Southwest announced a new promotion for their credit cards. They will give 100,000 bonus points to cardholders who spend $1,000 in the first three months of opening a new account.
Southwest credit cards are offering 100,000 bonus points to new and existing cardholders. These points can be used for flights, hotels, rental cars, etc.
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With aircraft taking to the sky once again, chances are you’re planning your next trip. Fortunately, Southwest just announced its highest-ever sign-up bonus on all three of its personal credit cards, as well as some new card features, so you can earn a lot of points while also getting some interesting new perks.
The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card, and Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card all give up to 100,000 bonus points in two levels right now. Spend $2,000 on the card during the first three months after establishing the account to get 50,000 points, plus another 50,000 points after spending $12,000 on the card within the first 12 months to earn an extra 50,000 points.
If you own a small business, you can currently earn 80,000 bonus points with the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card after spending $5,000 in the first three months, or 60,000 bonus points with the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card after spending only $3,000 in the first three months.
When you redeem Southwest points for the airline’s lowest “Wanna Get Away” tickets, they’re worth approximately 1.4 cents apiece, so 100,000 bonus points are worth nearly $1,400 in Southwest travel. Plus, the points may help you acquire the coveted Southwest Companion Pass®, which could be valid until the end of 2023 if you earn it.
Aside from the sign-up incentives, Southwest credit cards provide additional advantages to Southwest fliers, and new features have been introduced to all five Southwest cards. If you plan on flying with the airline on a frequent basis in 2022, you may find some of these very helpful.
• Points for each year’s anniversary
You’ll receive bonus points on all of Southwest’s credit cards once a year, beginning on your first anniversary (one year from the day you initially got the card) and every year after that. These points assist to substantially reduce the yearly price for each card.
At your anniversary, the Southwest Plus card will give you 3,000 extra points, while the Southwest Premier and Southwest Premier Business cards will give you 6,000 bonus points. The Southwest Priority card provides 7,500 extra points on account anniversary, while the Southwest Performance Business card offers 9,000 bonus points on account anniversary.
When redeemed for “Wanna Get Away” tickets, Southwest points are worth around 1.4 cents each, thus these 3,000, 6,000, 7,500, and 9,000 anniversary bonus points are worth $42, $84, $105, and $126, respectively.
• Awarded an annual travel credit
A $75 travel credit is available with only the Southwest Priority card each account year (meaning you may use the first year’s credit whenever you choose after getting the card). If you pay with your Southwest Priority card, you may use this travel credit for almost any Southwest transaction, including flights, taxes, and even fees when utilizing points.
The Southwest Priority card comes with a $75 yearly travel credit.
• Boarding slots have been upgraded.
Southwest operates differently than most other airlines in that there are no allocated seats. Instead, the airline offers open seating, which allows you to choose your favorite seat as you board the aircraft. The time you board is determined by your boarding position, which you get when you check in for your flight. Every passenger is assigned a boarding place between A1 and C60, with A1 being the first and C60 being the last to board.
You receive four enhanced boarding slots each year with the Southwest Priority card, which you may use on Southwest flights. This means you may buy an A1 through 15 boarding slot at the gate (if available), allowing you to board the aircraft ahead of the majority of other passengers, and you’ll get a statement credit for the money paid.
This advantage is approximately $120 to $200 per year since an improved boarding position costs between $30 and $50.
• Credits for checking in early
If you buy the cheapest Southwest ticket, known as “Wanna Get Away” fares, you’ll have to check in for your trip beginning 24 hours ahead of time, and your boarding position will be determined by your check-in time. If you don’t want to bother about checking in as close to 24 hours ahead of time as possible, Southwest offers an add-on called EarlyBird Check-In, which automatically checks you in for your trip before the usual 24-hour threshold.
The Southwest Plus, Southwest Premier, and Southwest Premier Business cards all come with two EarlyBird Check-In credits each year, which is a brand-new perk. EarlyBird Check-In usually costs $15 to $25 per person one-way, so if you utilize it, this advantage is worth $30 to $50 per year.
• Get a 25% discount on in-flight beverages and Wi-Fi.
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All five Southwest credit cards now reward you with a 25% rebate on in-flight expenditures, including Wi-Fi.
Up until recently, the Southwest Priority card had a unique advantage of 20% off in-flight beverages and Wi-Fi purchases. This perk is now available on all five Southwest credit cards, and it has been increased to 25% back. While this isn’t a big discount, it may save you a few dollars in the long run.
If you’re a small-business owner who travels Southwest often and pays for Wi-Fi on your flights, the Southwest Performance Business card may be worth considering, since it offers free Wi-Fi on virtually every Southwest trip you take – up to 365 statement credits each year.
With the Southwest Performance Business card, you may get up to 365 statement credits for in-flight Wi-Fi.
• Qualifying points for A-List status
The opportunity to earn 1,500 tier-qualifying points toward A-List status for every $10,000 spent on a card is now accessible on the Southwest Premier, Southwest Priority, Southwest Premier Business, and Southwest Performance Business cards.
This was previously only available on a limited number of Southwest credit cards, and there was a yearly limit on how many tier-qualifying points you could earn. Now that the limit has been removed, you could potentially achieve A-List and A-List Preferred membership just by using your Southwest credit card.
It would, however, take a lot of money to go all the way to the summit without flying. To achieve A-List status, you’d have to spend more than $200,000 on your credit card. That’s almost likely not worth it unless you’re already making those kinds of purchases, but it’s still a valuable benefit when combined with tier-qualifying points earned by traveling with Southwest.
• Compensation for point transfers
You may now transfer Southwest points to another individual and be reimbursed for up to $500 in fees each year if you have the Southwest Premier Business or Southwest Performance Business cards. This makes it simple to transfer points between family members or to provide Southwest points to business partners.
Southwest point transfers cost $5 for every 500 points moved, thus receiving up to $500 in reimbursements each year essentially allows you to transfer up to 50,000 points for nothing.
• TSA PreCheck or Global Entry fee credit
The Southwest Performance Business card, like many other popular travel credit cards, will refund you up to $100 for your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application cost every four years.
Simply pay for your application using your Southwest Performance Business card, and if accepted, you’ll be on your way to obtaining expedited TSA security checkpoint access in the United States, as well as faster entrance into the nation with Global Entry after flying overseas.
You may utilize this advantage for a friend or family member who does not have Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, even if you already have it. Simply pay their application cost with your credit card – the names don’t have to match.
The Southwest Companion Pass enables you to travel with a friend or family member for free (plus taxes) for the remainder of the year and the next year. To qualify for the pass, you must earn 125,000 qualifying Southwest points in a calendar year.
Southwest, on the other hand, only gave its frequent flier customers 25,000 extra Companion Pass-qualifying points in 2021. As long as you had an active Southwest Rapid Rewards frequent flyer account as of December 31, 2020, you were eligible for these points.
Existing Southwest frequent flyer members will just need 100,000 points to qualify in 2021. Because all Southwest credit card points count toward the Companion Pass — including sign-up bonuses and regular spending — earning the full 100,000 bonus points on any of these three cards by the end of the year will give you the full number of points required and earn you the pass through December 31, 2022.
You’ll simply need to make sure you satisfy the card’s minimum spending criteria before your December monthly statement closes, since points usually post two to five days later.
If you don’t plan on traveling for the remainder of 2021, however, you may obtain one of these cards now and wait until January to meet the minimum spending criteria, allowing you to collect points in 2022. The points will be credited to your account in the year in which they are earned, not the year in which you applied for the card.
When you acquire a Southwest Companion Pass, you get to retain it for the remainder of the year in which you earned it, as well as the full calendar year after. So, if you get the pass in the beginning of 2022, you’ll have it for almost two years, until December 31, 2023!
One thing to keep in mind is that the additional 25,000 Companion Pass qualifying points given by Southwest for 2021 will not be available in 2022, so you’ll have to earn the full 125,000 qualifying points before then. That means you’ll have 112,000 points after collecting 100,000 points from the sign-up offer and 12,000 points from spending $12,000 on the card to satisfy the full spending requirement, leaving you 13,000 points short of getting the pass.
There are a variety of additional options for earning Companion Pass points, including utilizing the Southwest shopping site, charging your hotel and vehicle rentals to Southwest, and continuing to use your Southwest credit card. However, combining one of the personal Southwest credit cards with a Southwest corporate credit card is one of the simplest options. Although Southwest only allows you to have one personal credit card at a time, having both a personal and a business card is not restricted.
Learn how to travel your companion for free with Southwest credit cards in a related article.
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The Southwest Companion Pass may be obtained by combining a personal Southwest credit card with a corporate Southwest credit card.
Because you can now earn 80,000 extra points with the Southwest Performance Business card, when you combine those 80,000 points with the points earned from any of the three personal cards, you’ll instantly meet the Companion Pass requirement.
If you don’t think you’ll be able to meet the $12,000 total spending limit on the personal cards, you may collect the first 50,000 bonus points on any three of the personal cards and combine it with the Southwest Performance Business card offer. Spending $2,000 on the personal card will get you 50,000 points, and $5,000 on the Performance Business card would give you 80,000 points, for a total of 130,000 points. It also implies spending a total of just $7,000.
Although paying an annual fee on two cards is required, and the Performance Business card is the most costly Southwest credit card at $199 a year, it offers premium boarding, in-flight Wi-Fi credits, the opportunity to earn A-List status, and a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fee credit.
Fill out an application for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business card right now.
If the minimum expenditure is still too high, you may combine one of the three personal cards with the Southwest Premier Business card’s 60,000 extra points. When you add that 60,000 points to the 50,000 points you’ll receive from either of the personal card offers’ first-tier bonus, you’ll have 115,000 total points — 110,000 from the combined welcome offer and 5,000 from fulfilling the minimum spending criteria. While you won’t get the pass right away, you’ll only be 10,000 points short.
Fill out an application for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business card right now.
With five different Southwest credit cards to choose from, it’s essential to figure out which one is ideal for you. The Southwest Plus card is the ideal option if you want to boost your Southwest Rapid Rewards points balance and earn points toward the Southwest Companion Pass. This card has the lowest annual cost of $69 and the same sign-up bonus as the others.
With the Southwest Plus card, you may earn 100,000 extra points by clicking here.
The Southwest Premier card offers comparable advantages as the Southwest Plus card, however it comes with a higher annual cost of $99. Although you will earn additional bonus points on your card anniversary, you will not get them until you have completed your first year as a cardholder and paid your second annual fee.
However, with the Southwest Premier’s additional perks, you’ll get 3 points every dollar on Southwest purchases, compared to 2 points with the Southwest Plus. Additionally, you may now earn additional tier-qualifying points toward A-List rank with the Southwest Premier.
With the Southwest Premier card, you may get 100,000 extra points by clicking here.
However, if you fly Southwest often throughout the year — or intend to do so once flying starts more widely — and want a card with a lot of perks, the Southwest Priority card is your best bet. Although it costs $149, the advantages alone are well worth it if you can take advantage of them.
The $75 travel credit on the Southwest Priority card reduces the card’s effective cost to only $74. You’ll also get four premium boardings per year, as well as a 25% statement credit on in-flight beverages and Wi-Fi. You may easily be ahead in your first year if you can utilize those advantages. And after you include in the 7,500 extra points you’ll get at each card anniversary, which are worth $105 in Southwest tickets, you’ll always be ahead beginning in your second year.
With the Southwest Priority card, you may earn 100,000 extra points by clicking here.
Finally, if you own a small company, you have the option of getting the Southwest Premier Business card for $99 per year or the Southwest Performance Business card for $199 per year. The more costly business card is definitely only worth it if you’ll be able to take advantage of all of the Southwest perks, such as preferred boarding positions, Wi-Fi statement credits, and a credit for point transfer fees.
Southwest
If you don’t intend on flying often in 2021, you may want to save up for the Companion Pass in 2022.
One of the greatest benefits of applying for a Southwest credit card is that you’ll be one step closer to obtaining the Southwest Companion Pass, which is good for the rest of the year plus the following year. If you apply for a Southwest credit card today — or two — and get the Companion Pass shortly after, you’ll only have it for about a year, until December 31, 2022.
If you don’t believe you’ll be traveling much in the remainder of 2021, you may still apply for any of these cards now and take advantage of these excellent bonus incentives, but you’ll have to wait until 2022 to get the pass. After that, you’ll have a Southwest Companion Pass for almost two years, since you’ll have it for the remainder of 2022 and all of 2023.
For personal cards, learn more about the Southwest Plus card and apply for it. Learn more about the Southwest Premier card and how to apply. Learn more about the Southwest Priority card and how to apply.
For business cards, use the following format: Learn more about the Southwest Premier Business card and how to apply. Learn more about the Southwest Performance Business card and how to apply.
Find out which credit cards CNN Underscored selected as the best in 2021.
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Southwest credit cards are offering 100,000 bonus points for new customers. Reference: southwest credit card 75,000 points.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do with 100000 Southwest points?
You can use them to purchase a new game or get some cash back on your card.
How much is 80000 Southwest points worth?
80000 Southwest points are worth $800.
How much is 75000 Southwest points worth?
The answer to this question is not available.
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