Signup offer and anniversary bonus:
You can get 50,000 points when you spend $2,000 within 3 months of getting the card. They’re marketing this as 2 roundtrip flights but in fact it is enough for up to $960 of flights on Southwest.
For example a one-way Los Angeles-Las Vegas flight on 02/18 is $48.10 with tax.
It can also be bought for 2,214 points plus $5.60 tax.
So 2,214 points gets you a value of $42.50 ($48.10 airfare less the $5.60 tax required on the points ticket)
So each point is worth 1.92 cents (42.50/2,214), valid for redemption on all flights. so you can stretch out those 50K points points for as more than 22 free flights with Southwest’s low prices or 44 free flights if you earn a companion pass.
Every anniversary you’ll also get a 6,000 point bonus.
Free changes and cancellations. Lock in low fares with no penalty:
While other mileage currencies now charge $200 to cancel an award ticket, Southwest continues to allow you to cancel an award flight and redeposit the points in your account for future use without any penalties! Coupled with 2 free bags per person and that’s a lot of added value. A family of 4 needing to cancel award tickets on another airline would set you back $800 versus it being a free change on Southwest. A family of 4 checking 2 bags each would run $480 round-trip on another airline versus paying nothing on Southwest.
Thinking of taking a trip but not 100% sure about it? With Southwest points you can lock in a good rate and just cancel the trip free of charge at any point before the flight if you can’t make it!
You can use the points for yourself or book award tickets for anyone else you want to give a ticket to.
Don’t fly?
You can also use 50,000 points to get $500 worth of gift cards to places like Alamo, Amazon, Avis, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Brooks Brothers, Budget, Carnival Cruises, Children’s Place, Express, Fairmont, Gap, Hertz, Hyatt, Kohl’s, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Marriott, Motherhood Maternity, National, Nike, Office Depot, Saks, Sea World, Sears, Shutterfly, Staples, Starbucks, Toys R Us, TJMaxx, Walmart, Zappos and many others.
With Southwest’s Rapid Rewards “2.0” program you can redeem points for any seat on any flight. There are no blackout dates or capacity controls.
The value per point will depend on your route, but points always seem to be worth more than 1.8 cents each for discounted fares.
When Southwest has a fare sale the amount of points go on sale as well as it tracks to the price of the ticket. Best of all Southwest will refund your points if the price of your award ticket falls! Just rebook your trip online for the same dates or give them a call for the credit.
You get 1 point per dollar on regular purchases and 2 points per dollar on Southwest purchases, including hotel and car rentals via Southwest.
Companion pass:
You can get a free companion pass if you earn 110,000 points in a year from most sources, including earnings from credit card signups and credit card spending! If you earn 110,000 Southwest points in 2015 the pass will be good until 12/31/16. The pass allows you to bring a companion with you for free whenever you fly Southwest, even if you are flying on a free ticket! There is no limit to the number of free companion flights that you can take.
Points transferred from Ultimate Rewards to Southwest don’t qualify towards companion pass status, but points transferred from Ultimate Rewards into Hyatt and then into Southwest do qualify. So you can transfer 50K Ultimate Rewards points into 50K Hyatt and 50K Hyatt transfers into 30K Southwest.
In other words if you get 50K points from signing up for this credit card you can transfer 100K Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and then into 60K Southwest points, worth about $1,152 towards Southwest travel. Plus then you’ll have a companion pass so that you can bring your companion for free whenever you fly Southwest, so that $1,152 toward Southwest is really doubled to $2,304 because of the free companion ticket. Not a bad value for a 100K Ultimate Rewards transfer.
See this post for more info on the Ultimate Rewards program and associated credit cards.
And as always, Southwest:
-Gives 2 free checked bags per passenger.
-Does not charge change fees to switch your flight. Whether you are on a paid or an award flight you can change without penalty!
-Does not charge a cancellation fee to cancel your flight (you will get Southwest credit for the full amount paid, even on non-refundable wanna get away fares) or to cancel and redeposit your award flight.
-Refunds the fare or point difference if the price of your flight goes down after you buy it, just call to get the credit at any time before your flight!
Leave a Reply
41 Comments On "Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Card: Get 50,000 Points. Award Flights Start At Just 2,214 Points With 2 Free Bags And Free Cancellations!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Wait I’m confused hasn’t in been 50k miles for a while now?
Does the 50k startup bonus count towards the 110k companion pass?
@PersianHairyMan92:
Comes and goes.
@Leor:
Yes.
Can i do this promo twice with two browsers?
If just canceled sw card last month, can i still apply for another and get bonus?
@PersianHairyMan92:
It’s 50,000 points sig-up bonus few times a years, and latest time, as I remember is on December 2014.
@Leor:
Yes, it does.
Do you have a link for the Business Premier 50k bonus card also?
Dan, thanx to your previous encouragement I’ve signed up and gotten CP. So far I’ve flown 4 RT NYC/Philly to Chicago (2 w points & 2 free companion) and another 8 left. GO DAN GO !
If I just got the SW premiere card in December with the last 50k window, are any of the other cards like SW business available now with the 50k?
Just flew from LaGuardia to Los Angeles.
16,000 points total for 2 people round-trip with CP and free luggage. Huzzah.
Dan @Dan:
Dan do u think Avios would still be the way to go or is this coming close?
(I am going to apply but not sure which one, don’t have either right now)
@ari F:
https://www.southwest.com/html/rapidrewards/partners/credit-cards/southwest-airlines-rapid-rewards-cards/index.html?int=GSUBNAV-RR-VISA
@BA?:
I would go with Southwest Airline credit card since it has more benefits compared to British Airline credit card.
Whats the washout time between cards? Last did premier in may 2013
Does companion need to be the same person every time? Or can I go one time with 1 person and again with someone else?
How come there is nothing written about the chase Southwest plus card? I just got approved for both last night using the 2 b/m and they’re both depositing the miles into the same rr account so all I have to do is spend 10k and I’ll have a companion pass now for 2 yrs.
1. What are the differences between the 2 cards and why would chase offer both personal?
2. How often can I switch my companion?
Is there a $99 annual fee?
Their annual fee went up? Last year I applied it was $69?
@Dan thanks for the business. with family of 4; did both wife and myself back in 2013 on premier and plus cards. We can do the business but need another 50k + miles to get companion passes to cover the little ones.
Can the kids get cards and companion pass the adult?
“This bonus offer is available to you as long as you have not received a new cardmember bonus for this product in the past 24 months.”
Do they follow through on this? What if i sign up for a business card that I used within 24 months? What if it is a new business?
I am posting from a different site. Does anyone know how one can figure out exactly which cards they had over the last two years? Should I call Chase?
“Note that you can’t get the sign-on bonus for the SAME card if you’ve had it in the previous two years.
For example, if you had the Southwest Plus card one year ago, you won’t be able to get the bonus for the same version i.e. the Southwest Plus card again. But there are 3 other versions of the Southwest card to choose from!”
Dan, if I do not have any UR points is there any other program that would allow me to transfer points onto SW to be able to qualify for the companion ticket?
Is it true that using redcard for chase is a problem? Like I heard I should add 999.99 as opposed to a 1000 in each transaction to avoid chase shutting you down.
Do you know which credit bureau this card pulls from? (in New Jersey) Thanks!
Any tricks to get out of the AF?
@Leor:
You can change companion up to 3 times.@Danfan:
The plus version is $69 annual fee compared to $99 for the Primer.@steve:
$99 fee for Premier card version.
@Eve:
$69 is for Plus version. @AA:
Chase UR transfers will not count, but many others like Marriott, Club Carlson do.
Ben Says:
26
January 18th, 2015 at 2:04 pm
@Leor:
You can change companion up to 3 times.@Danfan:
MEaning you can fly with anyone of those 3 or once you switch it you can’t fly with the first one?
Can we get the premier and premier business and then combine the points to get CP?
What card gives you ultimate awards? And how would I transfer them to Hyatt point and then to Southwest?
Any of these cards fly to Israel?
Dan, i know u posted abt 3BM but Anyone ever tried 4bm with success?
I’m thinking of getting southwest, sapphire, British airways and freedom (the freedom so that my first card will have no annual fees so I can keep it for longest hopefully)
Hi, should I open a rapid rewards account before I apply for the card, or just have them do it for me along with the application?
Thanx
How long does this offer last?
Dan, is it possible and would it make sense to sign up for this card and the business card and get 50,000 points for each and then combine them to start you off with 100,000 points and only 10,000 away from getting the companion pass?
@jeremy
You can do that. I did that at the end of 2013, beginning of 2014, got 100,000 points, did 5000 each at CVS vanilla reloads in the good old days and have a companion pass until the end of 2015
Any way out the 99.00 yearly fee?
Dan, I got approved for the personal card, but denied for business. Called Chase and was told that they will never allow 2 cards within 30 days (can’t be true because I was approved for BA as well). Then said my business has no history so they go by my own credit and even though it is good, I do not have a long enough history (3 years) to be qualified for a business card. Anyway to get that overturned? Also, my wife has longer credit record so we can try under her name but should I wait 30 days since she also just got approved for personal card? Thanks!
Link doesn’t work now and needs updated
@Dan: If I get a card for my wife can I then combine the two RR accounts for a CP?
the chase southwest link isn’t working.