Southwest Airlines is known for being one of the most flexible, comfortable, and economical airlines there is, so you may wonder if a Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card is worth it as well?
Today we’re going to take an in-depth look at the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus credit card to find out if it might be worth it for you.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card Perks
Southwest Rapid Rewards cards are fulfilled through Chase.
If you know anything about the credit cards offered directly through Chase, you’ll know Chase offers some of the most comprehensive bonuses and partner programs on the travel credit card market.
The Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card by Chase is no different.
The current perks include:
- Get 75,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.*
- Earn the following points on other purchases:
- 2 points for each dollar spent on Southwest purchases.
- 2 points for each dollar spent on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners.
- 2 points for each dollar spent on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
- 2 points for each dollar spent on internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming.
- 1 point for each dollar spent on all other purchases.
*The bonus points for Southwest Rapids Rewards credit cards fluctuate more than the average travel card. So be sure to check the current bonus offering at the time of application.
Typically, Southwest rolls out new bonus incentives every few months, so if the current bonus offering is on the lower side, take a few months to wait and check back later for a better offer.
Bonus! – Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus
In the Travel Hacking world, the sign-on bonus is where you make the most credit card points.
So it pays to know when is the best time to sign up for a bonus offer.
Since I don’t have a crystal ball to look into the future and see what the marketing team at Southwest is planning, I’ll provide some practical examples from past experience.
The first thing to know is, the Rapid Rewards Plus bonus is unique in how often the sign-on bonus fluctuates, especially compared to other cards.
Timing is everything.
Example
As an example, the first month I planned to sign up for the Southwest card, the bonus was 100,000 points after spending the minimum $5,000 in 3 months.
I failed to sign up by the deadline and missed getting 100,000 points!
This was pretty upsetting since this was the highest bonus offer Southwest had rolled out in a couple of years (thanks to the pandemic).
The bonus reverted back to the average offer of 45,000 points so instead of sign up then, I decided to wait for the next big bonus before signing up.
I didn’t have to wait long, Southwest rolled out an arguably better bonus just 2 months later.
The bonus was 35,000 points (not stellar) AND a promotional Companion Pass (stellar).
This pass was easily worth more than the 65,000 extra points that I missed on the 100,000 point promotion, depending on how I played my cards with using the Companion Pass.
Once you’ve decided to add a Southwest Rapid Rewards card to your collection, it can pay to wait for a larger bonus promotion that will inevitably roll out.
The offer right now, for instance, is an excellent time to sign up. 75,000 points is a sizable bonus!
That’s 30,000 more points more than the average bonus offering of 45,000 points.
What Are Points Worth?
Southwest rapid reward points are worth approximately 1.4 cents per point.
The actual value of rapid rewards points fluctuate based on the flight destination.
This fact makes it a bit more difficult to assign one value across the board.
Most travel sites value the points at 1.5 – 1.7 cents per point.
1.4 cents is the value I received when I booked my husband and I Maui flights.
Compared to other cards, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, points are worth a little more with Southwest Rapid Rewards.
While the points aren’t as flexible as the Chase Sapphire card, they are worth a little bit more.
Chase Sapphire – 1 – 1.25 point value
Southwest Rapid Rewards – 1.4 – 1.7 point value
The Companion Pass
Southwest’s Companion Pass is one of the best travel card promotions in the game.
The Companion Pass allows the pass holder to designate a travel companion who can fly for free (aside from taxes) for a designated amount of time.
Taxes must be paid with cash or credit card and usually run $5.10 per one-way.
The Companion Pass is how I was able to book my husband and I Maui flights for just $22.40.
How long the companion pass lasts depends on how and when you acquire it.
There are three ways you can acquire the Companion pass.
- Promotional Deal
- Flying 50 one way flights with Southwest in a year
- Acquiring 125,000 rapid reward points in a year
Southwest Promotional Companion Pass
Remember how we talked about Southwest running different sign-on bonus deals every couple of months? Lucky for me the very next big promotional bonus Southwest released after the 100,000 sign-on bonus was a promotional companion pass.
This means, all I had to do was sign up and meet the $5,000 spending in 3 months minimum spend to be awarded the companion pass.
It took us right under 3 months to hit the minimum spend by paying for our regular bills plus paying ahead on a few set bills.
The terms of the promotional companion pass depends on the fine print Southwest releases with the deal, so for this particular time, the pass ran from late February 2022 to late February 2023.
Once I received the pass, my husband could fly for free for a little over 10 months.
Traditional Companion Pass
The regular Companion Pass promotion awards one calendar year Jan. – Dec. of the companion pass, but also starts the year you get the pass.
Meaning, if you’re close to hitting your 125,000 points or 100 qualifying flights in August, the pass is awarded then and runs all through the following year.
So if you are able to play your cards right, you can get the regular Companion pass for almost two years.
The taxes the companion is responsible for paying usually amount to $5.60 cents each way. This has to be paid in cash and can’t be erased for points. A small price to pay for a southwest flight.
How to Qualify for the Companion Pass?
Southwest makes it very clear how to qualify for the coveted Companion Pass.
100 Qualifying Flights
If you are a frequent flier for work, etc., the easiest way is to fly 100 one-way flights in a calendar year. That’s 50 round trips in one year.
This is a lot of flights. That’s right under flying once a week for an entire year.
Earn 125,000 Rapid Rewards Points
The other way is to earn 125,000 rapid rewards points in a calendar year.
You can do this by shopping and dining and traveling and paying for home and lifestyle items you were already going to buy.
The main way people hit this amount without having to spend a large sum of money that you weren’t planning to spend is buying things through the Southwest portals. There are promotions that can allow you to get up to 15 points per dollar spent.
It’s just a matter of finding a promo that matches an item you were already planning to buy.
Points Flexibility
While the bonuses and Companion Pass are excellent with the Southwest card, one downside is the flexibility with Southwest points.
The flexibility comes in the way of being able to transfer points to other Chase cards, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which is a great perk, but that’s about where the points flexibility ends.
Southwest points are designed to be used with the airline.
That means no airbnb or Amazon purchases will get you extra points.
There are some travel hotel partners and rental car partners, but it isn’t as vast as some other cards.
Bottom Line
The Southwest Rapid Rewards card is an excellent card for getting free Southwest flights. The Companion Pass is one of the best incentives on the market and the ease of use and points worth is actually higher than most other cards.
This credit card is an excellent choice to add to your wallet if you are a fan of flying Southwest Airlines.
