Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card

(updated March 2026)

Partner Site: Learn more about this card

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority 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® Priority Credit Card is a premium-level personal credit card (of three varieties of the Southwest-affiliated credit cards for consumers) and has many major features.

To name a few:

1) Welcome Bonus

Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

2) 7,500 bonus points each year (after your first Cardmember anniversary) 

After your first Cardmember anniversary, you will automatically receive 7,500 bonus points each and every year. This bonus points will essentially function as a retention bonus, alleviating the burden of the annual fee.

3) First checked bag free

As a cardmember, you will enjoy first checked bag free for you and up to 8 additional passengers in the same reservation. For a family of 4 this would be a savings of up to $280 roundtrip ($35 per bag per trip).

4) Extra Legroom Seat Upgrade at 48 Hours Prior to Departure (For flights operating in 2026 and beyond)

When available, primary cardmembers will be able to upgrade to an Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours prior to flight departure for themselves and up to 8 additional Passengers on the same reservation, allowing for a total of 9 Extra Legroom seats.

Partner Site: Learn more about this card

2. Award Redemption Example

With Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Priority 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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