Earlier this year, I discovered a special promotion in my account for an upgrade to A-List if I flew a certain amount of times within the next two months.
As it happens, my flights were already booked and I actually discovered the promotion during the last few days it was active! I was a little disappointed at first because I thought I wouldn’t qualify. I didn’t activate the promotion before I booked my flights (many of which already happened) but it turns out Southwest gave it to me anyway.
(always check your Promotions tab!)
For the last few months, and the remainder of this year, I’ve been enjoying the benefits of A-List. I already have TSA PreCheck so the Security Lane Access perk isn’t a game-changer but earning 25% more on flights and Priority Boarding has been nice.
It also pushed me to try to figure out how the A-List program worked and what I could do to simplify earning it (like I do for Southwest Companion Pass).
Table of Contents
🔃 Updated November 2023 with the latest details on how to get A-List and A-List Preferred. We also added a section that discusses the changes to the Rapid Rewards program coming for 2024.
A-List Benefits
There are two A-List tiers, “regular” A-List and A-List Preferred.
The three big benefits of A-List are:
- 25% earning bonus – You earn 25% more Rapid Reward points on flight purchases
- Priority Boarding – Instead of watching the clock and checking in at exactly 24-hours beforehand, Southwest checks you in automatically and you get a higher boarding position. Usually a low A after the Business Select (1-15).
- Priority Check-in and Security Lane Access – There’s a separate line at the check-in counter for Priority Check-In and, in airports that have it, a special Security Lane for you through TSA similar to TSA Pre-Check.
The benefits of A-List Preferred are a little sexier. It includes everything from A-List plus two premium drinks on each flight (176 miles or more), the earning bonus goes up to 100%, and you get free inflight wi-fi.
Earning A-List & Preferred
If you travel a lot (such as for work), it’s not hard to earn A-List.
If you don’t travel a lot, it’s challenging because the program is based heavily on flights.
A-List requires 25 one-way qualifying flights or 35,000 Tier Qualifying Points. (it drops to 20 qualifying flights after January 2024)
A-List Preferred requires twice as much of both, 50 one-way qualifying flights (40 after January 2024) or 70,000 Tier Qualifying Points!
Much like Companion Pass, you get the benefit once you satisfy the requirements. Once you’ve flown your 25th one-way qualifying flight, you’ll be A-List for the remainder of the year and the following year.
🤔 My feeling is that earning A-List through flying is going to be easier than earning it through TQPs. 25 one-way is one round trip flight a month plus a one-way thrown in. A-List Preferred flying is much harder and those are probably earned by folks who do quite a bit of travel for work.
How to Earn Tier Qualifying Points
Tier Qualifying Points are Rapid Rewards points you’ve earned that also accrue towards A-List and A-List Preferred. The rule of thumb is that all flying based Rapid Reward points you earn will count plus a subset of your credit card earned points. You won’t get it from partners, transfers, or any other means. It’s a far more restrictive rule than the 135,000 points you need to earn Companion Pass.
The Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier credit card gives you 1,500 Tier Qualifying points for every $10,000 you spend, up to 15,000 tier qualifying points. If you were to earn the maximum of 15,000 TQPs, you’re still 20,000 TQP short to reach A-List. It’s the only credit card that will give you TQPs. (we have it and the business card, only the Premier gives us TQPs).
When you first get the card, the Rapid Rewards bonus points aren’t TQPs. You do, however, get 1,500 TQPs from that initial bump.
The only other way to earn TQPs is through flights, earning them on this schedule (same as Rapid Rewards earning rate):
- Wanna Get Away Fares: 6 points per dollar of base
- Wanna Get Away plus Fares: 8 points per dollar of base
- Anytime Fares: 10 points per dollar of base
- Business Select Fares: 12 points per dollar of base
35,000 TQP at 6 points per dollar of base is $5833.33 in fares. $3,500 in fares at Anytime rates and $2,916.66 in fares at Business Select rates.
Optimizing Fare Price vs. TQP Earning
Depending on the flight, sometimes the price between a Wanna Get Away and an Anytime is close enough that you make it back up with points. Sometimes that decision exists between Business Select and Anytime. Sometimes there is no decision.
For example, I checked some flights from BWI (Baltimore) to LAS (Las Vegas) and they looked like this:
The Wanna Get Away fare is obviously the cheapest, so we’d normally opt for that. If, however, there were no Wanna Get Away fares then you might be put to a decision because the difference between some of those flights is relatively small.
On the earlier Anytime fare (Flight #742) you would earn 5730 points and on the Business Select you’d earn 7476, a difference of 1746 for only $50. That values the Rapid Reward points at 2.86 cents each, which is higher than most valuation estimates.
(Business Select also lets you board A1-15 and gives additional perks, icing on the cake)
Why don’t you earn 10x or 12x the fare listed? Southwest shows you the all-in price, including fees and taxes, but you only earn points on the base fare.
A-List & A-List Preferred Changes for 2024
In late 2023, Southwest announced it would be changing some parts of the Rapid Rewards program.
The biggest change for A-List purposes is that you now get 1,500 TQPs towards A-List and A-List Preferred with every $5,000 spent on your credit card. You are now earning TQP at twice the rate.
Next, as mentioned earlier, the flight requirements for both status levels will be decreasing:
- A-List requires just 20 one-way qualifying flights (down from 25)
- A-List Preferred requires just 40 one-way qualifying flights (down from 50)
They also added the two premium drinks to each flight over 176 miles. That was added November 6th, 2023.
How much is A-List and A-List Preferred Worth?
It depends on your flying patterns but I will pay for Priority Boarding on any flights longer than a 2 hours – I take about three of those flights a year. That’s $90 ($15 each way).
On those flights I’ll usually pay for Wi-Fi too, that’s another $48. $138 in benefits each year.
Next, you’ll want to calculate how many miles you estimate you’re flying each year to calculate the benefit of the 25% and 100% bonus. Last year, I earned 18,000 RR points on flights. 25% of that in points valued at 1.6 cents is $72. 100% bonus would be $288 in value.
Personally, A-List would be worth $162 a year and A-List Preferred would be worth $426.
It’s not nearly as valuable as our Companion Pass, which is easily worth thousands of dollars each year depending on how often you fly, but it’s a nice perk.
Susan Macary says
“A flight segment is defined as a one-way trip booked through Southwest Airlines from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest Airlines.” So, does this mean if I go from Baltimore to San diego and have 2 stops, that I will earn 3 flight segments?
No, the wording is awkward in their explanation but those intermediate stops don’t count. They’re “included” in the original segment – which really isn’t how people talk (lawyers might!). Layovers don’t add segments, it’s still one.
Kyle says
Hello
Currently at the A-list preferred status and booked and completed a business select flight. I was under the impression that both the base points and 100% earning bonus..i.e. 5600 base points + 5600 earning bonus(11200 total) would increase my companion pass points by 11200. Apparently looking at my recent activity the TQP’s increased by 5600 points and the CQP’s increased by 5600. Is this correct?
Thanks in advance!
I’ve never been A-List Preferred so I don’t know but I expect their systems to be pretty accurate in awarding points, since CP and the statuses have been around for quite a while.
SWA Flyer says
The earning bonus doesn’t count towards TQP or CQP. It only goes into your point total.
Kyle says
Thanks and understand now. Btw, just earned a companion pass! ?
Grisel says
Hi there!
We have this vey same issue. Flights had been book and in some cases flown before registering for the promotion. In our case however, we have now spoken with two people at Southwest and they do not want to budge on the matter. Did you have to escalate or was there anything specifically that you said that you believe might make a difference in them deciding to give it to us anyway?
I can’t be of much help I’m afraid, I didn’t ask anyone and they gave us credit for it anyway. I wish you the best of luck!
John Lloyd says
not sure I understand how to earn TQP. So if I book a flight and it shows 1400 points earned for Wanna Get Away flight and 6,100 earned for Business Select flight when I am looking at the fares, do all of those points go toward my TQP total? I know they go to my total Rapid Reward Points but was not sure if that total amount also applies to my TQP. I am only 11,000 points shy of getting A List for 2018 and have two flights booked before end of year. I was thinking of changing my flights to Business Select from Wanna Get Away to get to the 11,000 needed points before end of the year if they counted toward TQP. It would costs an extra $425 total for change the two flights to Business Select but I would have A List for all of 2019 if I understand it correctly.
Thanks
Yes, all those points go towards your TQP total. Tier Qualifying Points are the same as Rapid Reward points that count toward A-List and A-List Preferred. You can only earn them on revenue flights or at a rate of 1,500 points per $10,000 spent on the cards (with a max of 15,000 points per year).
Bailey Clyde says
If your flights are booked in 2018 but you fly in 2019 which year do the points go to?
The points are awarded after the flight has completed, so in your case it would be 2019.
KM says
Hi Jim, instead of buying a roundtrip fare, would there be a benefit in buying 2 one-way fares to earn TQP at a faster rate or would the 2 one-way be the same as a roundtrip fare?
They’re usually the same.
Hayes says
Hi. Excellent summary. When comparing the cost of the 3 fare types, as in your BWI example, only the full fare is shown, but the points are based only on the base fare (not shown). So do you use a short cut to guess at the base when making the analysis, because otherwise one would have to click through each fare to learn the base. Right?
Yeah, you have to click through to see it unfortunately.
David G says
When do the Tier One Qualifying points accrue and counted for a year (I) the day you purchase the ticket; or (2) the date you actually fly? Thus, if you book at ticket on December 1, 2019 for a flight January 5, 2020, due the points accrue on the date you fly (i.e.; January 5)?
Southwest typically awards points when you fly, so I suspect the TQP are treated the same way.