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The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards are back with bonuses on the personal cards that are good for points plus a promotional companion pass that is valid through 2/28/22. We previously saw a similar bonus last year. While it is certainly possible to get excellent value out of the Companion Pass in normal times, I find these new bonuses to be lukewarm at best and a downgrade over the previous offers. For most people, I think it’s probably worth waiting it out until the end of the year and going for a 2-year Companion Pass in 2022.
The Offers & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
50K points ⓘ Affiliate 50K points after $1K spend in the first 3 months.$69 Annual Fee After clicking through, be sure to manually select the exact Southwest card in which you are interested. This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Recent better offer: 75K after $3K in 3 months [Expired 12/11/23] FM Mini Review: This card can be great for its new cardmember bonus, but its ongoing perks are worth the annual fee only if fully used each year. Earning rate: 2X local transit and commuting, including rideshare ✦ 2X internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming ✦ 2X Southwest Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Chase. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Big spend bonus: If you earn 135,000 points in one calendar year, you'll get a companion pass good for the rest of that calendar year and all of the next year. Noteworthy perks: 3000 bonus points each year upon card renewal. 2 EarlyBird Check-Ins each year. 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year |
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
50K points ⓘ Affiliate 50K points after $1K spend in the first 3 months.$99 Annual Fee This card is known to be subject to Chase's 5/24 rule. Recent better offer: 75K points after $3K spend in the first 3 months. [Expired 12/11/23] FM Mini Review: The combination of 6,000 points plus 2 EarlyBird Checkins each year make this card a keeper for those who fly Southwest often. Earning rate: 3X Southwest ✦ 2X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X local transit and rideshare ✦ 2X internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming ✦ 1X on all other purchases. Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: If you earn 135,000 points in one calendar year, you'll get a companion pass good for the rest of that calendar year and all of the next year ✦ Earn 1,500 TQPs for each $5K in purchases Noteworthy perks: 6000 bonus points each year upon card renewal. 2 EarlyBird Check-Ins each year. 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year ✦ 25% back on in-flight drinks, Wi-Fi, messaging, and movies. |
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
50K points ⓘ Affiliate 50K points after $1K spend in the first 3 months.$149 Annual Fee This card is known to be subject to Chase's 5/24 rule. Recent better offer: 75K points after $3K spend in the first 3 months. [Expired 12/11/23] FM Mini Review: Great for frequent Southwest flyers - this card could easily be a long-term keeper. Earning rate: 3X Southwest ✦ 2X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X local transit and rideshare ✦ 2X internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming ✦ 1X on all other purchases. Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: If you earn 135,000 points in one calendar year, you'll get a companion pass good for the rest of that calendar year and all of the next year ✦ Earn 1,500 TQPs for each $5K in purchases Noteworthy perks: ✦ 7,500 anniversary points each year ✦ $75 Southwest annual travel credit ✦ Four A1-15 boardings every year ✦ 25% back on in-flight drinks, Wi-Fi, messaging, and movies. ✦ 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year |
Quick Thoughts
First of all, keep in mind that these are Chase cards and as such are subject to the 5/24 rule.
| Chase's 5/24 Rule: With most Chase credit cards, Chase will not approve your application if you have opened 5 or more cards with any bank in the past 24 months. To determine your 5/24 status, see: 3 Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely. |
Furthermore, you can only get the bonus on a Southwest personal card if you have not received a bonus on another Southwest personal card in the past 24 months.
A similar offer was available on these cards in January of 2019. At the time (in a clearly different world), I said that the offers were great. Doctor of Credit thought the opposite. Greg compared the arguments for and against these offers here: FM vs DoC: Southwest Companion Pass with 1 Card. A great deal or quite weak?
In the current environment, my opinion is that these offers are comparatively weaker than they were in 2019. The reason for that is two-fold.
First, travel is obviously way down. Most people are likely to do far less travel by plane now than before. When you add in the uncertainty surrounding ever-changing quarantine / isolation / testing requirements, there is a much greater chance of not being able to use the pass as much as you would like this year than in previous years.
At the beginning of this year, I noted that the Companion Pass was still a good deal on paper because it would cost you far fewer points to fly as a couple with Southwest than with any other airline on average based on my small sample size. However, Greg pointed out on Frequent Miler on the Air that since flights are so cheap right now and Southwest award tickets are based on the cash price, it means that your points savings from the Companion Pass are relatively low. For example, if it only costs 5,000 points per passenger to fly from A to B on Southwest, having the Companion Pass only saves you 5,000 points. Given that airfare prices are likely to continue to be low for quite a while, you are probably saving fewer than 10K points per flight on most routes for the foreseeable future. Consider how many times you will fly before February 2022 and how many points the pass will save you.
Given that the previous offer on these cards included 80K points, the new offer sacrifices 50K points comparatively. That’s a bit hit when you consider that Southwest Rapid Rewards points don’t expire and this promotional Companion Pass expires in February of 2022. I don’t think that’s a great trade in the current environment for most people.
As I argued at the beginning of the year, I would recommend that most people hold off on Southwest cards until the end of this year and then hope for larger welcome bonuses that make it easier to earn the Companion Pass early in 2022 and have it through the end of 2023.
To be clear, I’m sure there are some customers for whom this offer is a good fit and could save them significant points. I just don’t think these offers are as valuable as they may sound for the majority of people. If you plan to go after one of these bonuses, I think the Priority Card is the one to get for Southwest fliers — it almost doesn’t make sense to have the other Southwest cards as long as the Priority card is on the market in my opinion. That’s because for $150 per year, you get 7,500 points at anniversary each year (worth about $112.50 toward Southwest Wanna Get Away fares), a $75 Southwest credit each year, and 4 priority A1-A15 boardings. It’s an easy win.
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why not get this offer and then apply for the business 100K at the end of this year, that way you’ll be covered from now through the end of 2023 (assuming you’ll get approved of course). I like it that they give you through the end of next Feb, you’ll have two months to meet minimum on the bsn 100K card so you’ll have a continuous “coverage”.
Hard to convince me that strategy is worth an extra 5/24 slot unless you have a ton of travel this year. Get an Ink Cash with 75K points and that’ll likely more than cover your companion’s 2021 travel and the excess won’t expire and will be valid for other uses beyond Feb 2022. I’m sure there are some scenarios one can concoct where these offers would be better, but few and far between in real world 2021.