Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card

Partner Site: Learn more about this card

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card is a feature-rich consumer credit card from Chase, which is an attractive choice for frequent flyers of Southwest Airlines. 

In this posting, I will describe major features of this card, and then will show award redemption examples.

1. Major Features

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card is an entry-level personal credit card (of three varieties of the Southwest-affiliated credit cards for consumers) and has the following major features.

1) Welcome Bonus

Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

2) 3,000 bonus points each year (after your first Cardmember anniversary) 

After your first Cardmember anniversary, you will automatically receive 3,000 bonus points each and every year. This bonus points will essentially function as a retention bonus, alleviating the burden of the annual fee.

3) Earn 2X points on select categories

You will earn 2X points on the following select categories.

  • Southwest® purchases.
  • local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
  • internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming

4) Two EarlyBird Check-In® each year

As a cardmember, you will get 2 EarlyBird Check-In® each year. With this feature, you have the convenience of automatic check-in before Southwest's traditional 24-hour check-in. Therefore, you have the benefit of an earlier boarding position, a better opportunity to select your preferred available seat, and earlier access to overhead bin storage for your carryon luggage.

Partner Site: Learn more about this card

2. Award Redemption Example

With Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, you can earn Southwest's Rapid Rewards points.

Where can you spend your hard earned Rapid Rewards points? Of course, on Southwest flights, and in recent years, Southwest has been aggressive in expanding its network, including all four islands in Hawaii.

Southwest has inter-island flights, but its main strength is its extensive network of non-stop flights, mostly from cities in West Coast.

Here is a list of non-stop flights (as of July 2022)

LIH (Kauai)

  • LIH-OAK (Oakland)
  • LIH-LAS (Las Vegas)
  • LIH-PHX (Pheonix)
  • LIH-LAX (Los Angeles)
  • LIH-SAN (San Diego)

HNL (Honolulu)

  • HNL-SMF (Sacramento)
  • HNL-OAK (Oakland)
  • HNL-SJC (San Jose)
  • HNL-LAS (Las Vegas)
  • HNL-PHX (Pheonix)
  • HNL-LAX (Los Angeles)
  • HNL-LGB (Long Beach)
  • HNL-SAN (San Diego)

OGG (Maui)

  • OGG-SMF (Sacramento)
  • OGG-OAK (Oakland)
  • OGG-LAS (Las Vegas)
  • OGG-PHX (Phoenix)
  • OGG-LAX (Los Angeles)
  • OGG-LGB (Long Beach)
  • OGG-SAN (San Diego)

KOA (Kona)

  • OGG-LAS (LAS)
  • OGG-OAK (Oakland)
  • OGG-SJC (San Jose)
  • OGG-LAX (Los Angeles)
  • OGG-SAN (San Diego)

Southwest doesn't have a fixed redemption chart, and its required points for an award ticket is correlated to a ticket price.

It may seem complicated, but with the Southwest's Low Fare Calendar, it is straightforward to find days with lowest fares (and lowest points).

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