Southwest offers a handful of credit cards that you can use to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards Points across your everyday purchases. You can also earn points by transferring Ultimate Rewards points directly to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account. This gives you a large selection of top-notch travel credit cards to choose from.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Best overall for flexibility.
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card: Best well-rounded Southwest card.
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card: Best for frequent southwest travelers.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Best for high value and lounge access.
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card: Best for frequent Southwest business travelers.
- Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Best for flexible business travel rewards.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Best For Flexible Travel Rewards
- Earning Rate: Earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points on travel purchases through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3X on dining, online grocery purchases, and select streaming services, 2X on other travel purchases, and 1X on everything else.
- Annual Credits: $50 credit towards hotels booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
- Main Highlights: 10% bonus points annually based on how much you spent the prior cardmember year and a 25% boost to point value when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards Points = 1,000 Southwest Points.
- Intro Bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
- Annual Fee: $95.
- Summary: The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best flexible travel rewards credit cards available. Not only can you transfer points to Southwest and other programs, but you can also redeem points for 1.25 cents each through the Chase Travel portal. This provides an alternative way to get solid value out of your points if you can't find good redemption value booking with Southwest.
- Calculate Card Value & Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent for the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
- Learn More about the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card
Best Well-Rounded Southwest Card
- Earning Rate: Earns 3X Southwest Rapid Rewards Points on Southwest purchases, 2X across local transit, commuting, internet, cable, phone services, and streaming purchases, and 1X on all other purchases.
- Annual Credits: 6,000 anniversary points
- Main Highlights: Receive 2 EarlyBird Check-ins per year and earn Tier Qualifying Points spending on the card which counts towards earning the annual Companion Pass.
- Intro Bonus: Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Annual Fee: $99.
- Summary: If you don't care about the upgraded bookings offered on the Southwest Priority credit card, then you'll want to pick up this card instead.
- Calculate Card Value & Southwest Points per dollar spent for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card.
- Learn More about the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card
Best For Frequent Southwest Travelers
- Earning Rate: Earns 3X Southwest Rapid Rewards Points on Southwest purchases, 2X across local transit, commuting, internet, cable, phone services, and streaming purchases, and 1X on all other purchases.
- Annual Credits: $75 travel credit and 7,500 anniversary points.
- Main Highlights: Receive 4 upgraded bookings annually and earn Tier Qualifying Points spending on the card which counts towards earning the annual Companion Pass.
- Intro Bonus: Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Annual Fee: $149.
- Summary: Choose this Southwest card if you want to receive the 4 upgraded bookings every anniversary year that you have the card.
- Calculate Card Value & Southwest Points per dollar spent for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card.
- Learn More about the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Best Overall Value For Most Travelers
- Earning Rate: Earn 10X points on Chase Dining and both hotel and car rental purchases through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 5X on airfare through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3X on dining and other travel purchases, and 1X on everything else.
- Annual Credits: $300 travel credit.
- Main Highlights: Priority Pass Select membership, up to $100 towards a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application, top-notch travel insurance, and a 50% boost to point value on travel redemptions made through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards Points = 1,000 Southwest Points.
- Intro Bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
- Annual Fee: $550.
- Summary: High annual fee, but offers excellent value and solid benefits. If you can't find solid redemption value with Southwest, you can redeem points through Chase Travel for a very nice 1.5 cents each. Great option if you still want access to lounges before and between your Southwest flights.
- Calculate Card Value & Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent for the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
- Learn More about the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
Best For Frequent Southwest Business Travelers
- Earning Rate: Earns 4X Southwest points on Southwest purchases, 3X points on purchases made with Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners, 2X points on local transit and commuting, social media and search engine advertising, and internet, cable, and phone services, and 1X points on everything else.
- Annual Credits: 9,000 anniversary points and $8 per day for in-flight Wi-Fi on Southwest flights.
- Main Highlights: 4 upgraded bookings per anniversary year, up to $100 towards a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee, and the ability to earn Tier Qualifying Points on card spend which counts towards earning the annual Companion Pass.
- Intro Bonus: Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Annual Fee: $199.
- Summary: Fantastic option for frequent business travelers. It's a bit of a high pricing point annual fee wise, but between the upgraded bookings, 4X points on flights, anniversary points, and whatever you can make back from the Wi-Fi credit, it should be well worth it.
- Calculate Card Value & Southwest Points per dollar spent for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card.
- Learn More about the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card.
Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Best For Flexible Business Travel Rewards
- Earning Rate: Earn 3X points on up to $150,000 on travel, shipping, internet, cable services, phone services, and advertising purchases each account anniversary year. All other purchases earn 1X.
- Main Highlights: 25% point value boost towards travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards Points = 1,000 Southwest Points.
- Intro Bonus: New Cardmember Offer! Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Annual Fee: $95.
- Summary: The Ink Business Preferred is the best business credit card for earning points on business purchases and travel. Points earned with the card can be transferred to Southwest and other partners as well as be redeemed for 1.25 cents each towards travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
- Calculate Card Value & Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent for the Ink Business Preferred Card.
- Learn More about the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card.
Best Credit Card Offers For Southwest
Want to boost your Rapid Rewards balance? Here are the best credit card offers currently available for earning Southwest points from our partners. This table is updated automatically whenever our partner offers change, so you will always find the most up-to-date bonuses listed.
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Southwest Points Calculator
Use the Southwest Points Calculator to find out which credit cards will earn you the most Southwest Points based on the spend amounts you enter.
Results will be sorted by net return which is the average value of the rewards earned, plus annual credits, and minus annual fees. You'll want to take into consideration the benefits a card offers as well on top of the estimated value calculated.
Results will consist of top-rated credit cards that either earn Southwest Points directly or earn rewards that can be transferred directly to the Southwest Rapid Rewards program.
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These estimates are to help guide you towards making the best decision when it comes to picking up a rewards credit card. They should be used for illustrative purposes only.
You can click on the estimated earnings to see the calculations or click on the card to learn more and apply for the card through our partners.
Do note that all spend amounts entered into the tool above will carry over to every credit card rewards calculator on the site, so there's no need to re-enter spend if you choose to dive deeper into calculating rewards for credit cards on the site.
**Amount of rewards when transferred to program.
