Southwest Has Ruined One of The Best Things About Them

Southwest Airlines has overhauled their frequent flyer program. It's so simple, it takes 3 YouTube videos to explain it.

Without writing something the length of a doctoral thesis on the details, let me see if I can explain it. In the old system,
   1 flight = 1 point. 8 round trips = 16 points = 1 free flight.
Done. That's it.

The new system is as convoluted as it is terrible. First of all everything's different for different fare tiers, of which there are three. For the cheapest fare:
  1 flight to Location A_x = x points
  20x points = 10 round trips = 1 free flight to Location A_x
  Now assume x > y.
  1 flight to Location B_y = y points
  1 free flight to Location A_x > 10y points

You would have to fly more times to Location B_y to get a free flight to Location A_x. And who knows if the flight back from Location A_x is the same as the flight there?

Oh, and mind you, x and y aren't low, simple numbers. They're in the thousands so they're harder for people to wrap their head around.

Now the numbers above are different for different fares, which I assume they did to get more people to fly business class (which just means you board earlier). Why not instead just make business class flights worth 3 points for round trips then and make the free flights cost more points if you want the higher fares?

The only plus side is that your points don't expire. That's good because if they did, they'd be gone by the time you figured out where the hell you can fly for free.

What's next? Baggage fees? I think this is the beginning of the end for Southwest.