Earn up to 40,000 points when you sign up for a Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card

Chase offers sign-up bonuses for its co-branded Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards: the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card and Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card. With all these cards, you stand to earn 40,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months.

Along with sign-up bonuses, these Southwest credit cards offer several other opportunities to earn Southwest points. Read on to learn more about these cards, the best ways to use their bonuses and more.

Which Southwest card is best in the first year?

Comparing Southwest Rapid Rewards cards

Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card	Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card	Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card
Rewards rate 2X points on Southwest purchases 2X points on local transit, commuting (including rideshare), internet, cable, phone services and select streaming	Rewards rate 3X points on Southwest purchases 2X points on local transit, commuting (including rideshare), internet, cable, phone services and select streaming 1X points on all other purchases	Rewards rate 3X points on Southwest purchases 2X points on local transit, commuting (including rideshare), internet, cable, phone services and select streaming 1X points on all other purchases
Sign-up bonus Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the 3 months	Sign-up bonus Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the 3 months	Sign-up bonus Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the 3 months
Annual fee $69	Annual fee $99	Annual fee $149

In addition to new bonus categories, both the Rewards Plus and Premier offer two EarlyBird check-ins per year. Further, the Priority card has added an annual $75 Southwest travel credit and up to four upgraded boardings per year, when available.

Account anniversary bonuses

The Priority card offers 7,500 bonus points each year on your account anniversary, while the Premier card offers 6,000 bonus points and the Plus card offers 3,000 bonus points.

We value each Rapid Rewards point at 1.6 cents – making the Priority card’s annual bonus worth approximately $120 and the Premier card’s bonus worth $96, practically covering the cards’ annual fees. The Plus card’s annual bonus, on the other hand, is valued at $48.

Value of Southwest cards’ bonuses

Southwest Premier card recent changes

Southwest Priority card recent changes

As you can see, the current Plus, Premier and Priority sign-up bonuses are sitting at a lower mark than they’ve previously been.

Who is eligible for the sign-up bonus?

The Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus, Premier and Priority sign-up bonuses are only available to new cardholders who have not received a new cardholder bonus for Southwest cards in the past 24 months.

Also, Chase allows you to own only one consumer Southwest card at a time, so if you have the Priority card, for instance, you are not eligible for the bonus if you are already a Southwest Premier or Plus cardholder. Current cardholders may be eligible to upgrade to the Priority card – you just won’t be able to receive the new cardholder bonus.

Of course, you have to qualify for the cards first, which means you’ll need a credit score in the good-to-excellent range (above 670).

Chase doesn’t appear to have a hard limit on how many cards you own, though it may deny your application if you have too large of a credit limit across your other Chase cards. Also, while there is no strict rule on how many Chase cards you can apply for within a certain time frame, many applicants report a limit of one to two new cards per month.

Chase has recently come down hard on applicants who open many accounts at once. Though it’s not an official policy, Chase has a “5/24” rule on new credit card applications. What this means: If you’ve opened at least five credit card accounts in the past 24 months with any issuer (not just Chase), your application will likely be denied. The rule seems to apply to any credit card account that shows up on your credit report, including co-branded store cards and authorized user accounts.

On the plus side, business credit cards that don’t report to your personal credit report do not affect your chances of being approved. Therefore, if you apply for one of the Southwest Rapid Rewards cards along with a Southwest Business card, you may have a better chance of being approved for both cards and receiving their sign-up bonuses.

Best way to use the Southwest Rapid Rewards cards’ sign-up bonus

While the Southwest cards offer a few different redemption options, airfare is by far the best option. Southwest has three fare tiers: Wanna Get Away, Anytime and Business Select – with Wanna Get Away fares providing the best value.

The value per point varies by flight, but it averages around 1.6 cents per point for a Wanna Get Away fare. You can get even higher values if you are flexible, shop carefully for your ticket and buy your ticket far in advance while the best-priced fares are still available. Business Select fares have a poor value (less than 1 cent per point on average). Note that the points cover the base fare and do not include taxes and fees.

Through the More Rewards site, you have even more redemption options, including gift cards, cruises, car rentals, hotels and merchandise. All of these have a poor value, with hotels by far the worst at a mere 0.2 cents per point. Your best option on the More Rewards site is gift cards, which are worth 1 cent per point when you buy them in $100 increments or larger. However, if you want to get the most out of your bonus points, you should stick to redeeming them for airfare.

Southwest Rapid Rewards redemption options

An extra 100,000 bonus points per year

In addition to a sign-up bonus, the Southwest Rapid Rewards cards offer a referral bonus worth up to 100,000 points each year.

Chase’s “Refer-a-Friend” program gives Southwest cardholders 20,000 bonus points for each person they refer who is approved for the Southwest card and applies by Jun. 30, 2022 – up to five people per year. To take part in the promotion, enter your last name, ZIP code and the last four digits of your credit card number on Chase’s Refer-a-Friend page. On the following page, enter the first name and email address of each person you wish to invite. You also have the option to post an invitation link to Facebook or Twitter or refer friends through the Chase app.

Should you apply for a Southwest card now?

The current sign-up bonuses on the Southwest Rapid Rewards cards are nothing remarkable, sitting at the lower end of the bonuses we’ve seen in the past.

If you decide to hold off on applying for a Southwest Plus, Premier or Priority card, you can still earn points in the meantime. By becoming a Rapid Rewards member, you can earn points when you fly with Southwest Airlines, stay at a partner hotel, dine at participating restaurants, shop through the Rapid Rewards shopping portal and more.

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