Southwest Rapid Reward ® and credit card review (2025.10 Update: 85k offer)
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2025.10 Renewal: New supply is 85k.
2025.9 Renewal: The top offer has expired. Currently there are only 50k offers.
2025.7 Renewal: This card is completely renewed, and the annual fee is increased from $ 69 to $ 99. The offer accepted has increased to 100k, which is the best offer this time. New benefits are marked with [New] below.
Program link
Benefits
- 85k offer: Earn 85,000 Southwest miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. Best offer is 100k.
- We value southwest miles at 1.3 cents/point (the price of airline miles), so the maximum offer of 100k costs about $1,300. Understand A Beginner’s Guide to Southwest Miles For details about southwest miles.
- [New] Earn 2x miles per dollar spent on Southwest destinations; Earn 2x miles per dollar spent at gas stations and grocery stores on the first $5,000 in combined purchases in one anniversary year. Earn 1x Mile per dollar spent on all other purchases.
- Earn 3,000 Southwest miles every year on your Anniversary Cardmember.
- [New] The first test bag is free. Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers on the same booking can check their first bag at no additional cost.
- [New] Standard seat selection within 48 hours prior to departure, upon availability. If you don’t have an integrated credit card or advanced status, Southwest’s lowest fares only allow you to choose your seat at check-in.
- [New] Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers on the same booking will travel in a group of 5.
- [New] Receive a 10% promo code each year on your Cardmember Anniversary (excludes base fare).
- 2 Earlybird-in entries per year. [New] This benefit will end on Dec 31, 2025.
- 25% back on flight purchases.
- If you earn 125k Southwest miles per year, you get a Southwest Southwest pass valid through the end of the next calendar year!
- [New] 10,000 Companion passes eligible points each year.
- [New] There is no foreign exchange fee.
- Refer a friend (targeted): You can earn 5,000 Southwest Miles for every eligible account you refer to, up to a maximum of 10 eligible miles (southwest miles) per calendar year.
Bad
- [New] Annual fee $99, never waived the first year.
- Southwest has no airline partners, so miles can only be redeemed on Southwest’s own airlines. Southwest only flies within the USA and/or from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Recommended application period
- [5/24 Rule] If you have 5 or more accounts opened in the last 24 months, deportment will not approve your application for this card, no matter how high your score is. The number of new accounts includes all credit card accounts opened within 24 months, not just chase accounts. See this post for details on how to bypass this rule.
- This product is available for you if you don’t have it Any Southwest credit card and I didn’t get a new card bonus Any Southwest credit card In the last 24 months. Note that what matters here is the time you receive the signup bonus, not the time you open or close the account.
- Do not apply for more than 2 credit cards within 30 days.
- We recommend that you apply for this card after having a credit history of more than a year.
To put it briefly
The welcome bonus is solid. When the bonuses are at their highest, applying to one Southwest business together can net you over 125k Southwest points – enough to unlock a friend pass quickly. (Note: You will no longer be able to apply for two Southwest cards within one year.) If you only apply for a personal card and skip the business card, it’s really hard to find your friend. Since the friend pass is valid for the rest of the year you get it combine Every subsequent year, applying at the beginning of the calendar year gives you the longest validity. So if you are looking in the southwest, the beginning of the year is the best time to find it.
Currently, you can only hold one of the three southwest cards. If you fly southwest often and it’s SignUp Bonus, the southwest card and low annual fee – your best bet.
After 2025 and annual renewal fees increase across the Southwest LineUp, there really isn’t much long-term value in keeping these cards. They are great with a welcome bonus.
Credit cards are related
| Chase southwest again | Chase southwest premier | Chasing Great Value in the Southwest | Chase Southwest Premier Business | Chase Southwest Performance Business | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $99 | $149 | $229 | $149 | $299 |
| Miles every year | 3,000 | 6,000 | 7,500 | 6,000 | 9,000 |
The current terms force you to choose only one southwest credit card among the three. But you can have personal and business cards.
Recommended Downgrade options
- You can’t downgrade this card to any other card without an annual fee, so I suggest turning it off when you don’t want to keep it.
After applying
- Call 800-436-7927 to check the status of the chase application. This is an automated phone line, and the response from the automated line will be one of the following: Get a decision in 2 weeks means your application is likely to be approved; Get a decision in 7 – 10 days means your application has been rejected; Get a decision in 30 days it just means your app needs updating and I can’t tell you anything now. Note that this is all anecdotal, and your application may change from case to case throughout the process.
- Chase Resersoor Backdoor Number: 888-270-2127 or 888-609-7805. Call it if you are not approved right away.
History Chart
Note: Sometimes there is a 50k + 50k offer on this card. But the recent 50K spending requirement is huge, so we don’t report them as a signup bonus, we treat them as a spending bonus instead.
Program link
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