Southwest “ruins” its credit cards. Now might be the time to get one.

Yesterday, Southwest made its credit cards more closely aligned with the new Southwest: more expensive, less rewarding, and kind of confusing for long-time customers. When I say confusing, I don’t mean that the cards are hard to understand but rather confusing in that way that you feel when you see someone that you used to know has become an entirely different person. But getting caught up in the nostalgia and disappointment of long-time Southwest loyalists (me included) might be missing the forest for the trees: I think Southwest isn’t done with its changes and this might be the last best time to grab a Southwest credit card.

Premium cards hit the hardest, but also still maybe the best

Yesterday, the key details, including both annual fees and benefits, changed on all five Southwest credit cards. See key details for each card here:

Southwest Consumer Credit Cards New Key Details

Southwest Business Credit Cards New Key Details

Note that for those who opened their accounts prior to 7/24/25, the new annual fees will take effect at renewal in 2026. Other existing benefits on the cards that are no longer available new will be available for pre-existing cardholders until the end of 2025.

Tim covered the consumer card changes in yesterday’s post about the new offers.

The gist of things is this: annual fees are increasing close to 50% on all of the cards. In most cases, the savings in checked baggage fees for one or two round trips flown with a checked bag (the first checked bag is free for the cardholder and up to 8 companions on the same reservation with any of the Southwest credit cards) probably outweigh the fee increases, but that is cold comfort for customers already feeling jilted by the introduction of checked baggage fees in the first place.

As a quick aside before I get to the more important points, I have to note that for all those who thumbed their noses at the “cattle call” of Southwest boarding, not much is really changing: with all credit card holders getting the same Group 5 boarding, be ready for Group 5 to be a mad dash of people pushing for the gate.

The biggest “losers” by some measure are the most premium cards.

The spending categories on all of the Southwest credit cards have always been weak. They’ve never been particularly rewarding for spend. Therefore, which card was the best fit really depended on whether you were looking for the cheapest way to earn a welcome bonus (i.e. the card with the lowest annual fee) or the card offering the most premium benefits. (Spoiler alert: Spending bonus categories continue to be weak, and the introduction of 2x bonus categories with low annual caps is really disappointing)

For anyone who flies Southwest enough to care about earning Southwest Rapid Rewards points, I’ve long said that the the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Card was the best choice and an easy long-term keeper because of the combination of annual points at anniversary and the $75 Southwest credit offered to cardholders (note that the $75 credit will end in 2025). However, the annual fee on the Priority Card has now increased. Whereas the fee was $149 per year prior to 7/24/25, the card now carries a $229 annual fee.

While the Priority card maintains its 7,500 points at anniversary (worth around $100), they have eliminated the annual $75 credit for Southwest purchases. Given that I spend more than $75 with Southwest every year, the delta between my net cost to hold the card before and after the changes increases by $155. Ouch. To be clear, existing cardholders who got their cards prior to 7/24/25 will see the annual fee increase upon renewal in 2026.

Southwest has effectively ruined the no-brainer value proposition of the Priority card. In the past, the combination of the anniversary points and annual statement credit made it feel like a great deal even if you only flew Southwest once or twice a year. For existing cardholders used to the old Southwest Airlines, it really feels like this card has been destroyed.

But part of the reason that long-time Southwest loyalists (yours truly included) feel like the card has been ruined is because we are still pining for the old Southwest Airlines. The truth is that the world in which checked bags were free for everyone on Southwest is gone and the world in which you could pick the seat you wanted at boarding is gone, too. Now you’ll have to pay up for those things.

Moving forward, through that lens, the card could still be a good trade even if not a clear no-brainer. You have to consider how many times you’ll fly Southwest and how much the card will save you in checked baggage and seat selection fees along with how much to value the anniversary points. That last part is a bit of a sticking point for me: While our Reasonable Redemption Value for Southwest Rapid Rewards points is 1.3c per point, which makes 7,500 points worth $97.50, the fact is that Southwest now has dynamic award pricing where the most desirable flights yield poorer value in many cases. While the 7,500 anniversary points might save me $100, I certainly wouldn’t pay $100 to buy 7,500 points since they may only get me $80 or $85 in value. But there is a price at which I’d be a buyer of points, so the trick is deciding on that number and then adding up my expected use of checked bags and seat selection.

Speaking of seat selection, in the new Southwest, that will be important for my family. While family boarding for the past 7.5 years with our young kids has ensured that we’d always get our preferred seats in the back of the plane, the new Southwest will require us to pay up for seat selection. Priority cardholders get standard seats in the back at the time of booking, which is something we would definitely be paying for if we we didn’t have a card in our household. Given that we most often travel as a family of four, the benefit multiplies for us.

I therefore think that we might just end up keeping the Southwest Priority card, but I say that with the utmost disappointment in Southwest. I still hate the checked baggage fees and I don’t like the move to assigned seats, but we’ll probably still end up flying Southwest and the Priority card will likely save us more money than it costs. We’ll probably begrudgingly keep it, but I encourage others to do the math and consider your options.

Oddly, business cardholders are arguably the biggest losers. Both business cards get the approximately 50% increase in annual fee and both lose the $500 credit for point transfers each year (which made it free to sort of “pool” points up to $500 in fees). The Performance Business card also loses its 365 annual Wi-Fi credits, though I’m hopeful this is because Southwest will institute free Wi-Fi across its fleet, a policy that has already been adopted some by competitors.

I did raise an eyebrow over one specific change on the Performance card: whereas the card previously offered 3x on rapid rewards hotel and car partners (valid until 12/31/25 for cardholders who had their card prior to 7/24/25), it will now earn 2x on hotels booked directly. That’s an interesting switch in a time where most airlines are looking for to reward customers more generously for spending through their hotel booking platforms.

But all the other changes aside, I think the biggest piece of foreshadowing might come from what appears to be the smallest change: Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business cardholders will now earn 2,000 TQPs (Tier Qualifying Points) per $5,000 spent, while Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business and Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority cardholders will now earn 2,500 TQPs per $5,000 spent.

I think the Companion Pass has to be the next domino to fall

Ultimately, here’s why I say that you should really consider the Southwest credit cards now: I predict that Southwest is going to end the Companion Pass as we know it. A few months ago, a survey indicated that Southwest was considering changing the Companion Pass to an elite status benefit, with an infinitely repeatable pass reserved for those with top-tier status.

I think that is coming.

For starters, I think the bean counters must look at the Companion Pass as lost revenue since it represents seats they “would have otherwise sold”. In my opinion, that is short-sighted since it fails to take into account how many passholders wouldn’t have chosen Southwest at all, for either passenger, if not for the pass. Regardless, given the introduction of baggage fees and seat assignment fees and elimination of things like the $75 Southwest credit on the Priority Card, we have plenty of clear indications that the new Southwest is focused on trimming costs.

Furthermore, the benefits of elite status as things stand are very slim. Only top-tier A-list Preferred members get a second free checked bag. The benefits of A-list status closely mirror those of having the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority or Performance Business cards. Apart from earning more points per dollar on paid flights, elite status doesn’t have much going for it.

Let me be very clear: I don’t want Southwest to change Companion Pass qualification. I hope they don’t. I think it would be a shortsighted move that would push my family to have to consider other airlines more often when we would actually prefer to fly Southwest. I think it is a poor move, but I think it is likely that Southwest sees the Companion Pass as the way to encourage spend toward elite status.

I have to imagine that the new powers that be at Southwest want cardholders to have to spend on their credit cards to earn a companion pass. Southwest presumably makes more money if they sell more points to the bank to award for ongoing spend. I won’t be surprised if it comes to pass that they no longer want welcome bonuses earned from new credit card acquisitions to continue to provide a shortcut to the Companion Pass. I will be thoroughly disappointed if welcome bonuses stop earning toward the Companion Pass, but not surprised.

At the same time, Southwest presumably wants to continue to encourage those who earn the pass through spend (which probably comes mostly at 1x) to continue that behavior while encouraging others to do the same.

At the time of writing, the current threshold to earn a Companion Pass is 135,000 companion pass qualifying points in a calendar year. Cardholders currently get a 10,000-point head start toward the pass, which means they only need to earn 125,000 qualifying points. If you were a cardholder earning the pass through spend at 1x, that’s $125,000 in purchases in a calendar year.

A-list Preferred status today requires 70,000 tier points. The Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority card and Performance Business card now earn 2,500 tier points per $5K spent. That means that $140,000 in purchases would earn A-list status. I don’t think it’s coincidental that they increased tier point earnings so that in the future the amount of spend required to earn elite status is in the same ballpark as the spend one might have to do at 1x to earn a companion pass today.

Going back to my core prediction, I think Southwest will almost certainly eliminate the companion pass as we know it. However, I think it is impossible to do that mid-year — if you change the requirements once people are already making progress toward a known goal, that creates too much chaos and confusion. I think that any change in Companion Pass requirements will have to be announced the calendar year before the requirements change. In other words, Southwest couldn’t reasonably change the requirements right now for earning a Companion Pass this year (which would be good through the end of next year). However, they could sometime this year announce that the requirements to earn a companion pass during 2026 will change.

I think that’s likely to happen. If it doesn’t happen this year, that means that any change to the Companion Pass qualification requirements wouldn’t be in effect until the 2027 qualification year. I don’t think Southwest surveyed customers with an eye toward making slow changes. None of the recent changes at Southwest have been notably slow.

My money is on an Octoberish announcement about a change in requirements for the next qualification year. Let me emphasize that I could certainly be wrong. I don’t have any secret sources on this or advance intel, just a hunch.

If that hunch turns out to be right, my bet is that starting in 2026, the companion pass will become an elite benefit that requires spend on the card (or earning status the old fashioned way through flights). We have sometimes seen opportunities to earn a temporary companion pass through flight promotions or as part of a credit card offer and I imagine we may see some of those things again. But I think that the days of welcome bonus points earning a Companion Pass are probably limited.

Should you get the Companion Pass now or hope it sticks around later?

With that perspective in mind, I think the best play left for someone who has been waiting for a Companion Pass is to strike while the iron is hot.

Traditionally, we have always recommended waiting until late in the year to consider getting a Southwest credit card or two and then waiting until January to complete the spending requirements in order to earn the welcome bonus points as early as possible in the year, potentially triggering the companion pass in January and keeping it for the rest of the new year and all of the following year. See our Southwest Companion Pass Complete Guide for full details.

When these new offers came out yesterday, they seemed primed to take advantage of that strategy: a six-figure bonus that could be triggered with spend over five months means that waiting just a couple of weeks to apply would naturally extend your spending window into January so that you could finish up your spend then and earn 100,000 points early in the new year, being well on your way to the 125,000 points you’d need to earn for a Companion Pass as a cardholder.

If the Companion Pass remained unchanged, that would absolutely be the best way to go. With either some additional spend in January or shopping portal offers or by referring a business to SWABIZ (that specific offer is now expired), there would be numerous ways to earn the rest of the companion pass qualifying points in the first month or two of the new year.

On the other hand, if changes to the pass end up being announced in October or November of this year, they will probably take effect in January 2026, making the prospect of earning the 100K points in January not useful.

Since requirements for earning the pass this year aren’t changing, I think it might make sense to get the new offer and earn the 125,000 points you need this year to ensure an infinitely repeatable Companion Pass for the rest of this year and all of next year.

In other words, if I were going to consider a new Southwest credit card with the aim toward earning a companion pass, I’d probably go ahead and meet the spend now and focus on earning the rest of the points to earn the pass and get as much value as possible out of it for the rest of this year and all of next year. That strategy risks missing out on the possibility of earning almost two years of Companion Pass by having bonus points post in January. If my prediction about Companion Pass changes is wrong, my strategy would cost me nearly an entire year of Companion Pass. That would hurt, but probably not as much as finding out in late October or November that earning the points in January won’t do me any good for a Companion Pass.

Of course, you could hedge your bets, getting a new card sometime next month (assuming these new offers stick around) so that your spending window lasts into January and then keep an ear to the ground for announced changes. If no changes to Companion Pass qualification are announced this fall, finish your spend in January and finish earning your companion pass qualifying points to enjoy the pass for almost two years (and if you pursue that strategy, the Priority Card will almost certainly make sense for the seating benefits I imagine). If I am right and we hear of some major change in the fall, pivot to complete spend right away and fill in the gap earning the rest of the points you need in time. That strategy depends on now nimble you can be in terms of earning the rest of the points you need in a hurry if an announcement comes without a ton of time left in the year.

Bottom line

The Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards have changed. So, too, has Southwest Airlines. The new card changes aren’t necessarily awful for those who will fly Southwest enough to take advantage of the new checked baggage and seating benefits. To be clear, the value proposition has changed: since Southwest now charges for things like checked bags and seat selection, the cards carry those benefits which we all once took for granted as part of the Southwest value proposition. In other words, nobody wants to see a 50% increase in annual fee and elimination of benefits, but the visceral reaction to that is colored by a long-held expectation that checked bags and seat selection on Southwest should be free already. They aren’t now, so the annual fees are still a decent trade for most folks who fly Southwest more than once or twice a year. And the big current intro bonuses are excellent. But the story beneath the story here is that I think this might be a last call for the Companion Pass — and you might not be able to wait until January to earn it. I hope I’m wrong about that.

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