Chase and Bilt Points to Southwest: Price the Flight First

What Southwest prints about the price, and what it leaves to the screen

Southwest's Rapid Rewards terms, read on October 23, 2026, give the pricing rule in two sentences. The number of points required to redeem for a reward flight "may vary based on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare class, point redemption rate, and other factors," and the number required "will be disclosed on the Southwest website." There is no chart, no points-per-dollar rate and no table of fare classes on the terms page. A second sentence matters for anyone transferring: the number of points required to purchase a reward flight is subject to change at any time until the booking is confirmed, and changes to the itinerary after booking may change it again. Southwest is one of several doors covered in the airlines section; the same fare-versus-points test applies at each.

Taxes are the other printed number. Reward travel is subject to taxes, fees and other government or airport-imposed charges from $5.60 per one-way trip, the amount can vary significantly with the arrival and departure airports, and the passenger must pay it at the time the reward travel is booked. A Cash + Points booking carries the same minimum. Southwest's terms do not label the $5.60. It equals the per-trip September 11th Security Fee that Delta prints on its own award fee table, and Southwest's terms list a September 11th Security Fee among the charges that do not earn points. Either way, a points booking is never entirely free of cash.

Points do not expire, and Southwest's main Rapid Rewards page says there are no blackout dates. The same page announces something else: "A more rewarding journey starts January 1, 2027," under the heading "Meet the new Rapid Rewards program." The page read does not explain what changes for redemption, and the terms read do not mention the date. For a transfer, the practical reading is that anything this page says about the price rule is dated October 23, 2026.

Turning a screen price into cents per point

Because Southwest prints no rate, the rate is something you compute from two numbers on the same screen: the cash fare and the points price of the same flight on the same fare type. The formula keeps the taxes out of the value, since you pay them in cash either way. Cents per point equals the cash fare minus the taxes, divided by the points, times 100.

Two cautions keep the number honest. First, Southwest lists fare class among the factors behind the points price, so the cash fare and the points price have to be for the same fare type on the same flight. A points price for one fare type set against the cash price of another is comparing two different products. Second, work each direction separately. A round trip can hold one leg at 1.1 cents and the other at 1.9, and an average hides the leg that would have been better paid in cash. The result is a price check on one booking, not a statement about what a Rapid Rewards point is worth.

The table runs the formula on three stated one-way prices. They are placeholders for the prices on your own screen, chosen to show how the result moves. A cheap fare at a high points price returns a low rate, and a pricey fare at a modest points price returns a high one, which is why the same Chase balance can look very different on two flights a week apart.

The reverse grid: the most points worth paying for a fare

Most transfer decisions start from a target, not a price. If you would only move points at 1.25 cents each, the screen price either clears that bar or it does not. The grid inverts the formula: for each fare and each target rate, it prints the highest points price that still meets the target, after taking out the $5.60. A points price at or below the cell clears the target; above it, the points are buying less than you set out to get.

The grid uses the 1 cent figure because Chase's own program page puts cash back and gift card redemptions at 1 cent per point, which makes 1.00 the floor against which any transfer should be set. Read down a column to see how a more expensive fare earns more tolerance in points, and across a row to see how each step up in the target cuts the allowance by 17 to 25 percent.

What 1,000-point blocks do to the amount you move

Chase moves points in increments of 1,000, and Bilt moves them in multiples of 1,000 with a minimum of 2,000 for Blue and 1,000 for the higher tiers. Southwest prices in exact points. The difference between the two is leftover points that arrive in the Rapid Rewards account and sit there. They do not expire, so they are not lost, but they are points you moved without needing them for that flight.

The table shows seven stated prices and the transfer each one forces. The leftover ranges from nothing to nearly a full block. It matters most for a traveler who flies Southwest once a year, for whom 800 leftover points are close to dead weight, and least for a frequent flyer who will use them next month.

The table counts one bank point for each Southwest point, which is the ratio Bilt prints. If your Chase screen shows a different ratio for Southwest, divide the Southwest price by that ratio before rounding up to the next 1,000.

Two travelers, one round trip, one transfer or two

A last worked case, with stated numbers, puts the pieces together. Two travelers want a round trip. The outbound is $159 and 10,900 points per person, and the return is $139 and 9,600 points per person. Four one-way fares carry four $5.60 charges, for $22.40 in taxes. The fares total $596 and the points total 41,000.

The cents per point is ($596 minus $22.40) divided by 41,000, or 1.40. That clears a 1.25 target and misses a 1.50 one. If all four fares are booked together, the transfer is 41,000 exactly and nothing is left over. If the traveler books the outbound first, 21,800 points means a 22,000 transfer, and booking the return later at 19,200 means a 20,000 transfer, for 42,000 moved in total and 1,000 left in Rapid Rewards. Neither path loses points, since the leftover stays in the account. The difference is that the single transfer moves 1,000 fewer of the bank's points for the same trip.

Two notes complete the picture. The Chase window is up to seven business days, so the later booking is exposed to the price-change rule above for longer than the earlier one. And the $22.40 is cash due at booking whichever way the points arrive. For a decision about whether to move bank points at all, the Chase transfer guide and the when not to transfer test set the order: price the flight, set the target, and move the points last.

Two doors, two clocks

Chase and Bilt are the two bank currencies on this site that list Southwest. Amex's transfer page and Capital One's partner guide do not name it, and Citi's pages that could be read name other partners without a full list. Bilt's help center article, updated October 20, 2026, lists Southwest at 1 to 1. Chase's transfer guide prints no ratios, and Chase's June 15, 2026 announcement names a ratio change only for World of Hyatt, so the Southwest ratio from Chase is the one your own transfer screen shows before you confirm.

The clocks differ in kind. Chase counts business days and Bilt counts hours, and Bilt is the only bank that singles Southwest out: most Bilt transfers complete in 20 minutes to 48 hours, and the help center asks for up to 72 hours for Southwest. The page on posting windows by bank shows how to count Chase's seven business days on a real calendar and what to do when a window closes.

When the price moves between the transfer and the booking

Southwest's terms say the points required are subject to change until the booking is confirmed. That is the sentence that turns a transfer into a small gamble. The price you read at 9 a.m. is not locked by the transfer you make at 9:05, and with a Chase transfer the points may land days later.

The table runs one stated case. A flight shows at 12,400 points and you transfer 13,000. If the price is the same when the points land, 600 are left. If it rises by 150, you are 150 short of the booking even though your balance exceeded the original price. A second 1,000-point block fixes it, but for Chase that is a second window of up to seven business days. If the price falls, you keep the difference in the account.

The way to price this risk is to compare the move you would need to make with the window the transfer takes. Southwest's terms do not mention a hold, so a price that moves in the interval is a cost you absorb, not one the program protects against. Bilt's help article recommends considering a hold with the loyalty partner before transferring, and the Southwest terms read do not say that one exists.

The Companion Pass rule that excludes transferred Chase points

Southwest's terms set the Companion Pass bar at 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or 100 qualifying one-way flight segments in a calendar year. The same paragraph lists what does not count toward the points, and the list includes points "transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards," points transferred from partner programs, purchased points, points transferred between members, Rapid Rewards reward flights, and tier bonus, flight bonus and promotion bonus points with limited exceptions.

So a transfer from Chase, however large, adds nothing toward the 135,000. A traveler who is 20,000 points short of the Companion Pass in December cannot close the gap by moving 20,000 Chase points. What does count is travel on Southwest, points earned on the Southwest credit cards from Chase and the base points from Rapid Rewards partners, and only points posted to the account within the same calendar year. A card billing cycle's points do not count until they post to the statement and to the Rapid Rewards account.

None of this is an argument about whether a transfer is worthwhile. It is a rule that decides whether the points can serve two goals at once, and for a Chase balance, they cannot. The Companion Pass value, where it exists, comes from flying and card spend inside Southwest's own program, and the transfer is only a way to pay for a trip that is already chosen.

Other ways points get into the account, from Southwest's own terms

Southwest sells points and lets members move points to each other, with limits that the terms print. Points are sold in blocks of 1,000 during promotional periods and 500 otherwise, with a 2,000-point minimum and a daily maximum of 60,000 points combined for personal and gift purchases. A member can transfer points to another member in blocks of 1,000 during promotions and 500 otherwise, with a 2,000-point minimum and a 60,000-point daily maximum, and the cost of a member-to-member transfer must be paid with a credit card. The price of either was not read.

Those are different tools from a bank transfer. They cost money, they have daily caps, and the terms list points transferred between members among the points that do not count toward the Companion Pass. A bank transfer costs nothing in dollars but is irreversible and capped by what the bank allows. If a balance is 400 points short, the choice is another 1,000-point bank block, a small purchase from Southwest, or a Cash + Points booking, which pays part of the flight in dollars and part in points at a value the website discloses.

Cash + Points has its own exclusions in the terms. Special fares such as military and government fares cannot be bought with it, and neither can charter flights, group travel or Getaways by Southwest vacation bookings. Southwest's main Rapid Rewards page adds that points cannot be redeemed for Getaways at all. A transfer made for one of those purchases would have nowhere to go.

Booking for someone else with the points you moved

The transfer has to land in your own account, because Chase requires the bank name to match the Rapid Rewards name and Bilt allows only own-name accounts. The booking does not have to be for you. Southwest's terms say a member can use points to purchase seats for themselves or for others. The cost of that flexibility is control: the terms add that the member is solely responsible for changes after booking, and that a passenger flying on another member's points cannot make changes and must ask the member.

For a family that pools one person's transferred balance to fly several people, that rule means one name on every change request. It also means the points price is a charge against one account no matter who sits in the seat, so the cents-per-point test above is run on the total of the fares in the booking. The page on pooling and sharing points covers the programs that let balances combine, and Southwest's terms rule that out; the booking-for-others rule is the Southwest-sanctioned way to spread one balance across several travelers.

A Companion on a points booking: the same price spread over two seats

Southwest attaches the $5.60 floor to reward travel "by the Member and, if applicable, a Companion," which is the terms' way of saying a Companion Pass holder can be on a points booking. The Member and the Companion must be booked on the same flights and dates, and if the Member's ticket is cancelled, the Companion's ticket is cancelled too. A change by the Member has to be mirrored on the Companion's booking or the Companion's ticket is cancelled. No points, tier qualifying points or Companion Pass qualifying points are awarded for the Companion's flights.

The arithmetic is where a pass changes a transfer decision. On the wording of the terms, the points price covers one seat and the second seat adds its taxes, which the booking screen confirms. The table reuses the $214 fare at 14,200 points from earlier. With a Companion, two seats are covered by one points price, so the cash value of the booking doubles while the points and the transfer stay the same. Because a bank transfer never counts toward earning the pass, this applies only to travelers who already hold one.

Reward flights earn nothing: points, status and the dollars portion

Southwest's earning terms exclude reward flights from qualifying flights, so a trip paid entirely with points earns no points and no tier qualifying points. On a Cash + Points booking, points are earned only on the portion of the base fare paid with dollars. Taxes and fees do not earn either, because the terms list the government-imposed September 11th Security Fee and other taxes among the charges that are not eligible.

This matters because the same flight can be bought three ways, and each earns differently. Paid in cash it earns points on the base fare. Paid with Cash + Points it earns on the dollar portion. Paid with points alone it earns nothing. A traveler counting on status from Southwest flying has to count that difference, and the cents-per-point figure above does not include it.

Expiry, closing the account and what happens to transferred points

Rapid Rewards points do not expire under the terms read. Closing the account, however, forfeits the points in it. A bank transfer is one-way, so any points moved in become the program's, and they sit under the same closure rule as points earned from flying.

Southwest's terms say a passenger flying on another member's points cannot change the itinerary and must have the member make changes, and that the member is solely responsible for changes after booking. For a balance that was built by a bank transfer, the practical point is that only the account holder can change or cancel the booking. The page on canceling an award flight covers how Southwest handles redeposits, and the terms read for this page do not state a points refund policy for cancelled reward flights.

What to write down at the moment you book

Southwest does not publish a rate, so the screen is the only record of what a booking cost in points. A saved capture of the booking screen, with the date, the flight, the fare type, the points price, the cash fare and the taxes line, answers three later questions. It shows what the points cost against the fare on the day. It documents the price if it is disputed. And it records the taxes, which cannot be paid with points. The Southwest terms say the points required can change with itinerary changes after booking, so a second capture after any change keeps the history honest.

This page does not compare a Southwest transfer with the same flight booked through Chase Travel, because Southwest fares were not found in the Chase Travel pages read, and comparing a portal rate with a program that may not be sold there would be inventing the other side. If your Chase Travel search does show the same Southwest flight, the portal price at Chase's 1 to 1 baseline is the comparison, and the reverse grid above already gives the ceiling the transfer must beat. Next, if the Hyatt side of your Chase balance is also in play, Chase points to Hyatt shows how the 4 to 3 ratio changes what one transfer covers.