The Extra Mile, Oct. 16: No LUV for Southwest Fans + Amex Stops Pooling Points

💛 Southwest’s Brutal Companion Pass & Status Overhaul

Pour one out for the Southwest Companion Pass as we know it, because the airline announced it’s about to get much, much harder to earn in 2027.

The announcement came with a slew of other Southwest news about its Rapid Rewards status, its new lounges, and the ways you can use Rapid Rewards points, too. Let’s dig in.

👫 Companion Pass Gets Harder to Earn: The Southwest Companion Pass shortcut is officially dead … or about to be, anyway. Starting next year, the points you earn from credit card sign-up bonuses, referrals, the Rapid Rewards shopping portal, and more will no longer count toward earning one of these coveted passes.

Starting Jan. 1, the only way to get a pass will be to earn the highest level of status with Southwest. This will certainly cull the herd of passholders … which is the point, sadly.

⭐ New Tiers of Status: A List is now “Silver.” A List Preferred is now “Gold.” And then there’s a new level: “Platinum.” Platinum is what you’ll need to earn to get a Companion Pass, although you can get three Companion trips between Gold and Platinum.

The reason you can get extra Companion Passes before earning Platinum is thanks to Southwest’s new “Milestone Rewards” which let you earn perks in between status tiers. For instance, before you even get to Silver, you can earn 2,000 Southwest bonus points or Preferred Seat certificates to avoid seat selection fees.

✈️ Rapid Rewards Partner Bookings: I think this is the most exciting news of the day: Starting next spring, you’ll be able to spend your Rapid Rewards points on partner airlines Icelandair, Etihad, and China Airlines.

Booking long-haul flights with Southwest Rapid Rewards points has always been a main shortcoming of the program. And while we don’t know what these redemptions will cost or if it will be a good deal, another booking possibility with your Southwest Rapid Rewards (or Bilt and Chase points that transfer there) is a good thing.

🛋️ Introducing the “Icon” Lounge: The Southwest Lounge finally has a name: The Southwest Icon Lounge Network. We’ve known the airline was getting lounges for a while now, but now we have a name … and a rendering of the Nashville lounge (BNA), too!

The rendering looks … like a lounge! I was hoping for something a little more uniquely Southwest, personally. But let’s talk about the name … because I kind of love it!

Of all the random airline buzzwords like “Admirals”, “Flagship”, “Polaris”, and “Aurora”, I think “Icon” fits the Southwest brand. The airline said it’s an ode to its late co-founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher, who was certainly an icon in the industry.

🛜 Fleetwide Starlink: The airline also announced it will have its entire fleet of airplanes equipped with Starlink by next fall. Southwest thinks it will be the first U.S. airline to do so when it’s all said and done. Let the race begin!

For a full breakdown of the Southwest changes, visit our website story.

– Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst, travel reporter, and host of the Thrifty Traveler Podcast

🤝 Deal of the Day: Refundable Flights to Europe for 42K Miles RT!

Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥

Why we love it: Use your American AAdvantage miles on a totally refundable flight to Europe!

That’s right: These fares are Main Cabin and can be canceled at any time before departure for a full refund of your miles, taxes, and fees.

Fly from nearly every city in the country with American service. Best availability next spring and summer.

Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.

Already a member? Log in to see all your deals.

– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst

📡 On Our Radar: Earning Status Will Be Expensive in 2027

Welcome to On Our Radar – a weekly look at the news and trends we’re watching lately!

This week, I’m tabling my usual discourse on routes and airlines to dig into airline status. That’s because United Airlines just announced new status-earning requirements, joining American and Delta in making status almost entirely based on spend.

And it’s … a lot of spend. So I wanted to dig into exactly how much it’ll cost you to earn status on the big three U.S. airlines in 2027.

✈️ How Much You’ll Spend on Flights to Earn Status in 2027

On the low end, you’ll only have to spend $5,000 on flights with Delta to earn Delta’s entry-level Silver Medallion status (there is, of course, a way to do this with credit cards).

On the high end, you’ll need to spend $32,000 on United flights in order to earn United’s highest-level Premier 1K status. 💰

Delta has the lowest spending threshold among the big three at all status levels except for its “Diamond” status, which is just slightly more than American Executive Platinum will cost you.

There are a few important caveats here. For one, these are the spending requirements for someone starting without any status. These figures don’t take into account existing status, partner flights, promotional earnings, or – most importantly – credit card spend.

💳 What About Credit Card Spending?

You can also earn toward status by spending on your credit card with American, Delta, or United – but you earn each differently.

Each program has its own quirk. AA is the simplest, earning 1 Loyalty Point/$1 spent. With Delta, some cardholders get a $2,500 Medallion Qualifying Dollar headstart. And with United, you have to hit a four-flight minimum to qualify.

Here’s what you’d need to spend on your co-branded credit card to earn the lowest level status with each airline, not including airfare:

• 🔺 Delta: $25,000 (on your Amex SkyMiles Reserve Card) to earn Silver Medallion
• 🇺🇸 American: $40,000 (on any Citi/AAdvantage Card) to earn American Gold
• 🟦 United: $90,000 and a 4-flight minimum (on a United Club Card) to earn United Silver

On the high end, you’ll have to spend upwards of $200,000 to earn American Executive Platinum, Delta Diamond, or United Premier 1K status.

One thing worth calling out: AA allows travelers to earn Loyalty Points in other ways, which makes the spending requirement a bit more tolerable. Clicking through the AAdvantage shopping portal, booking hotels or rental cars through AA, and more, all earn Loyalty Points, in addition to the spending you put on your card.

🙅‍♂️ Bottom Line: Airline status isn’t worth it anymore – and really, it hasn’t been worth it for years. Gone are the days of even moderately reliable complimentary upgrades into first class (the airlines are selling those seats in their apps instead), and what you get for your loyalty is not worth $5,000 in flights or $25,000 in credit card spend.

Airline status is so expensive now. Unless you’re a road warrior traveling on your company’s dime, or you’re very, very rich (which adheres to my top travel tip: “Don’t be poor”), earning status makes no sense in 2027.

– Gunnar Olson, travel reporter and flight deal analyst

🪣 Amex Stops Pooling Points Automatically … Should You Worry?

For as long as I’ve carried American Express cards, Membership Rewards points have worked like one big bucket. Earn them on a Gold card, a Blue Business Plus, or on the Platinum, and they all land in a single balance with zero extra steps.

Not anymore. Amex quietly updated its terms so that any new card earning Membership Rewards points now gets its own separate rewards account by default. Cards you already have aren’t affected … at least for now.

The fix is easy: open the Amex app or website, tap Manage Connections, and link your accounts. It can take a few hours for your combined balance to show up, so if you open a new Amex card that earns Membership Rewards points, you should do this right away.

On the surface, that’s a minor annoyance. Amex was easily the most generous issuer when it came to automatically combining points, and now it’s just like most other banks.

But I can’t shake the feeling there’s more to the story here.

To be clear, Amex hasn’t announced anything beyond this change, and what follows is pure speculation on my part.

Here’s my theory: once every card has its own points bucket, Amex could start treating those buckets differently.

That’s exactly what Chase just did by cutting transfers to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3 on the Sapphire Preferred, so 40,000 Chase points now gets you 30,000 Hyatt points.

Want the full 1:1 transfer ratio? You now need the *chase sapphire reserve*, which comes with a huge annual_fees annual fee.

If Amex ever followed Chase’s lead, which transfer partner would it pick? Hyatt was the crown jewel of Chase’s lineup for years, and Amex doesn’t really have an equivalent.

Most of its airline partners are a dime a dozen and easy miles to get from other banks … except Delta.

You’d think the long, cozy relationship between Amex and Delta would make that transfer untouchable, but I could see a world where both sides would welcome a cut.

Every point earned on an Amex Gold and moved to Delta is spending that didn’t go on a Delta co-branded card. Lower the ratio for most cards, and you’d force a choice: Put your spending on a Delta card, or pay up for the Platinum to keep 1:1 transfers.

Either way, Amex and Delta would come out ahead.

Again, nothing’s official here, but if Amex ever puts one of its transfer partners behind a premium card paywall, my money’s on Delta.

– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder

🎙️ Travel Insider Zach Griff Joins the Podcast!

❓What aren’t the airlines saying out loud? How will tech and AI shape our travels? And what’s the future of award travel look like? Those questions are big enough for the guys to bring in another expert to tackle them: Zach Griff!

Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

↔️ How to Transfer Hyatt Points to Someone Else

World of Hyatt members can now transfer points to another member online, for free. It’s a change we first flagged in yesterday’s Extra Mile … and it’s now officially live.

That retires Hyatt’s old process where you had to download a PDF, fill in both members’ names, account numbers, phone numbers and mailing addresses, get signatures, and then email it all to Hyatt.

Then you crossed your fingers, waited about a week, and hoped nothing was rejected over a mismatched detail.

Now it takes about two minutes – here’s how it’s done.

Step 1: Head to the points gifting page and log in to your Hyatt account. You can also get there from your account overview by finding the section labeled “Gift your points more seamlessly,” about halfway down the page.

Click “learn more.”

Step 2: Under “Gift points or eligible awards,” click “gift your points.”

Step 3: Use the slider to choose how many points to send. The minimum is 1,000 points, and you can add more in 500-point increments. Click “gift bonus points” to continue.

Step 4: Enter the recipient’s World of Hyatt number, first and last name, email address, and a personal message (if you’d like). The system should let you know if something doesn’t match up with what Hyatt has on file, but it’s a good idea to double-check everything before moving on.

Step 5: Review the details, accept the terms and conditions, then hit “gift bonus points” one last time. Done – simple as that!

Hyatt says points generally arrive within 24 hours. Some transfers get flagged for extra review, and those can take up to 10 business days, so it’s best not to wait until the last minute to do a transfer.

⚠️ The list of terms and conditions is short, but a few of them matter:

• Both accounts must be open and active for at least 60 days. If your travel partner just opened a new account, they’ll have to wait.
• Transfers are 1:1 and free. 10,000 points sent means 10,000 points received.
• Members can send up to 525,000 points per year, and receive up to 525,000 points per year. That’s also the cap for a single transfer, so one big transfer could use your whole year’s allowance.
• You get one transfer per calendar month, and six per calendar year. Be sure to plan ahead if you’re pooling points from several people. Each sender has their own limit, but a single sender can’t send small amounts every few weeks.

The monthly limit is the one most likely to trip people up. If you send your spouse 20,000 points on Nov. 2 and then realize you’re 5,000 short, you’re left waiting until December to finish the job and get your hotel booked.

So it could be worth sending a little more than you think you’ll need. Points don’t do any good sitting in the wrong account.

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• 📶 United now has Starlink Wi-Fi on nearly half its daily flights, and a new online tracker lets you check whether yours has it within three days of departure. (United)
• 💺 JetBlue’s new BlueFirst domestic first class is officially on sale, debuting Dec. 8 between Boston (BOS) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL). (One Mile at a Time)
• 🥚 Google Flights turned 15 and hid aviation history cards in desktop searches for famous routes. Search London (LHR) to New York (JFK) for a Concorde card, or San Francisco (SFO) to Honolulu (HNL) for United’s original 747 service. (View from the Wing)
• 🥂 United is telling flight attendants to collect first class welcome drinks before pushback, even in paper cups, following updated FAA guidance. Delta made the same change Sept. 1. (Live and Let’s Fly)