Southwest Airlines Adds Best Western Hotels as New Preferred Partner to the Carrier’s Frequent Flyer Program

by Jarkko on February 25, 2009

: Image via Wikipedia

What do you get when you put an internationally known hotel chain, a comfy Southwest Airlines airplane, and great Customer Service together? A new Rapid Rewards partnership between Best Western Hotels and Southwest Airlines! The Rapid Rewards program has added “The World’s Largest Hotel Chain®” as the newest preferred hotel partner. Members are now able to earn Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credits redeemable for free flights anywhere the airline flies. Best Western Rewards(SM) members have the option to earn half of one Rapid Rewards credit for each stay at any of the more than 4,000 Best Western hotels worldwide.

Southwest Airlines announced this yesterday as a press release. My personal opinion about this Best Western chain is slightly different. Where I’m from, Best Westerns are usually the very last hotel chain where people want to stay. They don’t feel like hotels but more like hostels. Normally not very well cleaned, average food, below average customer service… So if I need the referral program for hotel stays, I would rather go with SAS and with their hotels, SAS Radions.