Southwest Rapid Rewards Can Not Be Redeemed For Gift Cards Due To Covid-19

Southwest has temporarily paused their More Rewards feature which allowed redeeming Rapid Rewards points for gift cards and other merchandise. I assume they just don’t have the money to lay out to pay for these rewards so they are pausing the feature. Or else, they are seeing a mass exit from the points currency which they are trying to discourage by forcing people to wait until more normal times.

Due to circumstances resulting from COVID-19, we have temporarily paused the ability to redeem points in More Rewards. We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope to resume normal operations soon. Thank you for your patience and grace during this time.

It’s disheartening to see this move as Southwest points always had a floor of about $.01 value since they could be redeemed for gift cards to places like Amazon or Walmart. Hopefully they’ll bring this option back soon, though I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing changes for a good few months.

Hat tip to ozimandyus

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