Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Loyalty Program Review

There are several credit cards you can use to earn Rapid Rewards points directly or through points transfer.

Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Cards

You can earn Rapid Rewards directly with any of 3 co-branded Chase cards.

Hot Tip: Check out the benefits of the best Southwest credit cards!

Chase Ultimate Rewards Credit Cards

If you earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, you can get more Rapid Rewards points even quicker thanks to numerous bonus categories.

Personal Cards

Business Cards

Hotel Partner Credit Cards

A few hotel programs will let you transfer points to Southwest. However, this is almost always a poor use of hotel points. Unless you are really in a bind, save your hotel points for hotel award stays at your destination.

Southwest’s place in the public mind is still as a U.S. budget airline, and Rapid Rewards is Southwest’s loyalty program.

Today’s reality is that Southwest is one of the largest U.S. airlines that also flies to a number of popular vacation destinations in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Southwest has stayed true to its customer-friendly policies such as 2 free checked bags per person on every ticket, while the “legacy” U.S. airlines have frequently cut travel benefits. With the rollout of restrictive basic economy fares on American, Delta, and United, you could even consider these as more “budget” airlines now based on travel experience.

Rapid Rewards is a revenue-based program, meaning you earn points based on the amount spent on flights rather than distance flown. Similarly, you redeem points based on the price of the ticket. However, point values are not fixed — they fluctuate based on several factors, so pick what flights to use them on to get the best value.

Joining Rapid Rewards

Vist the Southwest website to join for free here.

How to Sign in to Your Rapid Rewards Account

Sign in on the southwest.com homepage. You’ll need your account number or username and password.

Viewing Your Account Activity

Use the My Rapid Rewards page to manage your profile and see your account snapshot, activity, and promotions.

Points Expiration

Rapid Rewards points expire after 24 months of inactivity. Any earning or redeeming activity qualifies to reset the clock.

Southwest Airlines A-List Status

Rapid Rewards has 2 elite status levels, A-List and A-List Preferred.

A-List Benefits:

• Priority check-in and security
• Priority boarding
• Free same-day standby
• 25% point bonus

A-List Preferred Benefits:

• All A-List benefits, plus
• Free inflight Wi-Fi
• 100% point bonus

Value of Rapid Rewards Elite Status

Southwest Airlines does not have first class seats or worldwide airline partners, so many of the elite benefits of other airline programs are not relevant. Similarly, since Southwest tickets come with free checked baggage and their generous change/cancel policy, elite status holders don’t need these kinds of fee waivers.

What A-List and A-List Preferred do add are a few choice travel benefits that improve the Southwest flying experience.

Without advance seat assignments, priority boarding through A-List is a great benefit.

Moving up to A-List Preferred, free inflight Wi-Fi is a benefit provided by no other U.S. airline elite status.

Beyond A-List Preferred there is the Companion Pass that we discuss below. It does not come with any traditional elite benefits, but it solely awards free companion travel. It is also earned by a different method than A-List, making it possible to have a Companion Pass without A-List status.

Earning A-List Status

A-List is earned by 25 one-way flights or 35,000 Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) per calendar year.

A-List Preferred requires double that: 50 one-way flights or 70,000 Tier Qualifying Points.

Tier Qualifying Points are only earned in 2 ways:

• Paid Southwest flights
• Spending on Southwest Airlines credit cards (1,500 TQP per $10,000 spend, up to maximum 15,000 TQP earned this way).

There are many ways to earn Rapid Rewards points. Our earn 100k+ Southwest points in 90 days shows how fast you can do it!

Flying Southwest

You earn Rapid Rewards points for Southwest flights based on your fare type and price:

• Business Select – 12 points per dollar (excludes taxes and fees)
• Anytime – 10 points per dollar (excludes taxes and fees)
• Wanna Get Away – 6 points per dollar (excludes taxes and fees)

Travelers with A-List status earn additional bonus points:

• A-List — 25% bonus Rapid Rewards points
• A-List Preferred— 100% bonus Rapid Rewards points

Flying Partner Airlines

Southwest does not have partner airlines.

Earn Points With Rental Car Partners

Earn 600 points per rental when you book a car through Southwest’s rental car partners.

These are especially useful for rentals with agencies where many other airlines offer few or no miles: Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty, and Payless. You can also earn points with Avis, Hertz, and National.

Even better, check out special offers for rental cars. Current offers for Rapid Rewards members include 1,200-2,400 bonus points plus up to 35% off rentals through January 2018!

Earn Points With Other Partners

Rapid Rewards has many additional partners. See Best Ways to Earn Lots of Southwest Rapid Rewards Points for our picks.

Earn Points With Credit Card Partners

Southwest offers 3 credit cards through its bank partner Chase:

• The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card earns 2x on Southwest purchases and Rapid Rewards^® Hotel and Car Rental Partner purchases, plus a 6,000-point bonus every card anniversary
• The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card earns 2x on Southwest purchases and Rapid Rewards^® Hotel and Car Rental Partner purchases, plus a 3,000-point bonus every card anniversary
• The Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Card earns 2x on Southwest purchases, plus a 6,000-point bonus every card anniversary

Chase credit cards with Ultimate Rewards earn points quickly in bonus categories, which can be seen in the table below.

You need at least 1 premium travel rewards card (“*” in below table) to transfer to Southwest. As long as you have 1 eligible transfer card, you can consolidate all your Ultimate Rewards points to that card.

Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Rapid Rewards at a 1:1 rate.

Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal

Southwest’s shopping portal allows you to earn points for shopping online. Once registered, check your email for regular promotions to earn extra bonus miles.

See our guide on How to Maximize the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal.

 The Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining Program

Southwest’s Dining Program earns 3 points per dollar when dining at restaurants in the network. (If you decline to receive email notifications you only earn 1 point per $2.)

Sign-up bonuses range from 300 to 2,000 points and change from time to time. Bonuses typically require at least 1 qualifying dine within 30 days of registration, so plan ahead prior to joining.

Rapid Rewards Dining is provided by Rewards Network, which also manages the other major airline dining programs. You can be in multiple programs, though each credit card can only be registered in 1 program at a time.

See our guide on How to Maximize the Rapid Rewards Dining Program.

Southwest awards are only available on Southwest flights and are revenue-based, so finding awards is straightforward: search on Southwest.com to show the price in points.

This does not mean points are the same value for every flight. Points value is based on “destination, time, travel date, demand, fare class, and other factors.”

Often, Southwest points price at:

• Business Select fare: 120 points/$1 (e.g., $300 fare = 36,000 points)

• Anytime fare: 100 points/$1 (e.g., $300 fare = 30,000 points)

• Wanna Get Away fare: 70 points/$1 (e.g., $300 fare = 21,000 points)

The Southwest Destination Finder is a good tool to search routes and estimate price, though you still need to search for the points price on specific flights.

The Companion Pass

The Southwest Companion Pass is unique among U.S. airlines and prized by many travelers.

You’ll be granted the Companion Pass after earning 110,000 points in a calendar year by the following means:

• Southwest flights (base points only, not bonus points)
• Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card sign-up bonus and purchases
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining purchases
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping portal purchases

What doesn’t count (these rules were updated April 1, 2017 to eliminate options such as partner hotel transfers):

• Points transferred from other programs or accounts such as Chase Ultimate Rewards or hotel partners
• Purchased points
• Flight bonus points
• Tier bonus points
• Points earned from surveys
• Partner bonus points

Timing the Companion Pass

The Companion Pass is valid from the date it is earned to December 31 of the following year.

If you earn 110,000 points in January, you’ll have nearly 2 years of Companion Pass!

Picking a Companion

You must designate a companion for your Companion Pass.

Should you need to change companions, you can do so up to 3 times per year.

Your companion cannot use the Companion Pass without you, so you must be present on all travel using the pass. It is possible to book your companion for only a portion of your itinerary.

How to Use the Companion Pass

You can use the Companion Pass on any paid or award Southwest travel. Enjoy!