Unlock 85,000 Bonus Points with Chase’s Southwest Cards: Your Ticket to a Companion Pass!
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Chase’s Southwest consumer credit cards have boosted their initial bonus offer to 85,000 points. That’s most of the way to earning a companion pass, in addition to being one of the most valuable bonuses currently on the market.
If you’re a regular Southwest flyer, consider the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card with 85,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Earn 3X points on Southwest® purchases; Earn 2X points on local transit and commuting, including rideshare; earn 2X points on internet, cable, and phone services; select streaming.
- This $149 annual fee card provides a $75 Southwest® travel credit each year; 25% back on in-flight drinks, WiFi, messaging, and movies; and 4 upgraded boardings per year when available (when A1-15 boarding positions are offered at the gate, buy it and you’ll receive a statement credit for the charge); and 7,500 anniversary points each year.
If you don’t generally fly Southwest, the lower-priced option is the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card which also has an offer to earn 85,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Earn 2X points on Southwest® purchases; Earn 2X points on local transit and commuting, including rideshare; earn 2X points on internet, cable, and phone services; select streaming; Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- You earn 3,000 anniversary points each year, a nice incentive to keep the card. And as with the Priority card all points earned on this $69 annual fee card count towards Companion Pass®.
What I like about Southwest is that they have no change fees, you can use your points even to make a speculative booking. It’s always great to have Southwest points around, even if you book mostly international award tickets. You might need a domestic flight to get to the city your international award ticket leaves from. Or book the Southwest flight, and if award availability opens up to include a domestic flight on your other ticket, great, there’s no change fees. Southwest points are great insurance. They don’t have other fees either like checked bag fees or change fees.
Previously these cards were offering 50,000 bonus points so 85,000 is a huge boost. These offers are advertised as available through June 26, 2024. The Premier card, positioned in the middle of Plus and Priority, has a similar offer but I struggle to see the use case. You’ll get around 1.2 cents apiece towards travel with Southwest points, of course doubled in value if you earn a Companion Pass.
Current cardmembers and those who have received a personal cardmember bonus in the past 24 months are ineligible and presumably 5/24 applies (so if you’ve had 5 or more new cards on your credit report in the last 24 months you’d be ineligible as well).
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
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