Earn Up to 60K Points With a New Southwest Credit Card!

Despite Southwest being in the news recently for its big, negative changes, the airline's suite of co-branded credit cards is still worth your attention … maybe now, more than ever.

Carrying a co-branded card is the easiest way to get a free checked bag when flying with Southwest. With the current offers, you can earn up to 60,000 Rapid Rewards points (depending on which card you choose) after meeting the minimum spending requirement.

Better yet, the sign-up bonus from any of these cards will count toward the 135,000 points needed to qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass. What's the Southwest Companion Pass? Oh, just one of the best deals in all of travel – and the timing of these bigger bonuses could allow you to earn it for nearly two full years – more on that later.

With the Southwest Companion Pass, you get to choose one person to fly free with you every time you buy a flight or redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards points. No blackout dates and no questions asked: If the flight is bookable, you can add your companion. Considering you get another 10,000 Companion Pass-qualifying points just for having a Southwest Card, you'd only need an additional 40,000 points to unlock more than a year of BOGO flights with Southwest.

Beyond the bonus points and opportunity to get closer to a coveted Companion Pass, these cards come with other benefits like anniversary bonus points, early bird check-ins, upgraded boardings, and a discount on in-flight purchases.

Keep reading for everything you need to know about these Southwest credit card offers.

The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card

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• Anniversary Bonus: On your cardmember anniversary, you will receive 3,000 Rapid Rewards points each year.
• Earn 2x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar spent on Southwest Airlines purchases.
• Earn 2x Rapid Rewards Points on the first $5,000 in combined spend at gas stations and grocery stores each anniversary year
• Earn 1x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar on all other spending on the card.
• Free checked bag: Cardmembers and up to eight additional passengers on the same reservation can check their first bag for free.
• Complimentary seat selection: Select a Standard seat within 48 hours of departure, when available.
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to eight passengers on the same reservation will board with Group 5, giving you earlier access to overhead bins.
• 10% Flight discount: Receive a 10% promo code each year on your cardmember anniversary (excludes basic fares).
• No foreign transaction fees
• Annual Fee: $99 

Learn more about the *sw plus*.

The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card

• Earn 55,000 bonus points after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Anniversary Bonus: Each year, on your cardmember anniversary, you will receive 6,000 Rapid Rewards points.
• Earn 3x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar spent on Southwest Airlines purchases.
• Earn 2x Rapid Rewards Points on the first $8,000 in combined spend at restaurants and grocery stores each anniversary year
• Earn 1x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar on all other spending on the card.
• Free checked bag: Cardmembers and up to eight additional passengers on the same reservation can check their first bag for free.
• Complimentary seat selection: Select a Standard or Preferred seat within 48 hours of departure, when available.
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to eight passengers on the same reservation will board with Group 5, giving you earlier access to overhead bins.
• Spend your way to A-List status: Earn 1,500 tier qualifying points (TQPs) toward A-List status for every $5,000 spent in purchases annually, accelerating your way to A-List status.
• 15% Flight discount: Receive a 10% promo code each year on your cardmember anniversary (excludes basic fares).
• No foreign transaction fees
• Annual Fee: $149 

Learn more about the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card (for full disclosure, this is not an affiliate link).

The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card

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• Anniversary Bonus: On your cardmember anniversary, you will receive 7,500 Rapid Rewards points each year.
• Earn 4x Rapid Rewards Points (was 3x) per dollar spent on Southwest Airlines purchases.
• Earn 2x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar spent at gas stations and restaurants each anniversary year.
• Earn 1x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar on all other spending on the card.
• Free checked bag: Cardmembers and up to eight additional passengers on the same reservation can check their first bag for free.
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to eight passengers on the same reservation will board with Group 5, giving you earlier access to overhead bins.
• Complimentary Preferred seat selection: Enjoy unlimited upgrades to an Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours of departure, when available.
• Spend your way to A-List status: Earn 2,500 tier qualifying points (TQPs) toward A-List status for every $5,000 spent in purchases annually, accelerating your way to A-List status.
• No foreign transaction fees
• Annual Fee: $229

Learn more about the *sw priority*.

Easy Path to BOGO Flights

You won't find a better deal in the world of travel than the Southwest Companion Pass: an unlimited buy-one, get-one flight pass. Even after Southwest (slightly) increased the points needed to qualify for the Companion Pass, we're still singing its praises.

Typically, the Southwest Companion Pass requires you to earn 135,000 qualifying Southwest Rapid Rewards points … or fly 100 one-way revenue flights in a calendar year.

Considering Rapid Rewards points earned through a sign-up bonus count towards the Companion Pass, you'd only need to earn an additional 50,000 points by the end of the year. But it's even less than that: Since all Southwest credit cardholders get a 10,000-point Companion Pass boost just for having a card, you'll really only need to earn an additional 40,000 points to get that coveted Companion Pass.

Once you earn all the points you need, you get your Companion Pass for the rest of the year and the entire following year. That means with the end of the year quickly approaching, now isn't the best time to earn it. But if you time your application right, there's a way to earn the sign-up bonus at the very beginning of 2026 and then have the remainder of the year to earn the additional 40,000 points needed.

Unfortunately, you can't simply open a second Southwest personal card to get the remaining points – Chase only allows you to hold one version of their personal cards at a time. And you can't simply cancel one card and open another, either: Timing and restrictions on how often you can earn bonuses mean that won't work.

But you can easily bridge this gap with the *SW Performance Biz* and its current offer: bonus_miles_full

Worried about whether or not you'll qualify for a business credit card? You might be surprised to learn just what the banks consider a small business. Odds are if you've got any sort of side hustle, do consulting work, or even just buy and sell items on eBay or Facebook Marketplace, your business would qualify.

Otherwise, you could earn the remaining points you need the harder way: Simply flying with Southwest. You'll earn at least 2x points for every $1 you spend on the cheapest Southwest “Basic” fares or up to 14x points on the priciest Business Select tickets. But you'll need to do that flying as early as possible in 2026 to get maximum value out of your Companion Pass.

Finally, you'll also earn more Companion Pass points (and Rapid Rewards) for every $1 you spend on your Southwest credit card. If you're a big spender or have major purchase like a home renovation slated for early 2026, it wouldn't take more than a few months to earn the remaining points needed.

If you don't go with the tandem of a business Southwest card, some combination of earning this big bonus, spending more on your card, and flying with Southwest could be enough to get you a Companion Pass for nearly two full years.

What to Know Before You Apply

There are some considerations to work through before you apply. And the first comes down to whether you're even eligible to open one of these Chase Southwest cards.

Chase only lets you hold one Southwest personal credit card at a time. That means if you already have one Southwest credit card open, you will not be approved for a second card. But there's nothing to stop your favorite travel buddy from picking one up … unless they already have one.

On top of that, these welcome bonuses are not available if you have earned a welcome bonus on any of the three Southwest Airlines personal credit cards in the past 24 months (two years).

And of course, these cards are also subjected to the dreaded Chase 5/24 rule, so getting approved for one of these cards may be difficult depending on how many credit cards (from any bank, not just Chase) you’ve opened in the last 24 months.

If you've opened five or more credit cards with any bank in that time span, you will not be approved for Chase credit cards, regardless of your credit score or history with Chase.

But if you are eligible, these Southwest credit cards are among the best credit cards you can get if you are under the Chase 5/24 rule. 

Pair with a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve

All three of these Southwest credit cards make great companions to either the *csr* or the *csp*. That’s because Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be instantly transferred to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account on a 1:1 basis, meaning 1,000 Chase points get you 1,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points. 

Learn more about the *csp*.

Learn more about the *csr*.

Bottom Line

Chase and Southwest are out with bonus offers allowing you to earn up to 60,000 Rapid Rewards points after you meet the minimum spending requirement on Southwest's trio of personal credit cards.

What's more, these big bonuses count toward the 135,000 points needed to earn Southwest's coveted Companion Pass … clearing an easy(ish) path to nearly two years of BOGO flights.