Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card (2025 update!)

Now that Southwest has updated its entire business plan as an airline, they have also updated their credit cards. We’re going to go through and update the cards, starting with the $99 annual free “Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card”.  Interestingly, Southwest doesn’t offer any credit cards with no annual fees. The annual fee has been increased by $30 compared to before, so let’s see what you get now that it costs more.

This blog is just for entertainment purposes. I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

At the time of posting, the Southwest Plus card has a very strong welcome offer of 100 000 Rapid Rewards points after you spend $4 000 in the first 5 months of account opening. The standard welcome offer used to be 50 000 points after spending $1 000 in the first 3 months. Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program is predominantly revenue based, and pretty consistently, Rapid Rewards points are worth 1.5 ¢/pt.  That makes this welcome offer worth at least $1 500, which is great for a $99 annual fee card.

Earnings

The Rapid Rewards Plus card has updated its straight-forward two-tiered structure. It now earns 2x points/$ on all Southwest purchases and $5 000 per year of gas stations and grocery stores (it dropped the local transit and commuting, internet/cable/phone services, and select streaming options).  The card earns 1x point/$ on everything else. 

Benefits

For a $99 annual fee, this card provides a comparable number of benefits compared to other airlines’ low annual fee cards.  The card offers a bonus 3 000 points each year (worth $45), which erases about 2/3 of the annual fee.  Southwest has gotten rid of their free seating policy, so the main benefits of this card are focused around getting better seats (via selection) and getting checked bags free again.

This card now offers a first free checked bag (you used to get two free) and standard seat selection 48 hours prior to departure (it’s now only free 24 hours before departure).

It will also offer a 10% promo code for a flight discount once per year and will offer Group 5 boarding (of 8) starting in 2026.

The card still 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).

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 (2x)	$300	600	$200	400	$600	1 200	$400	800
Gas (2x)	$0	0	$100	200	$200	400	$100	200
Airfare (2x)	$700	1 400	$200	400	$0	0	$400	800
Hotels (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$200	200	$0	0	$300	300
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	100
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	5 000	$1 500	2 000	$1 700	2 700	$1 700	2 600
Average points/$		1.25		1.33		1.59		1.53

The simple earning structure means that the average points earned has a relatively small range of 1.25 – 1.59 points/$, which is worth 1.88 – 2.39 ¢/$.  That’s actually a pretty 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 “Choice” 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 Plus card ($99)	5 550 RRP (11.1%)	2 200 MP + 230 RRP (8.7%)	$83.25 / $14.45

Is this credit card right for you?

If you travel with Southwest occasionally and value the free checked bag, (soon seat selection), and points offered by this card, then I think this card could potentially make sense, especially if you don’t want to pay a high annual fee.  However, given that there is no free Southwest card, I’m not entirely convinced that the value proposition of this card is entirely there unless someone really wants to avoid high annual fees, given that the two other options: the Southwest Premier and Priority cards are not actually that much more expensive per year and offer enhanced benefits.