{"id":188418,"date":"2025-08-21T14:30:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/21\/southwest-makes-china-airlines-partnership-official-the-points-guy\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:30:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:30:50","slug":"southwest-makes-china-airlines-partnership-official-the-points-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/21\/southwest-makes-china-airlines-partnership-official-the-points-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest makes China Airlines partnership official – The Points Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The date is set: Early next year, travelers will be able to board a Southwest Airlines plane, fly to one city and then catch a connecting flight to Asia. Pretty soon, they’ll be able to book those trips with Southwest Rapid Rewards<\/a> points.<\/p>\n

At a ceremony in Texas on Wednesday, Southwest and Taiwan-based China Airlines made their brand-new partnership<\/a> official, and committed to exploring a deeper loyalty tie-up.<\/p>\n

As of this week, passengers can now book itineraries featuring seamless connections between Southwest and China Airlines.<\/p>\n

Those flights will launch Jan. 19, executives revealed, with five major western U.S. airports serving as the primary gateways: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Ontario International Airport (ONT) in California.<\/p>\n

While the two airlines’ partnership will start as a more limited interline agreement, Southwest Rapid Rewards members will have a lot to gain from it: In the not-too-distant future, members should be able to earn and redeem points on flights to Asia.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Southwest told TPG that it’s accelerating plans to make partner award bookings (and earnings) possible sooner than expected.<\/p>\n

“It’s coming soon, and more partners are coming soon,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said Wednesday while speaking at the company’s Dallas headquarters.<\/p>\n

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Southwest Airlines and China Airlines executives ink an agreement in Dallas. SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Southwest’s new China Airlines partnership<\/h2>\n

The launch of joint Southwest-China Airlines itineraries in January will come roughly 11 months after the carrier began its first-ever international airline partnership with Icelandair<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

Like with Icelandair, this latest tie-up will start smaller.<\/p>\n

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From the outset, you can go to China Airlines’ website and book a trip featuring flights on both carriers.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example trip I plugged in: You’d start with a Southwest flight from Dallas Love Field (DAL) to LAX before boarding a China Airlines Airbus A350 for the transpacific flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE).<\/p>\n

Within the next several weeks, you’ll be able to book similar itineraries through certain third-party booking sites, which could include sites like Expedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, when Southwest finishes tech work to get its booking systems fully ready for partnerships, it’ll start offering these bookings (and award redemptions soon after) through its website and mobile app.<\/p>\n

Related: Southwest Airlines’ ‘variable’ Rapid Rewards redemption rates take effect<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Growing global reach expected \u2014 and quickly<\/h2>\n

Once that groundwork is in place, the airline expects its list of international airline partners to grow at a much faster pace, executives said Wednesday. This should lead to many more places around the world you can fly to on Southwest points.<\/p>\n

“Our intent is to build a very viable partner network quickly,” Jordan said. “We intend to build a partner network that can reach the majority of the world \u2014 the majority of, certainly, the destinations our customers want to travel to \u2014 in a manageable period of time.”<\/p>\n

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Southwest Airlines and China Airlines executives stand together Southwest headquarters in Dallas. SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of this is a major shift for Southwest, an airline long known for its largely domestic footprint. Keep in mind, it was only 11 years ago that the carrier launched its first short-haul international service to Mexico and the Caribbean \u2014 and just six years ago that Southwest began Hawaii flights.<\/a><\/p>\n

But recent years have seen long-haul international flights prove to be a boon for the carriers that fly them<\/a> \u2014 and a top reason for customers to prioritize spending on airlines’ lucrative cobranded credit cards in hopes of earning the points<\/a> to reach a far-flung destination in Europe, Asia or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Southwest hopes its new (and future) network of partners helps it tap into that wave, making its Rapid Rewards program and revamped credit card lineup<\/a> more attractive to big-spending customers.<\/p>\n

Booking assigned seats on Southwest: Here’s what to know<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 at Baltimore\/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What about Southwest-operated long-haul flights?<\/h3>\n

Yet the airline also seems increasingly open to the idea of someday flying its own long-haul routes. Jordan first broached the subject<\/a> during public remarks in May, noting then that longer flights “could require that you think about a different aircraft” than Southwest’s all-Boeing 737 fleet.<\/p>\n

He was similarly coy on the subject on Wednesday, citing a need to meet customer demand.<\/p>\n

“If we can’t get you there, they’re going to fly somebody else,” he said. “It’s important that we develop a partner network, and at the same time work on our own capabilities at Southwest to fly other geographies.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at a time when premium seats and airport lounges have proven to be a top selling point for top competitors, Jordan also made his latest suggestion that Southwest may eventually offer a spiffier seat than the extra-legroom rows it’s planning to debut<\/a> alongside assigned seating in January.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been very open about this,” he said. “As we look at things like, ‘Do our customers want even more premium? Do they want a lounge network?’ \u2014 as an example only \u2014 then we must explore those things. Otherwise, our customers will go and fly someone else.”<\/p>\n

Related reading:<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The date is set: Early next year, travelers will be able to board a Southwest Airlines plane, fly to one city and then catch a connecting flight to Asia. Pretty soon, they’ll be able to book those trips with Southwest Rapid Rewards points. At a ceremony in Texas on Wednesday, Southwest and Taiwan-based China Airlines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":188419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-188418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}