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Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Card Review: Good For A-List

February 2023

Link: Wield now for the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card

Chase and Southwest have a unconfined portfolio of personal credit cards at three variegated price points. In this post, I wanted to take a closer squint at the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card, the Southwest personal vellum with a $99 yearly fee (which is neither the highest nor lowest yearly fee). This is an expressly good time to consider the card, as it’s offering a limited time bonus, making it extremely easy to earn Companion Pass.

Southwest Airlines Premier Vellum Basics For February 2023

The Southwest Airlines Premier Card has a $99 yearly fee, making it the mid-range vellum in the Chase & Southwest portfolio. What’s interesting is that all Southwest personal cards have the same welcome bonuses, which you don’t typically see with other products. Typically higher yearly fee cards have worthier bonuses, but that’s not the specimen with Southwest.

With that in mind, which Southwest Airlines credit vellum is the weightier option? Let’s take a squint at the details of this card, and then I’ll share my take.

Southwest Premier Vellum Two-Part Bonus

For applications through Monday, March 13, 2023, the Southwest Premier Vellum is offering a two-part welcome bonus, which you can unlock without spending $4,000 within the first three months:

  • Receive 30,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points
  • Receive a Southwest Companion Pass valid through February 28, 2024

Rapid Rewards is a revenue-based frequent flyer program, and personally, I value Rapid Rewards points at 1.2 cents each. So to me, the points part of the bonus is worth $360. But what makes this bonus truly is superstitious is that you can receive the Companion Pass through February 28, 2024, permitting someone to travel with you while just paying the taxes and fees (this works whether you’re paying mazuma or redeeming Rapid Rewards points).

The vellum isn’t available to anyone who currently has a Southwest Rapid Rewards personal card, or anyone who has received a welcome bonus on a Southwest Rapid Rewards personal vellum in the past 24 months. However, you are eligible if you have a Southwest Rapid Rewards merchantry credit card.

Beyond the restrictions related to which Southwest cards you have, there are general using rules for Chase cards, including the 5/24 rule.

Earn Rapid Rewards points with Southwest credit cards

Southwest Premier Vellum $99 Yearly Fee

The Southwest Premier Vellum has a $99 yearly fee, and you can add authorized users to the vellum at no uneaten cost. Southwest’s personal credit cards have yearly fees of $69, $99, and $149, so this is the “middle child” of the Southwest & Chase personal vellum portfolio.

Southwest Premier Vellum Rewards Structure

As far as the Southwest Premier Card’s rewards structure goes, the vellum offers the following:

  • 3x Rapid Rewards points on Southwest Airlines purchases
  • 2x Rapid Rewards points on local transit and commuting, including rideshare
  • 2x Rapid Rewards points on internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming
  • 1x Rapid Rewards points on all other eligible purchases

It’s good that the vellum has some bonus categories, though there are ultimately increasingly rewarding cards out there for everyday spending.

Earn A-List Status With Southwest Premier Card

In wing to stuff worldly-wise to earn Companion Pass through spending on the vellum (or as a part of the bonus in this case), the Southwest Premier Vellum moreover lets you earn unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs). Specifically, you can earn 1,500 TQPs toward A-List status for every $10,000 spent on the card.

A-List is Southwest Airlines’ version of status, and offers perks like priority boarding, a 25% points bonus, same-day standby, priority check-in and security lane access, and a defended phone number.

A-List status ordinarily requires earning 35,000 TQPs in a timetable year, so spending on a Southwest Premier Vellum could help you earn that. This is the only personal Southwest vellum that offers that feature. Whether or not that’s worth it depends on how much you’d otherwise fly with Southwest.

Earn Companion Pass With Southwest Credit Cards

One of the very weightier values in travel is the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass, and the points earn as part of this bonus count toward that past the term of the Companion Pass included with the bonus. With Southwest Companion Pass you can have someone travel with you for the unshortened year (whether on a mazuma ticket or ribbon ticket), and just pay taxes and fees for them. This is such an incredible deal, and basically doubles the value you can get from flying Southwest.

Southwest Companion Pass requires earning 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in a timetable year, though you get a uplift of 10,000 points toward that just for having a co-branded Southwest card.

Only unrepealable types of points accrual qualify toward Companion Pass, including Southwest credit vellum spending and Southwest credit vellum welcome bonuses.

Earn Companion Pass with Southwest credit cards

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Southwest Premier Vellum has no foreign transaction fees. This is one goody over the $69 yearly fee Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card (review), as that vellum has 3% foreign transaction fees.

Southwest Airlines Premier Vellum Benefits

The Southwest Airlines Premier Card offers some benefits that could make the vellum worth keeping long-term. How do the perks compare to Southwest’s lower and higher yearly fee cards?

Southwest Premier Vellum 6,000 Bonus Points

On your cardmember year-end every year, you’ll receive 6,000 bonus Rapid Rewards points. Southwest Rapid Rewards is a revenue-based frequent flyer program, and you can often expect that you’ll need virtually 83 Rapid Rewards points for every dollar of airfare you book.

In other words, 6,000 bonus points get you just virtually $72 in Southwest airfare annually. That covers over 70% of the yearly fee right there.

Southwest Premier Vellum EarlyBird Check-Ins

The Southwest Premier Vellum offers two EarlyBird check-ins per year-end year. This can get you a better boarding position, and would ordinarily forfeit $15-25 each, so that’s potentially a $30-50 value. That’s quite a nice perk, and between this and the year-end bonus points, you should be worldly-wise to recoup your unshortened yearly fee right there.

Southwest Premier Vellum 25% Savings On Inflight Drinks & Wi-Fi

The Southwest Premier Vellum offers 25% savings on inflight purchases of Wi-Fi and drinks. Simply pay with your card, and you’ll automatically receive a statement credit for that amount.

Is The Southwest Premier Vellum Worth It?

The Southwest Airlines Premier Card is Southwest’s mid-range card, and the yearly fee is in line with many other co-branded airline credit cards, at just under $100. The vellum is offering a fantastic bonus, which is one good reason to consider this product.

On an ongoing basis, the 6,000 point year-end bonus can potentially get you virtually $72 worth of airfare, and then you’re getting two EarlyBird check-ins per year, potentially worth $30-50. If you value those perks, that should increasingly than imbricate the yearly fee right there. Furthermore, this is the weightier personal Southwest vellum if you’re looking to spend your way to A-List status.

However, there might be a largest strategy if you’re looking to reap a Southwest Airlines credit card.

The Southwest Premier Vellum should increasingly than pay for itself

Tip: Wield For The Southwest Priority Vellum Instead

If you’re going to pick up a personal Rapid Rewards credit card, I can’t recommend the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Card (review) enough. The vellum has a $149 yearly fee, which at first is a turn-off to some people. Why would you want to pay an uneaten $50 over the benefits of the Southwest Premier Card?

Well, the benefits increasingly than justify it, in my opinion. The Southwest Priority Vellum offers:

  • A 7,500 point year-end bonus annually, getting you virtually $90 worth of airfare (that’s 1,500 increasingly points than what’s offered by the Premier Card)
  • A $75 Southwest Airlines travel credit annually, which counts toward virtually any Southwest Airlines purchase (the Premier Vellum doesn’t offer this)
  • Four upgraded boardings per year, when available; you’ll be reimbursed for the purchase of boarding positions A1-15 on the day of throw-away (the Premier Vellum offers two EarlyBird check-ins per year, but not four upgraded boardings per year)

In other words, for the $149 yearly fee you’re getting points that will get you well-nigh $90 worth of airfare on Southwest, plus a $75 Southwest credit annually. For anyone who flies Southwest with any frequency, you’re basically stuff paid to have this card, since that’s virtually $165 worth of value right there. That doesn’t plane factor in the four upgraded boardings per year.

To me, the Priority Vellum is an obvious nomination over both the Plus and Premier products.

Tip: Earn Ultimate Rewards Points Instead

Chase Ultimate Rewards is a transfer partner with Southwest Rapid Rewards, and points transfer at a 1:1 ratio. This ways that you could earn points at a faster rate through Ultimate Rewards than through Rapid Rewards, and your points will be increasingly flexible (since you can moreover transfer them to other airlines and hotel programs).

So, should you earn Rapid Rewards points directly with a Southwest Airlines credit card, or with a Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card?

  • If you’re trying to earn Companion Pass or A-List status, then you have to spend on a Southwest card, since Ultimate Rewards points don’t count toward the requirements for earning the Companion Pass
  • If you don’t superintendency well-nigh Companion Pass and just want to earn as many Rapid Rewards points as possible, earn points with Ultimate Rewards, and then transfer them over

For context, some of the weightier cards for earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points include the following:

  • The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) offers 3x points on dining, online groceries, and select streaming services, and 2x points on travel; the vellum has a $95 yearly fee
  • The Chase Sapphire Reserve® (review) offers 3x points on dining and travel, plus a $300 yearly travel credit; the vellum has a $550 yearly fee
  • The Ink Merchantry Preferred® Credit Card (review) offers 3x points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases annually on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, and phone services, razzmatazz purchases made with social media sites and search engines; the vellum has a $95 yearly fee

On top of that, the pursuit four no yearly fee cards earn points that can be converted into Ultimate Rewards points at a 1:1 ratio in conjunction with one of the whilom cards:

Bottom Line

The Southwest Premier Card is a solid mid-range credit card. It has a unconfined limited time welcome bonus, plus ongoing perks that justify the yearly fee, between the 6,000 Rapid Rewards points annually, and the EarlyBird check-ins. However:

  • I’d oppose that the $149 yearly fee Southwest Priority Card is worth it for just well-nigh everyone, given the huge incremental benefits (an uneaten 1,500 points, plus a $75 yearly Southwest credit, and more)
  • If you’re not particularly interested in the Companion Pass, you’re much largest off earning points with Chase Ultimate Rewards and then transferring them to Southwest Rapid Rewards, given that it gives you higher points earning rates and increasingly flexibility

If you want to learn increasingly well-nigh the Southwest Premier Vellum or want to apply, follow this link.