Well, Southwest continues to be a aggressive in Denver with its promotions. After giving out free roundtrips for Business Select tickets out of the city, Southwest is now offering faster access to it’s still-new elite level, A-List, for Colorado residents. While sixteen roundtrips are required to earn the status, Southwest is now giving out the status for only four roundtrips.
But, one should note that one has a full year to make those sixteen roundtrips, while one must book and fly the four roundtrips in a three-month period, or one quarter. So Southwest is doing some simple math here and hoping that such passengers would be doing about sixteen roundtrips a year anyway, so this promotion just makes them A-Listers faster.
So clearly Southwest is aiming at Frontier and United’s elites here. But is it worth it for those elites to make the switch? I’m not sure. Those elites already get two free bags, so that part of Southwest’s campaign doesn’t do much. No change fees on Southwest is certainly nice, though. The A-List benefits of priority check-in, security, and boarding are the same as the other airlines’ programs.
Plus, I think Frontier’s and United’s perks are a bit nicer than Southwest’s, to be honest. Frontier and United’s elites get a shot at more legroom with STRETCH and Economy Plus, respectively, and also earn a mileage bonus once they’re elite. Also, Ascent and Summit members on Frontier get free DirecTV, while United miles are very valuable as they can be used across the Star Alliance.
This one could end up being a win for Frontier and United fliers, though. Last time Southwest unveiled a Denver promotion the two carriers quickly responded with offers of their own, so we’ll have to see if something similar occurs this time.
More details can be found here: southwest.com/denveralist.
Could this be a sign that they are still struggling in DEN? I wonder if they think F9 being Republic-owned now will change travelers’ minds about who to choose. Either way, they badly want market share in DEN.
Not very attractive in my opinion. I already had some travel booked for this period on F9. In reality for a lot of fliers that book flights out a couple of weeks this would shorten the period to 2 month.
If they would give me comped A-list I might consider switching some flights from F9 but why should I start with them from the bottom of the pile.
With F9 I already have 2 bags free (I am Summit) and I get the change fees waived. I also do have free drinks and free TV so Southwest currently is not really adding any value for their ‘elite’ members.