Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
You’re going to want to sit down for this.
You can now earn the Southwest Companion Pass (the best deal in travel) with a single credit card sign-up bonus. The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card offers up to 100,000 Southwest points after you meet tiered spending requirements:
- 70,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening
- 30,000 additional bonus points after spending $25,000 on purchases within the first six months of account opening
You can earn one or both of these tiers. This is the biggest available bonus of any Southwest credit card (by far).
You’ll find Southwest points value to generally be 1.5 cents each toward travel on Southwest. That means you can expect to receive $1,500 in flights from this bonus — but I’ll explain why this particular offer is worth up to $3,000+ in travel.
The Southwest Performance Business card has a $199 annual fee, but comes with the following perks that can easily make it worth paying:
- 3 Southwest points per dollar on Southwest purchases and Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners
- 2 Southwest points per dollar on social media and search advertising purchases
- 2 Southwest points per dollar on internet, cable and phone service purchases
- 1 Southwest points per dollar on all other purchases
- 9,000 Southwest points every cardmember anniversary (worth ~$135 in Southwest flights)
- 4 upgraded boardings per year (when available)
- In-flight WiFi credits – Up to 365 $8 WiFi credits per year!
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit (worth up to $100)
- 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points after every $10,000 in purchases (on up to $100,000 in purchases every cardmember year)
- No foreign transaction fees
We estimate Southwest points value to be average of ~1.5 cents each toward Southwest flights, so this card’s bonus can get you $1,500+ in Southwest airfare (you can read our Southwest Rapid Rewards review for more details). That’s a lot of travel for just a $199 annual fee — but in reality, the bonus can easily be worth much more.
Once you include the 25,000+ Southwest points you’ll earn from meeting the card’s minimum spending requirement, you’ll have at least 125,000 points. That’s exactly the amount needed to qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass, which allows you to bring along a friend or family member every time you fly Southwest, for just the cost of taxes and fees! Your Companion Pass will be valid the entire calendar year you earn it, as well as the following calendar year. If you earn it in 2020, it’ll be good until December 31, 2021.
Let’s do some quick math: 125,000 will provide you with ~$1,875 in free flights. If you were to bring along a friend for every flight, you’d effectively double the value of your points. That’s a value of $3,750 in Southwest flights by opening just one card and earning its full bonus.
This card has the highest earning rate for Southwest purchases of any Southwest credit card, as well. Just note that it’s a Chase card, so it’ll be restricted by the Chase 5/24 rule, which means you won’t be able to qualify for the card if you’ve opened five or more credit cards from any bank in the past 24 months (not including business cards from Chase and some other banks).
Getting approved for the best business credit cards can be easier than you think, the Southwest Performance Business included; even a part-time gig can qualify you. My wife qualifies as a freelance artist and you could be eligible too if you have a side business like driving for Uber or Lyft, selling things for a profit on eBay or even dog walking. Plus, if you’re a sole proprietor you can use your social security number as your business tax ID and your name as your business name. That’s is how I fill out all my business card applications.
Check out this guide on how to qualify for small business card for more help with your application.
Chase does have some specific application rules for Southwest cards. For example, you won’t qualify for a personal Southwest card if you currently have any other personal Southwest card or have earned an intro bonus from any personal Southwest card in the past 24 months. But you can have a Southwest personal credit card and a Southwest business credit card at the same time.
And you’ll be allowed to have both Southwest business cards at the same time. So if you have or have had the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card, you can still apply for the Southwest Performance Business card.
For the latest tips and tricks on traveling big without spending a fortune, please subscribe to the Million Mile Secrets daily email newsletter.
Featured image by Valentin Valkov/Shutterstock