched a new fare type that may be good news for consumers. The tickets for this new fare class are on sale, so we have a sense of pricing.

Details of Southwest’s new Wanna Get Away Plus fares

Southwest has three existing fare types; Wanna Get Away, Anytime, and Business Select. You should see this on southwest.com now that it's available for all Southwest Airlines flights.

The prices of Wanna Get Away plus fares are less than the prices of Anytime fares. Southwest fares have two free checked bags and no change fees, but Wanna Get Away Plus has perks.

• Transferable flight credits, letting you make a one-time transfer of eligible unused flight credits to a new traveler for future use
• More Rapid Rewards points, as you earn 8x points per dollar spent (Wanna Get Away fares earn 6x points, while Anytime fares earn 10x points)
• Same-day confirmed flight changes and same-day flight standby

To crunch the numbers on the value proposition.

• I value Southwest Rapid Rewards points at 1.2 cents each, so to me the 2x incremental points per dollar spent are equivalent to a 2.4% return
• Interestingly I’d say the ability to transfer flight credits appeals more to an occasional Southwest flyer than a frequent Southwest flyer, since the latter could easily reuse the flight credit
• So I’d say the value of this for a frequent Southwest flyer comes down to how much you value standby or same-day confirmed flight changes; maybe this is important in markets with frequent service, but in other markets I see this being less valuable

In order to better compete against ultra low cost carriers, airlines have greatly reworked their fare bands in recent years. Southwest has been competing on product, service, and network while avoiding basic economy.

Southwest added new benefits and bridged the gap between the two fares, which is nice for certain types of consumers. What is the pricing like? The Anytime fare is $50 less than the Wanna Get Away Plus fare, and $30 more than the Wanna Get Away fare.

Southwest adds perks to other fare types as well

Southwest has also added new perks to existing premium fare bands. What has changed?

• Anytime fares also allow credits to be transfered to other Rapid Rewards members, offer access to priority and express lanes, and offer automatic EarlyBird check-in
• Business Select fares also allow credits to be transfered to other Rapid Rewards members

The fact that three of the four Southwest fares will allow vouchers to be transferred to others is a pretty awesome feature, and distinguishes Southwest from competitors. However:

• Two of those fares also allow refunds rather than ticket credits, so it seems like you’d be better off just getting a refund
• Frequent flyers who seek out Southwest probably would have no issues using the voucher again, and wouldn’t transfer it to someone else

You can find a chart comparing Southwest's fare bands.

Bottom line

Southwest Airlines has a fourth fare class. There is a new fare called Wanna Get Away Plus. Compared to Wanna Get Away fares, this offers more points, flight credits, and same-day confirmed changes, all of which are useful perks.

The pricing is in line with what I was expecting, and the fares are a bit closer to Wanna Get Away than Anytime. I think this is more of a niche offering. The premium is not unreasonable, but it depends on whether you value a same-day confirmed flight change.

What do you think about the Wanna Get Away Plus fares?