Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card sign-up bonus: 50k Rapid Rewards points

October 10, 2024: The limited-time offers on all of the Southwest credit cards have ended and the personal credit cards are now down to their business-as-usual offers, including the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card.

Here’s the best available sign-up bonus on the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card:

Annual fee: annual_fees

Best sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full

Learn how to apply.

This bonus is earned as Southwest Rapid Rewards points.

Our take: Best value card for Southwest flyers, not great timing for companion pass

50,000 points is the standard welcome offer on the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card. Most of the Southwest credit cards offer an increased limited-time offer at least a few times a year. The increased offer generally comes with an increased spending requirement ($3,000 vs $1,000) so consider that if you don’t spend at least $1,000 a month on credit cards naturally.

The best value for Southwest flyers: Anniversary points and Southwest travel credit

Despite having the highest annual fee of all of the Southwest personal credit cards, we think that the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card offers the best value for Southwest flyers.

Here’s why: You’ll easily get back value in excess of the annual fee from the anniversary points and Southwest travel credit alone, before even considering the cards’ other perks.

With the Priority card, you’ll get a $75 annual Southwest travel credit and 7,500 anniversary bonus points. If you’re spending at least $75 on Southwest flight each year, you should have no problem using the travel credit and you’ll easily get more than $75 worth of flights out of the points. That covers the card’s annual fee (annual_fees) before you even consider any of the other benefits of the card.

In contrast, the lower tiers of the Southwest credit cards don’t offer as many anniversary points relative to their annual fees, which mean that you need to find value in other perks to justify paying those cards’ annual fees.

Companion pass: Not the best time to earn it

One of the best features of a Southwest credit card bonus is that the bonus points count toward earning a companion pass. When you earn a companion pass, you’ll earn it for the remainder of the current calendar year, plus the following calendar year. This makes January the ideal time to earn a companion pass, since you’ll get it for almost two full years.

You’ll get credit for the points you earn when they post to your Southwest account. Unless Chase runs its limited-time offer for an unusually long time, you won’t be able to earn the bonus in January. If your objective is to earn a companion pass for as long as possible through a credit card sign-up bonus, it might be best to wait.

About the card: Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card at a glance

Annual fee: annual_fees
Foreign transaction fee: foreign_transaction_fee

The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card offers consistent value to Southwest flyers thanks to its 7,500 point anniversary bonus and the $75 annual Southwest travel credit you’ll get for having the card.

Sign-up bonus

Best sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full

Learn how to apply.

This bonus is earned as Southwest Rapid Rewards points.

Rewards

• 3x on Southwest purchases
• 2x on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases.
• 2x on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
• 2x on internet, cable, and phone services; select streaming.
• 1x on other purchases.

Rewards are earned as Southwest Rapid Rewards® points.

Benefits

Southwest Airlines benefits

• 25% back on inflight purchases on Southwest.
• 10,000 qualifying point boost toward Companion Pass each year.
• 4 Upgraded Boardings per year when available.
• $75 Southwest annual travel credit.
• Earn 1,500 tier qualifying points towards A-List status for every $5,000 spent annually.

Consumer insurance benefits

• Extended warranty protection.
• Purchase protection.

Travel insurance benefits

• Lost luggage reimbursement.
• Baggage delay insurance.

Partner benefits and statement credits

• One-year complimentary DashPass membership. After your complimentary year, you will be automatically enrolled in DashPass at the current monthly rate. Activate by 12/31/24.

Are you eligible to earn the sign-up bonus?

In most cases, you should be eligible to earn a sign-up bonus if it’s been more than 24 months since you last earned a Southwest credit card sign-up bonus and you do not currently have a Southwest personal credit card.

• You can only have one personal Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Card. Chase will not issue a new personal Southwest credit card if you already hold one.
• You can not have received a Southwest Rapid Rewards® new cardmember bonus in the past 24 months. If you have received a Southwest personal credit card bonus in the past and want to receive a welcome bonus, be sure to apply more than 24 months after you were last awarded a bonus.
• You can earn a bonus on both a business card and a personal credit card. Holding or earning a bonus on a Southwest Rapid Rewards® business credit card doesn’t impact your ability to earn a bonus on a personal credit card.

Here’s the exact language from the bonus terms and conditions:

The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card products.

How to use Southwest Rapid Rewards points

The Southwest Rapid Rewards points you’ll earn with the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card are incredibly easy to use for flights. Here’s what we like best about Rapid Rewards points:

• You’ll get consistent value. On average, you’ll get about 1.3-1.4 cents per point of value from each of your points. (10,000 points can get you a flight with a cash price of around $130-$140.
• Rapid Rewards points don’t expire.
• If you cancel your flight, you get your points back. Any Southwest flight can be canceled up to 10 minutes prior to departure. If the flight was booked with your Rapid Rewards points, the points will be returned to you account.

To use Southwest Rapid Rewards points for flights, simply select “Points” when booking any flight at Southwest.com. You can also toggle between seeing flights priced in dollars and flights priced in points during the booking process.

Frequently asked questions

Read more about the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card