There was a time when Southwest points could buy at least half a ticket.

I got an email alert that my points were expiring soon and that if I didn’t take care if it, Santa Claus would skip the next Christmas.

2,500 points.

Great! I can donate that to someone needing to come to MD Anderson!

I went online and could not find “donate” or “give” anywhere.

I emailed and got the response that points could be gifted to someone with a Southwest account only.

I knew someone who might use the points soon, got their number and clicked “continue”.

The next screen was asking for credit card info.

What?

$20 to transfer or $55 to “gift”.

Really, Southwest?

I HAD to know how much the points were worth so I made up a trip from Houstin to New Orleans. RT should be about $200.

20,000 POINTS!?

What is the dollar value?
2,000 points is worth about $30

$30.

That’s insane.

I looked into redeeming it other ways but they all led to promoting a Southwest Credit Card.

I explained this to my husband who reads everything in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep. I keep current on the “news” with buzzfeed.com and the reports of alligators on the local news.

He happened to know why the point system changed 2 years ago.

It had to do with elaborate accounting, stock prices and probably Bengazi or Bitcoin.

I was eyeing the olives he just brought home…

“yes, oh, mm hmm…”

olives.

I don’t understand points and I’m not about to start reading Drudge anytime soon. It stresses me out. Oprah gave me a pass on the no news thing years ago.

The value of points is arbitrary and changes on a whim. I can fly to Beijing for the same number of points on United as flying to New Orleans from Houston （a 1 hour flight） on Southwest.

No one ever got rich on points.

They’re nice to have if and when they work-it’s more a happy accident than anything else.