Anyone use their southwest points to redeem for hotels outside of Disney or disney gift cards for tickets and hotel on the grounds? My family of four live in New Orleans and I think we would probably get better use driving to Disney and saving points for hotel and tix. We have 290,000 points.
Thanks in advance. On a good day, I like the challenge of figuring this out. On a bad day, I feel gobsmacked 
You’ll get less for your points with gift cards or hotels than you’ll get for using your points for a Southwest flight. That being said, it might be a good trade off if you’d rather drive than fly. If you accumulate your points for business and don’t anticipate any personal opportunities to use free flights, then it might make sense to cash them in.
I converted 20,000 United miles into TSA pre-check for me and my wife. I don’t fly United all that often, and it was a pain to keep those miles active. So while it wasn’t the best value, it was something I could use NOW. It might have taken me 2-3 more years to get the free ticket… Now I have pre-check for my trip to Disney and other vacations over the next 5 years.
Thanks. I can understand that. My husband accrued these points for his weekly trips to Houston. I know a pre-check would have been greatly appreciated. The job has changed along with the weekly flights so we have points that we don’t want to expire. I am trying to figure out how to get the most bang for the buck (or point).
If you want the most bang for the buck, you’ll want to use them for flights. But if the points are in danger of expiring, redeem some for gift cards to keep the rest active.
Me personally, I would be careful about redeeming them for hotel rooms unless the exchange was right. I wouldn’t want to overpay or take a less desirable hotel just to use the points.
But then again, there’s nothing like being able to claim the trip was “free”.
Thanks