I know who I'm coming to to compare notes! ;-)

You lie in the seats, but you lay the seats down flat when you recline them? So, potentially both? (I say lie-flat though)

That too of course!

TPG has the full story and a confirmation from the airline that this change took place (and a quote from yours truly with what I'm seeing): thepointsguy.com/news/southwe...

The low has gotten lower after many additional searches (1.05 cpp) but the high has not gotten higher. Indeed, the 1.64 cpp flight I've found appears to be a pretty big outlier - nothing else has been in the 1.4/1.5cpp range so far. Back to my spreadsheet...

Quick clarification - I've only been pricing out flights at the Wanna Get Away level so far. Have not yet dug into the other three fares where it looks like the points may go farther in some instances, potentially making purchasing up more appealing.

Pausing for now to continue my investigation but will pick this thread back up as I see more. Bottom line - this is a devaluation on average, I think. Southwest points used to be worth more like 1.3-1.4 cents per point and I'm not seeing that price hold as the middle anymore.

Hawaii flights are definitely almost always on the low end - most are 1.1 cents per point or lower. Granted, open schedule includes a lot of summer flights (a peak season), but I also suspect Hawaii flights are a place where Southwest is really testing variable demand.

I've seen points now worth as low as 1.084 cents per point and as high as 1.645 cents per point on about 25 test searches so far. Most redemptions appear to be about 1.2 cents per point on average.

I've been testing out a number of routes and doing the math to compare the cash price (minus the 5.60 tax on the cash side) and the points required to now book that fare.

It's easy to spot that something different happened because all points redemptions are now a round number. Here's what a points search result looks like now on the Southwest site.

Oh no! LOL.

Full story with commentary is out on the blog now! tripswithtykes.com/changes-sout...

4) I assumed when I first read the announcements that credit card holders would get a free bag for themselves + everyone booked on the same reservation (like w. AA, Delta, United's CCs). Reading the language again, that actually isn't spelled out. Might this just be 1 bag per card?!?!?

I thought the days of 2 bags flying free were numbered, but I always thought the move would be to 1 flying free for the differentiation factor and branding tagline. Just floored.

3) How much money is the airline going to have to spend on changing all the "Bags Fly Free" signage on everything at airports across the country? Apparently less than they are going to make on bag fees, I guess?