Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
All-New Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
Features
- Annual fee: $69
- NOW! Earn a FREE FLIGHT after your first purchase.
- Get 3,000 Points every year on your Card member Anniversary – that’s equal to $50 toward a Wanna Get Away® Fare
- Now you can redeem for International Travel, Hotels, Gift Cards and more.
- Earn unlimited FREE FLIGHTS – 2 Points per $1 Spent on Southwest Purchases and 1 Point per $1 Spent on EVERYTHING else
- Your Bags Fly FREE! No Blackout Dates, Points Don’t Expire, and Unlimited Reward Seats!
- No Change fees – if you need to change your flight, you won’t be charged a fee.
- September 11th Security Fee Applies
Our review: A good program for domestic travel
This is the only way to earn undiluted Rapid Rewards credit via a credit card. If you fly Southwest Airlines frequently and like using them for rewards, this card is a good choice. The Southwest program is one of the more flexible among U.S. airlines and was named the easiest to redeem in a recent study. Redemption is pretty simple — 60 points is worth $1 toward a ‘Wanna Get Away Fare’ (or $0.016 per point) — which is the discount fare you usually see if you book ahead of time. Southwest is relatively easy for reward redemption because it uses the same inventory used for many of its regular paid tickets. If you want to fly on any flight at any time, you have the option to redeem at 100 points per $1, or $0.01 per point.
A big drawback is the lack of overseas flights to redeem for points. Southwest lets you do it for $0.01 per point on any airline when you hold the credit card, but this isn’t a great value for your points and we don’t recommend this card if you plan to use points to travel overseas.
Travelers who want broader international options will find a hotel card that allows transfer to airline miles like the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express or Chase Sapphire Preferred is probably a better deal. You get the best possible value for both hotel nights and international flights.
If I’m reading the current Southwest Rewards Visa offer correctly, you can get a free flight after the first purchase (with the $59 fee). Isn’t it possible to just cancel the card after that point and essentially get a flight for about ~$60-70?
That’s right — just make sure you fully book the ticket and use the points first. It’s called “churning” in the industry — just be aware that Chase tends to limit the number of cards with bonus offers you can apply for each year to keep people from doing it excessively.