Chase Raises Southwest Rapid Rewards Welcome Offer to 65k Bonus Points

Frequent Southwest flyers have a new incentive to get the airline’s credit card and offset the cost of their future travel.

As of May 27, Chase has increased the welcome offer on its suite of co-branded Southwest credit cards.

Cardholders can now earn 65,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in their first three months of cardmembership. This updated welcome offer requires $1,000 more in spending from the previous offer in the same 3-month timeframe, but it comes with 25,000 additional points.

Southwest cards eligible for this updated welcome offer include:

The new offer excludes the 3X points on dining purchases for the first account year that was available with the previous offer. However, you’ll likely end up ahead with this higher initial offer.

For those maximizers trying to earn enough points to score Southwest’s coveted Companion Pass, which allows you to bring along a companion for nearly free (you’ll just pay taxes and fees) on an unlimited number of Southwest flights, the new offer of 65,000 bonus points already gets you more than half way to the 125,000 points needed.

And in 2021, Southwest has made it easier to get the Companion Pass: Southwest Rapid Rewards members with a Rapid Rewards account opened by December 31, 2020 will get a “boost” of 25,000 Companion Pass qualifying points towards the perk this year. If you qualify for the boost and earn a welcome bonus on a Southwest credit card, you’ll only be 35,000 points away from earning the Companion Pass.

In addition to the elevated welcome bonus, cardholders earn 2X points per $1 spent on Southwest purchases, including Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases. Then, earn 1X point per $1 spent on all other purchases.

Southwest Rapid Rewards users also get bonus points after their cardmember anniversary each year: 3,000 bonus points for Plus Credit Card, 6,000 for Premier and 7,500 for Priority. As a benefit of the Rapid Rewards program, your points never expire and all points earned count toward the Companion Pass.

Those looking to get additional travel perks this year should consider the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card, which also comes with an annual $75 Southwest travel credit, four upgraded boardings per year (when available) and a 20{ffe0afc3723be1abfdcff2272b490245f37403ad5880287a5cb59aa23febe4c5} discount on in-flight drinks and WiFi on Southwest. For these reasons, we rated this card the best choice for flying Southwest Airlines.