(EXPIRED) New Southwest 50K offers on both Plus & Premier

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Update: Unfortunately, it seems that the 50K offer on the Premier has died. The Plus link for 50K points continues to work, but the best offer available on the Premier is once again 40K after $1K spend. See our Best Offers page for links.

Update #2 (1/8/18): There is a new working link for the 50K Premier card. See more information about this link under the Premier card below.

Last fall, there were big offers on the Southwest Airlines Credit Cards. However, those offers expired in October and the signup bonus on the personal cards (both Plus and Premier) were dropped to just 40K points after $1K spend (though the business version has maintained a 60K signup bonus). As of the first of the year, the signup bonuses on both the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus and Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier (update: see note above) cards are back up to 50,000 Rapid Rewards points after $2,000 spend. More information on these offers and how to find them below.

Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus

a blue and white background with white text

The Offer

Key Card Details

  • $69 annual fee is not waived
  • 3,000 bonus points after your cardmember anniversary
  • Earn 2X Southwest
  • Earn 1X on all other purchases

Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier

a credit card on a beach

The Offer

  • Earn 50,000 Rapid Rewards points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months
  • Note that this offer is from a referral link. When you click the offer link (from our Best Offers page or the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier card page, it shows a pop-up saying the offer is expired and you will be redirected to the current offer. After it redirects, you should see this 50K offer) Update: See our note at the top of this post. This offer has expired.
  • Update #2 (1/8/18): A new working link for 50,000 Rapid Rewards points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months has been added to our Best Offers page. Note that the landing page clearly shows the signup bonus, the Premier card image, and the $99 annual fee. Some users on reddit reported seeing an image of the Plus card after hitting “submit” on the final step of the application, but those users later reported approval for the Premier card as expected. It’s always a good idea to take a screen shot of the offer under which you apply.

Key Card Details

  • $99 annual fee is not waived
  • 6,000 points after your cardmember anniversary
  • Earn 2X Southwest
  • Earn 1X on all other purchases

Quick Thoughts

Both cards are known to be subject to the Chase 5/24 rule. This means that if you have opened 5 or more personal credit cards from any issuer in the past 24 months (including Authorized User cards), you are unlikely to be approved. Note that some people have reported successfully convincing a recon agent not to count authorized user cards if you have no responsibility in repaying the debt on them, but the computer system will count them and decline your application initially.

January 2017 Month in Review

For those under 5/24, these offers make the most sense if you are seeking a Southwest Companion Pass. For those unfamiliar, you can earn a Southwest Companion Pass when you earn 110,000 or more Southwest Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year. The Companion Pass benefit allows the holder to bring a companion for free (paying only the taxes) an unlimited number of times throughout the validity of the pass. The Companion Pass is valid for the rest of the year in which it is earned and the entire following year. This means that if you signed up for one of these cards and the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business card, which is currently offering 60K points for $3K spend, and met the minimum spending requirements, you would earn a companion pass good until December 31st, 2019. See our Complete Guide to the Southwest Companion Pass for more details on how the pass works. Alternatively, you could sign up for both personal cards and after minimum spend you would only need to earn an additional 6,000 Rapid Rewards points (either through spend, the shopping portal, referrals, etc) in order to reach 110K.

This year is a particularly good time to earn the Southwest Companion Pass as Southwest has announced their intention to begin selling tickets to Hawaii this year (See: Southwest to Hawaii: get your Companion Passes ready). Earning the Companion Pass now means that you should probably have a valid pass when they begin operations to Hawaii.

If you have signed up for one of these personal cards in the past 90 days under a lesser offer, you may be able to get Chase to match the offer. Many have reported success in the past by sending a secure message. YMMV.

As always, links to these offers have been added to our Best Credit Card Offers page.

H/T: Reddit for the Plus offer link

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[…] New Southwest 50K offers on both Plus & Premier […]

mo

I stand at 4/24. Can i get approved for BOTH SW personal cards at the same time? Or will Chase approve one, then deny the other? Seems kinda risky. Thanks

mo

Thanks Nick for the reply. The risk i was concerned with @ 4/24 – Apply for the two SW personals same time, Chase approves whichever first one, so that takes me to 5/24 but then make me ineligible for the other one (because that would make it 6/24). Am i over thinking this situation?

[…] week, we posted a Quick Deal noting that the signup bonuses on both the Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus and […]

Evan

Hello I just hit the minimum $2000 spend on the premier and plus card, both with the 60,000 point bonus. My statement closing dates on the cards are Jan 22 and Jan 24. When would you expect my bonus points to post to my account? I’m hoping it is within a few days of statement closing dates because I wish to use a lot of these points (and the companion pass) on travel in late February.

Also is there any way to book using cash on southwest.com and then switch to points once the points post to my account? If so, are there any fees associated with this?

Evan

Thanks Nick,

When you say ” a week for the points to hit my account” are you saying a week after the close dates? So in my case a week after Jan 24 close date would be approximately Jan 31?

Jeff

OK thanks for the quick response. How difficult is it to get the Business Card?

I don’t really have a side business. Occasionally do some software work on the side and had a couple of rental houses but sold those last year.

Jeff

I got in on the 50K Plus offer on Wednesday before realizing the Premier offer had died.

Really wanted to get the Companion Pass from Southwest.

Should I go ahead with the 40K Premier and make generate the remaining 17K on spend to achieve the Companion pass or wait to see if Chase brings back the 50/60K Premier in the next month or two?

Thoughts?

Sam

Any idea how long these offers will be around? My wife is dropping back down to 4/24 in a month or so.

Thanks.

MM

I know this is off-topic, but since you mention a reason for getting the Marriott card is the free anniversary night, I have wondered at what point do you make the reservation for the free night? And must that be made with a phone call? Do you have a certain amount of time to use the free night? Please point me to an article if you have already explained this. Thank you for your thorough info!

MM

Thank you, Nick. I know you are in countdown for your bambino!

Norman

I’ve used those every year so you just reserve a room in a hotel in the correct category and one of the ways to pay for it is “use your free night certificate”. Reserve room with credit card, use certificate to pay and then you get a message that your free night certificate is being sent to the hotel you chose and will be in their computer already when you go to check-in. Very easy and I’ve never had a problem with it. In fact, as I remember whenever I want to reserve a room on the Marriott website it kind of reminds you that you have an unused free night certificate and “do you want to use this for your stay”? or something similar.

Norman

Would they really approve the Plus and the Premier card at the same time? I would hate to get approved for one and then get denied on the other one and be stuck in no man’s land as far as the companion pass is concerned.

Also I got approved for the SPG card last August, the Amex Platinum in November and my wife received that targeted Citi offer for their Gold AA card with the 55,000 miles + 10,000 miles sign up bonus. If you receive a targeted, direct mail, pre-qualified credit card offer, doesn’t that mean they already looked at our credit report? And does the Platinum charge card fall under the 5/24 rule since it is not a credit card?

Norman

That does help a lot thank you. I do have a good credit score which was 786 on the FICO 8 scale but was over 800 last June. But I have another problem with Chase anyway which is really annoying. I’ve used their Marriott Rewards Visa for years and years now, but I just realized (because I only recently started paying attention to points) that my card only gets 3x points on Marriott stays vs 5 points on the newer Marriott cards. Plus I don’t get anything extra for dining either and since I already have the SPG card which in effect gives me 3 Marriott points on everything I was thinking I should drop the Marriott card and get a new card with the 80,000 point sign up bonus and 5x points like everyone else gets. Or two Southwest cards or the Chase Sapphire Preferred? What is your number one card out of these? Oh and I think I’m at 3/24 because I opened and closed a Barclay Red Aviator card last June that was offered on a flight home from BVI. Right now I fly mostly American Airlines but since St. Louis has no real airline hub, Southwest has almost the entire terminal 2 at Lambert to itself which is pretty nice.
Undecided! Just looking for suggestions as I am all new to this.

Steven

Hi,

If I signed up for Chase Southwest Plus at the end of last year with the 40k points + Companion Pass offer, do you think Chase will still give the extra 10k points if we ask them to match? Actually I don’t mind asking, just worried that they will match and remove the companion pass.

Tim

I am just now finishing the $1000 spend to get the 40K points from last year’s “California one-year Companion Pass” offer; the Companion Pass is already in my account. I now want to sign up for the 60K point Business card.

Will the 40K pts + 60K pts + $10,000 spend allow for me to extend the one-year Companion Pass to two years?

Lana

I also just got the Chase/SW promotion for CA resident with the free companion pass in November with the 40,000 points bonus and just sent a SM to Chase asking if they are willing to match the new promotion, they said yes 🙂
Thanks Nick

Tim

Hi Lana,

Did Chase say they will match the 50K points with the original $1,000 spend, or will you need to spend $2,000? Also, are you retaining the Companion Pass?

Lana

Hi Tim, Chase said they will match the 50,000 bonus points if I spend $2000 and still able to keep the companion pass

Tim

Lana, I appreciate the information.

Nicole

What’s the recommendation on timing the applications if I decide to open BOTH personal cards (or) a personal & business card? Same day applications? A week apart? Thanks.

Nicole

Oops, sorry Nick. Just saw your answer to Izzy…

MM

I thought auth user cards did NOT count towards 5/24 rule??

Izzy

Hey Nick. If my wife is at 4/24, it makes sense to open the business 60k and then the next day open the personal 50k. That should work since 5/24 doesn’t include business, right?