Book ASAP: Southwest offering 20% off all award flights

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If you’ve got a stash of Southwest points from converting your Southwest travel funds to points or opening any of the best Southwest credit cards (or even other travel cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card), Southwest gives a compelling reason to redeem them soon.

Southwest’s newest promotion discounts award flights by 20%, and it appears to apply to flights across Southwest’s entire network. This is a unique deal, as Southwest award flights are usually tied to the cash value of the flights. In other words, whenever Southwest has a sale, both cash and award prices drop. For those using points to book fares that are already cheap in cash, you’ll get an even better deal than usual.

New Southwest promo: Big discount on awards

To trigger the deal, enter “SAVE20NOW” into the promo code box when searching for a flight. You won’t be able to see the deal via the Low Fare Calendar, but all flights appear to be on sale so it’s not difficult to estimate your savings at a glance.

Here’s what it looks like when the promotion is applied:

Note that taxes and fees aren’t discounted.

Yes, even international flights qualify for this deal. If you’ve speculatively glanced at the rock-bottom hotel prices in Mexico (like bonafide five-star all-inclusives for $200 per night), this deal could be the straw that booked the camel’s vacation.

Things to note:

• You must book by September 17, 2020
• You must travel by October 31, 2020

We estimate Southwest points to be worth around 1.5 cents each, meaning this promo would make your points worth approximately 1.8 cents a pop. That’s a great value for airline miles.

If you’ve already booked a Southwest award flight, check to see if this deal provides a discount over what you’ve already paid. Southwest allows you to change or cancel your flights up to 10 minutes before departure, so you can simply cancel your flight and rebook at this promotional rate.

Also, remember that Southwest is a Chase transfer partner. That means you can instantly convert Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest points at a 1:1 ratio. Great news if you hold some an Ultimate-Rewards-earning Chase credit card. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card just launched a massive welcome bonus, offering 80,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening.

Let us know if you jump on this promo! And subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the best travel deals.

Featured photo courtesy of Southwest Airlines.