Southwest Affiliate Program

About Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines was founded in 1967 and originally only flew in Texas. Over time, the company grew and began serving flights across America. Today, it also offers international flights.

Southwest’s main airport is Dallas Love Field Airport. The headquarters of the company is also located there. The carrier’s operations are primarily focused on destinations in the United States and North America, such as various US cities, as well as destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Southwest Airlines is one of the most progressive airlines. It was one of the first airlines in the world to switch to e-tickets. This transition period was finally completed in 2004, allowing passengers to check-in for flights on the airline’s website. Today everything is the same and travelers can solve most of their problems online.

Southwest Airlines has used only Boeing planes since its founding. Today, the carrier’s fleet consists of Boeing-737s of various modifications. However, due to the ban on the new Boeing 737 MAX in 2019, airline management has announced possible use of other aircraft brands.

Southwest is the only airline in the world that does not charge passengers to change tickets. If the passenger needs to change their travel date, they only have to pay the price difference (if any). On the company’s advertising posters, you can see the inscription: “At Southwest, wages are a four letter word.” This is one of the most frequently mentioned benefits in customers’ reviews of the airline.

How Does the Southwest Affiliate Program Work?

The Southwest affiliate program allows affiliates to earn money by selling airline tickets. Southwest shares 2% of the cost of each ticket sold because of you. To win tickets, you must follow the steps below:

• Sign up with Southwest through one of their affiliate networks
• Get affiliate tools
• Embed tools on your website or share them with your audience

After that, when your audience purchases a Southwest flight, you earn a commission. The airline doesn’t pay for anything other than ad impressions, clicks or actual ticket sales.

There are two ways to earn money on Southwest flights:

• Join the airline’s affiliate program
• Join affiliate programs of flight engines or airline aggregators

Since Southwest is featured on most aggregators, the easiest way to connect with the program is through the aggregator’s affiliate program.

Southwest’s in-house affiliate program is suitable for affiliates whose traffic is highly associated with the brand. For example, if your target audience is looking for coupons for flights to the Southwest or is just looking for cheap tickets (for example, from the US to Mexico), it is often more profitable to offer tools to compare prices for all airlines, not just the Southwest. In this case, working through an aggregator may be a more profitable approach.

Affiliate Program Terms

A flat commission for the sale of airline tickets is not common, but still available in the Cheaptickets and Airfordable affiliate programs.

The Southwest affiliate program is only available through affiliate networks such as Flex Offers and others. Payments are made, depending on a particular affiliate network, as a rule, within a month after reaching the minimum amount.

Southwest receives traffic from all over the world, but the airline’s main market is the USA. Therefore, partners with traffic from this location are a priority for the brand.

The types of traffic allowed include a number of resources in addition to travel blogs. However, the brand prohibits certain types of paid advertising and other marketing activities. Therefore, before connecting, study the current traffic rules.

Benefits of Joining the Southwest Affiliate Program

• Southwest is one of the most recognizable travel brands in the USA, which is a huge bonus for you. You can offer tickets for Southwest flights to your target audience through the official website and be sure that most of your visitors will be familiar with the company.
• The brand accepts traffic from different regions and different traffic sources. So even if you don’t have a travel blog or your traffic isn’t from the United States, you can still join the affiliate program. However, your target audience should be interested in US flights. Otherwise, it will be nearly impossible to monetize Southwest flights, as the brand only offers commissions on purchases.
• 2% is a fair commission rate for a low cost airline. Some low-cost competitors do not pay any commissions as they are not included in the cost of airline tickets.
• Southwest’s airfares are starting to be lower than its competitors, and its flight coverage is broad enough to appeal to a wide audience.

Southwest Affiliate Program Review

In their Southwest Airlines affiliate program reviews, partners often point out that it’s rare for a low-cost airline to share revenue with its partners. Therefore, the Southwest is a welcome exception. Even considering that 2% is just an average rate, the presence of any commission for a low-cost carrier is a huge advantage of the program.

The Southwest affiliate program is suitable for a limited number of partners as it limits viewers to flights from one brand only. Your target audience will likely be able to find the best tickets by comparing prices on different airlines. It’s rare for a customer to be satisfied with only one airline’s price comparison, so only offering Southwest flights can be the wrong marketing strategy.

Working with Southwest through an aggregator can be more profitable for both you and your target audience, given that the prices for Southwest flights on aggregators are often exactly the same as on the official website. Your target audience will get a tool to compare the costs of different airlines and you will definitely see a higher conversion.