Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier
At a glance
- Bonus
- 55,000 pointsSouthwest Rapid RewardsEst. $660+ value
- To earn it
- Spend $1,500 in 3 months
- Annual fee
- $149 annual fee
- Apply by
- No public end date stated
Terms and eligibility can change. Confirm the details with the issuer before you apply.
Credits and perks
Most used first. Tick what you don't need and the math leaves it out. Full terms are on the issuer's site.
What the bonus is worth
Est. $660+ value
55,000 points × 1.2¢
Southwest Rapid Rewards points have no fixed cash rate, so the floor is the low end of what points sites say they're worth: $660 at 1.2¢ per point. Good redemptions reach 1.4¢ per point.
What points sites say: 1.2¢ to 1.4¢ per point
Third-party valuations: what points sites estimate points are worth on average, not a cash value or an issuer promise. Your value depends on how you redeem.
Estimate as of Oct 17, 2026.
Biggest catches
- Chase 5/24. Chase generally denies people who opened 5 or more cards from any issuer in the last 24 months, and authorized-user cards count. Southwest cards are a poor use of a slot if you still want Sapphire or Ink cards. doctorofcredit.com (third-party)
- One Southwest personal card at a time, 24 months between bonuses. You can't get the Plus, Premier or Priority while holding any Southwest personal card, or if you earned a bonus on one in the last 24 months. Picking one blocks the other two. creditcards.chase.com
- Cash-like charges don't count toward the bonus. Balance transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, money orders, foreign currency and fees are not purchases. Only real purchases count toward the spend. creditcards.chase.com
- Points not yet sent to Southwest are lost if you close early. Card points move to Rapid Rewards only after each billing cycle. If the account closes or changes status first, points not yet transferred are gone, so wait for the last statement's points to post before cancelling. creditcards.chase.com
- The card's Companion Pass boost ends with 2026. Chase still lists a yearly 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying point boost, but Southwest retires those points after Dec. 31, 2026, when the pass moves to status earned with Tier Qualifying Points. Don't count on the boost for a 2027 pass. southwest.com
- Bonus posts 6 to 8 weeks after the spend. The bonus can take weeks to reach Rapid Rewards after you hit the spend. That matters a lot this year if you are racing the Companion Pass cutoff. creditcards.chase.com
Third-party report; not confirmed in the official offer terms we could retrieve. Details may be outdated or channel-specific. Verify the offer shown by the issuer before applying.
YMMV: approval and bonus eligibility are the issuer's decision.
Sensei's move
Last call: Companion Pass from a card bonus (approve by Dec. 2, 2026)
Southwest says cardmembers approved for a Rapid Rewards card on or before Dec. 2, 2026 who meet the welcome-bonus requirements can have those bonus points count as Companion Pass qualifying points, even if the spend is met in early 2027. A pass earned under the current rules gives unlimited companion trips through Dec. 31, 2027. From Jan. 1, 2027, welcome bonuses, anniversary points and category bonus points stop counting, and the unlimited pass needs Platinum status (140,000 TQPs or 100 qualifying flights). After Dec. 2 this card's 55,000-point bonus no longer helps toward a pass.
Still works as of Oct 17, 2026 · southwest.com
Pair a personal Southwest card with the Performance Business
The classic two-card play is one personal Southwest card plus the business card to clear the 135,000 qualifying points in one go; Chase's personal-card family rule explicitly does not apply to the business card. Premier (55,000) plus Performance Business (80,000) is 135,000 on bonuses alone, before the yearly boost and ordinary spend. It only works for approvals by Dec. 2, 2026, and only if Southwest counts the points toward a 2026 pass (see gaps).
Still works as of Oct 17, 2026 · 10xtravel.com (third-party)
From 2027 every Southwest card earns 1 TQP per $1
Southwest says that starting in 2027 you earn 1 Tier Qualifying Point for each $1 spent on purchases with a Rapid Rewards card, and TQPs are what earn status and, at Platinum, the Companion Pass. Card spend becomes the main way the card helps toward a pass after the bonus route closes. Whether the Premier, Priority and Performance Business keep their current per-$5,000 TQP bonuses on top isn't stated on the pages we read.
Still works as of Oct 17, 2026 · southwest.com
Third-party report; not confirmed in the official offer terms we could retrieve. Details may be outdated or channel-specific. Verify the offer shown by the issuer before applying.
Sensei's take
55,000 points for $1,500 is a decent bonus, and paired with the Performance Business by Dec. 2, 2026 it reaches the 135,000 qualifying points on bonuses alone. After 2026 that route is gone, and the card is a 5/24 slot that also blocks the Plus and Priority for 24 months. 6,000 anniversary points, a free bag, a preferred seat and a 15% code can justify $149 for someone who flies Southwest several times a year; everyone else should cancel after the bonus and last points transfer.
Our opinion, from the facts on this page as of Oct 17, 2026.
Weighing this card? Put it before the Money Court jury
How today's offer compares
- Today
- 55,000 points
- Highest in 3 years
- 100,000 points
- $4,000 spend in 5 months
- Sep 2025: 100,000 points, reported by Doctor of Credit, highest in 3 years
- Oct 2025: 85,000 points, reported by Doctor of Credit
- May 2026: 85,000 points, reported by Doctor of Credit
- Today: 55,000 points
Today's offer is 45,000 points below the highest public offer in the last 3 years.
Third-party report; not confirmed in the official offer terms we could retrieve. Details may be outdated or channel-specific. Verify the offer shown by the issuer before applying.
Public offers anyone could apply for since Oct 2023, from the bonus-history sources we checked. Whether the first-year fee was waived isn't counted. Targeted and referral offers aren't compared.
Sources
Terms can change. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll recheck it against the provider's page.
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