Official: Southwest 50,000 Point Cards End June 29, 2014

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The Southwest 50,000 point cards have been back for several weeks, and I wrote that they’d be ending soon.  But Southwest has now let us know this offer will end on June 29, 2014.

These cards come back every few months, and there’s usually at least 1 version of the card available, but if you want to earn 100,000 points towards the Southwest Companion Pass quickly, you should apply soon!  The Companion Pass allows your companion to fly with you nearly free on every Southwest flight!  

Which Southwest Card Should You Apply For?

Link:   Southwest Premier (Personal) Card

These cards are usually offered every 2 to 3 months.  When you sign-up for 2 cards, you’ll get 104,000 points (100,000 sign-up bonus + 4,000 points from spending).  This means that you only need to earn 6,000 more points to qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass, which you’ll get when you earn 110,000 points in a calendar year.

According to Million Mile Secrets’ readers, you can get all 4 versions of the Southwest cards because they’re each considered a different card product.  But you can’t get them all at once.  Chase normally limits folks to 1 personal and 1 business version in the same round of applications.

And generally, you can NOT get the sign-up bonus for the SAME card if you’ve had it before.

With the Southwest Premier card (personal and business) you get:

• 6,000 Southwest points each card anniversary
• No foreign currency fees
• Annual fee of $99, NOT waived for the 1st year

The Southwest Plus card (personal and business) gets you:

• 3,000 Southwest points each card anniversary
• 3% foreign currency fees
• Annual fee of $69, NOT waived for the 1st year

The extra $30 in annual fees for the Southwest Premier card is worth it if you travel outside the US a lot, because you don’t get charged foreign transaction fees.  Plus, you get more points on your card anniversary, which almost makes up for the annual fee.

Southwest Companion Pass

Link:   Southwest Companion Pass

If you get 2 Southwest credit cards, you’ll be very close to earning $3,124 in travel on Southwest and a Southwest Companion pass so that your companion can fly almost free for up to 2 years!

This is still the best deal for domestic travel.   Emily and I use our Companion Pass frequently and it’s saved us so much money.  It’s like a buy 1 get 1 free ticket, every time!

Bottom Line

You’ll get 50,000 Southwest points or $710 in travel on Southwest from the Southwest Premier (personal), Southwest Premier (business), Southwest Plus (personal), and Southwest Plus (business) card after you meet the minimum spending.  But these offers are ending June 29, 2014.

The 50,000 Southwest point sign-up bonus counts towards the Southwest Companion Pass.

With the Southwest Companion Pass, your companion travels with you for free for up to 2 years if you time it right.  That said, if you apply now, you still get the Companion Pass for ~1.5 years which is a very good deal!

I think the Southwest Premier card is worth the $99 fee for the anniversary bonus points and no foreign transaction fees.

These offers usually (no guarantees!) come back every few months.  So if you’re not ready to apply now, you should be able to later in the year.