Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card Review (2021.4 Update: 80k or 70k+30k Offer)

Application Link

Benefits

1. 80k offer: earn 80,000 Southwest Miles after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.
2. We value Southwest Miles at 1.5 cents/point (Airline Miles Value), so the 80k highest offer is worth about $1,200. See A Beginner’s Guide to Southwest Miles to check for details about Southwest Miles.
3. Earn 3x Southwest miles per dollar spent on Southwest Airlines; earn 2x miles on social media and search engine advertising, Internet, cable, and phone services; earn 1x mile per dollar spent on all other purchases.
4. After each year anniversary and pay the annual fee, you will be credited 9k Southwest miles.
5. 4 Upgraded Boardings per year when available (card membership year). The Upgraded Boardings are usually purchased in the airport, and the price is $30~$50. The Upgraded Boardings are very useful for Southwest Airlines, because unlike other airlines, in Southwest Airlines whoever get in flight first can choose any seat he/she wants.
6. Inflight WiFi Credits: limited to a total of 365 $8 credits per year.
7. Earn tier qualifying points towards A-List status: You’ll earn 1,500 tier qualifying points (TQPs) for each $10,000 in purchases up to $100,000 in purchases annually which equal 15,000 TQP.
8. Up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck application fee.
9. If you earn 125k Southwest miles in a year, you get the Southwest companion pass certificate which is valid until the end of next calendar year!
10. No foreign transaction fee.

Disadvantage

1. Annual fee $199, not waived first year.
2. Southwest doesn’t have airlines partners, so the miles can only be redeemed for Southwest Airlines itself. Southwest can only fly to the US and some central America and Caribbean countries, no further international routes.

Recommended Application Time

1. [5/24 Rule] If you have 5 or more new accounts opened in the past 24 months, Chase will not approve your application on this card, no matter how high your credit score is. The number of new accounts includes all credit card accounts, not only Chase accounts. See this post for details about how to possibly bypass this rule.
2. This product is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months. Note that what matters here is the time you got the sign-up bonus, not the time you open the account or close the account.
3. Don’t apply for more than 2 Chase credit cards within 30 days, or it’s highly likely that you will get rejected.
4. We recommend you to apply for this card after you have a credit history for more than a year.

Summary

According to the current terms, the Southwest business credit cards will not affect each other, so you can get both. (Note that you can only choose one from the three for personal cards.)

The sign-up bonus is good. If you apply for a personal Southwest card and a business Southwest card, both when have the highest sign-up bonus, then you will earn more than 125k Southwest miles in total, which is more than enough to get you a Companion Pass (Note that you can’t get two personal Southwest cards at the same time now). The best timing to get it is the beginning of a calendar year, because it will be valid until the end of next calendar year!

Among the Southwest cobranded cards, the inflight wifi benefit and the ability to earn TQP is unique. The upgraded boarding benefit is also useful for frequent Southwest flyers. But the annual fee $199 is really high. Therefore you need to ask yourself whether the benefits are worth the annual fee for you.

Related Credit Cards

The current terms basically force you to choose only one personal Southwest credit card among the three. But you can have both personal and business cards.

Recommended Downgrade Options

• You can not downgrade this card to any card with no annual fee, so I suggest you close it when you don’t want to keep it any longer.

After Applying

• Call 800-436-7927 to check Chase application status. This is an automated telephone line, and the information has the following meanings: Receive decision in 2 weeks means your application is probably approved; Receive decision in 7-10 days means your application is probably rejected; Receive decision in 30 days simply means your application requires further review and there’s nothing to tell you for now.
• Chase reconsideration backdoor number: 888-270-2127 or 888-609-7805. Call it if you didn’t get approve immediately. Your personal information will be acquired and they will then review it. You seldom answer questions, instead, just enjoy the music and then you get approved or rejected, or further information is needed to be hand in to the branch or faxed.

Historical Offers Chart

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