A Great Offer on Southwest Cards

Tl;dr: This is a very good offer on three very solid cards if you fly Southwest occasionally. 

If you’re one the few people still flying domestically, the new welcome offer on Southwest Airlines’ co-branded credit cards should be eye-catching. New applicants can earn 75,000 Rapid Rewards points after spending $3,000 in the first three months after opening any of their three Chase co-branded cards. That’s good enough for quite a lot of free flights, and if you can handle SWA’s (in)famous boarding process, now might be a great time to pick up one of these cards. 

This bonus is really good.

NerdWallet estimates that 75,000 points are worth $1,125, which sounds about right to me. With a 3-minute search of Southwest.com, I saw that 75,000 points would easily get me from the Bay Area to Portland or Denver five times, or to the east coast three times. Round trip. That’s a very healthy number of free flights. 

Big offers are not foreign to the Southwest cards. They have previously offered the Companion Pass for a year as part of a credit card offer, allowing cardholders to bring a friend or loved one along on their flights for just a few dollars in fees (even if you booked with points!). 

Those who regularly fly domestically with a travel companion may want to hold out to see if that offer comes back around, but for most people the 75,000 points–which never expire–will be more appealing. 

The cards are also good.

The legacy airlines offer credit cards that charge annual fees of roughly $100 and come with two major perks: a free checked bag and priority boarding. (See our airline card comparison tool for reference.) Southwest cannot offer those perks because it already offers two free checked bags for all travelers and it has that unique boarding process. 

So it offers its cardholders something better: actual value. The $69-fee Plus card earns cardholders 3,000 points (worth about $45) each year on renewal, the $99-fee Premier card gets 6,000 points (~$90), and the $149-fee Priority card offers 7,500 points (~$112) and a $75 travel credit with Southwest. (You can compare the cards here.) The cards also sport some limited benefits for boarding and the two higher-tier cards can help you earn higher status with the airline.

The earning rates on these cards are unspectacular (2-3x on Southwest purchases, 2x on cars and hotels booked through SWA, 2x on local transit and rideshare, and 2x on cable, internet, phone, and select streaming, and 1x on everything else), although they are better than most airline cards. Still, it would make little sense to use this card for day-to-day purchases. Chase Sapphire cards, for example, tend to earn Ultimate Rewards points at similar or better rates, and can not only be used as Southwest Rapid Rewards points but also flexibly in any number of other ways. Those who are not ultra-frequent Southwest flyers will be better served with other cards that earn rewards at a much faster clip. 

There are some drawbacks

The most obvious downside of these cards is that you will have to fly Southwest to get any value from them. While Southwest is beloved by many, their boarding process can be stressful and is ill-suited to lazy, busy, or forgetful travelers who can’t check in exactly 24 hours before their flight. The early check-ins or boarding group upgrades help with that… but only for one or two round-trips per year.

The main reason I haven’t flown Southwest in over a decade, though, is because their flights do not appear in a Google Flights search and their own booking platform isn’t terribly user-friendly. I have searched the site occasionally but have never seen prices that compelled me to book with Southwest. The added hassle of booking is another reason I rarely even consider, much less book, Southwest flights.

Another drawback to these cards is that, unlike most other airlines’ credit card portfolios, Southwest doesn’t have a no-fee card available, meaning you will have to cancel your account entirely if you ever decide you don’t want to continue paying the annual fee, something that might damage your credit score.

Conclusion

Happy Southwest fliers (who are under 5/24) should strongly consider jumping on this great offer, and even those who are new to the airline should think long and hard about it. I shudder at my memories of trying to board Southwest flights, but I am seriously considering picking up the Premier card. This is an excellent welcome offer, and the chance to get it on a card whose annual fee almost pays for itself in points may be too good to pass up.