Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority card

The third and final Southwest co-branded personal card is the $149 Priority credit card.  Since the three cards all have relatively similar annual fees of $69, $99, and $149, the main question to answer is if the incremental perks are worth the incremental increase in annual fee.  Most of the time on this blog, we say yes, so let’s see if that still holds true for this card.

Welcome Offer

At the time of posting, the Southwest Premier card has a welcome offer of 50 000 Rapid Rewards points after you spend $1 000 in the first 3 months of account opening.  Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program is a revenue-based program, and pretty consistently, Rapid Rewards points are worth 1.5 ¢/pt.  That makes this welcome offer worth $750, which is good for a $149 annual fee card.  However, this is the same bonus as the Plus card and the Premier card, which is unusual because often cards from the same line with higher annual fees have bigger welcome bonuses.

Earnings

The Rapid Rewards Priority card has the same earning structure as the Premier card.  Specifically, it earns 3x points/$ on Southwest purchases.  Otherwise, it has the same 2x points/$ on “Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners”, local transit and commuting, internet/cable/phone services, and select streaming options.  The card earns 1x point/$ on everything else. 

Benefits

For its $149 annual fee, this card provides a fair number of benefits over the $99 and $69 cards that are intended to directly offset the annual fee (in cash equivalents).  The card offers a $75 Southwest annual travel credit, which immediately erases half the annual fee.  In addition, the card offers a bonus 7 500 points each year (worth $112).  Before any other benefits, the card has $187 of value.  The card offers 4 “Upgraded Boarding” rebates each year (which guarantee you A1-A15 boarding and thus a good seat).  These are slightly different than “EarlyBird CheckIn” offered by the other cards.  You don’t get checked in early with the upgraded boarding spots but rather can purchase them at check in if you got a boarding position you don’t like.  So, I’d argue that they are more flexible in when you decide to use them.  These “upgrade certificates” cost at least $15 each, so this benefit represents at least $60 in value, which is double that of the other cards.

The rest of the benefits are the same as on the Premier card.  The card offers a bonus of 1 500 tier qualifying points towards A-list status (Southwest’s version of elite status) for every $10 000 spent on the card.  For context, A-list requires 35 000 tier qualifying points.  The card also offers 25% back on inflight purchases, but Southwest does not sell food onboard, so this is just 25% back on premium (e.g. alcoholic) drinks.  Finally, the card offers a boost of 10 000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year.  These points can’t be used for anything by themselves and are only relevant if you’re close to getting a Companion Pass (135 000 qualifying points required).

One great perk of this card is that it offers free Wi-Fi on Southwest in the form of up to 365x $8 Wi-Fi reimbursement credits each year.

How to use the points

The main use for Southwest Rapid Rewards points is to redeem them for Southwest flights and other “Rapid Rewards” partners.  I’ve only ever used the points for Southwest flights at their standard rate of 1.5 ¢/pt, and since it’s a flat rate, it means that there are always seats available for points.  Southwest is a transfer partner of Chase and so Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred in to boost your Rapid Rewards point balance.

Examples of using the card

These examples assume you spend all your airfare budget at Southwest.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (1x)	$300	300	$200	200	$600	600	$400	400
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	600	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$200	200	$0	0	$300	300
Gen Travel (2x)	$400	800	$0	0	$300	600	$100	200
Dining (1x)	$600	600	$300	300	$300	300	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	5 800	$1 500	1 900	$1 700	2 200	$1 700	2 600
Average points/$		1.45		1.26		1.29		1.53

The earning structure is the same as the Premier card means that the average points earned has a wider (and improved) range of 1.26 – 1.53 points/$, which is worth 1.89 – 2.30 ¢/$.  That’s a good return for an airline co-branded credit card with a $99 annual fee.  That being said, Chase offers better earning opportunities on its non-co-branded cards.

Specific examples

These examples include the bonus points earned from getting IHG Elite Platinum status from the card.

Card	Southwest wanna get away fare ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	4 050 RRP (8.1%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$60.75 / $11.00
General 2% cashback card ($0)	4 050 + $15.00 (10.1%)	2 200 MP + $4.60 (9.3%)	$75.75 / $15.60
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95)	4 050 + 1 500 UR (11.1%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.3%)	$83.25 / $17.90
Amex Green Card ($150)	4 050 + 2 250 MR (12.3%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.5%)	$92.25 / $21.35
Southwest Premier card ($99)	6 300 RRP (5.9%)	2 200 MP + 230 RRP (8.7%)	$94.50 / $14.45

Is this credit card right for you?

If you travel with Southwest frequently, this card is likely to be the winner.  The increased benefits on this card definitely justify the extra $50 over the annual fee of the Premier card and effectively mean that you’re getting paid $40/year to hold onto the card as long as you use the credits/point, which is easy.  Combined with the upgraded boardings, you’d definitely come out (more) ahead with this card if you value these credits and perks.  That being said, this card does not have the most compelling rewards structure and so may not be the best choice for large amounts of spending unless you’re hoping to earn A-list status or a companion pass.