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Best Credit Cards For Southwest Points

Unlock the potential of earning the most Southwest Points with our selection of the best credit cards tailored for travel enthusiasts.
By Robert Flowers III - 2023-12-29

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.

Here's our top credit card picks for earning Southwest Points:

Use Our Calculator To Maximize Your Southwest Points

Discover personalized credit card options that match your spending habits and maximizes your points.

Simply input your monthly and yearly spend amounts into our easy-to-use calculator to find the best Southwest credit card options for you!


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.

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.

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.

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 Travel℠.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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: Earn 100k bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 cash back or $1,250 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Travel℠
  • 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.

Southwest Points Calculator: Which Card Is Best For You?

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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Calculator Options
What Type of Rewards Do You Want To Earn?
This calculator can output the best credit cards for a general rewards type or compile a list of the best credit cards for earning rewards with a specific loyalty program.
Frequent Flyer Programs
Select the frequent flyer program that you want to earn rewards for. Results will include all co-branded credit cards offered by the selected airline and all credit cards partners that allow you to transfer rewards to the selected airline.
Hotel Loyalty Programs
Select the hotel loyalty program that you want to earn rewards for. Results will include all co-branded credit cards offered by the selected hotel program and all credit cards partners that allow you to transfer rewards to the selected hotel program.
Other Loyalty Programs
Select the program that you want to earn rewards for. Results will include all credit cards offered by the selected program and all credit cards partners that allow you to transfer rewards to the selected program.
Personal Or Business?
Are you looking for personal (consumer) credit card or business credit cards? You can also include both in the results.
Include Intro Bonuses?
If set to yes, intro bonuses will be included for a card's calculation ONLY IF you have met the monthly spend criteria based on what's entered into the tool.
Do note that we do not have intro bonuses for all credit cards and we cannot calculate intro bonuses for some cards due to the complexity of some spend requirements.
Enter Your Monthly & Yearly Spend Amounts
Resets all fields in the Category Spending section for all columns. Also clears all saved spend values that carry from calculator to calculator.
Deletes all categories in the Category Spending section so you can start fresh.
Add Categories
Search for categories and click 'Add Category' to add it to the calculator. If you want to be more specific, you can specify domestic or international spend.
Type at least 3 characters.
Category Currently Selected:
Spend Region:
About Spend Region: Some credit cards feature categories that only earn rewards when spending in a certain region. Changing this category to Domestic or International spend will calculate such for those cards, otherwise it's assumed by Default.

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Results

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.