The Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority is Chase’s top personal Southwest card: a $229 annual fee, 7,500 anniversary points, 4x on Southwest, a free Preferred seat at booking, unlimited Extra Legroom upgrades within 48 hours, and the free first checked bag and Group 5 boarding for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation.
The 2025 refresh took away the $75 Southwest travel credit and the four upgraded boardings that used to make this card an easy keep, so the math is different now. Below is how it earns, what each perk takes, the protections in Chase’s own numbers, the application rules, the Companion Pass angle, and my verdict.
Update, October 2026: Southwest is overhauling Rapid Rewards on January 1, 2027. Card welcome bonuses stop counting toward the Companion Pass, A-List becomes Silver and A-List Preferred becomes Gold, and every Southwest card, the Priority included, starts earning 1 tier qualifying point per dollar toward status. The card’s own perks (free bag, Group 5 boarding, seats) stay the same. The details are below and in my Southwest Companion Pass guide.
Is the $229 fee worth it for you? Add up the credits you’d really use with the calculator near the end of this review, or see how it stacks up against the other premium cards.
Southwest Priority at a glance
- Annual fee: $229
- Best available offer: 90,000 points after $3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months on Chase’s Southwest Priority page and Southwest’s credit card page, until December 2, 2026 (as of November 9, 2026) No affiliate link
- Is it the best ever?: No, but close. It’s the same 90,000 for $3,000 of spend as May to July 2, 2026; the highest was 100,000 points (after $4,000) in summer 2025. Approved by December 2, the bonus still counts toward a Companion Pass that lasts through 2027.
- Foreign transaction fee: None
- Best for: Regular Southwest flyers who want a Preferred seat at booking and Extra Legroom seats when they open up, on top of the free bag and boarding for the whole reservation.
- Skip it if: You fly Southwest a few times a year at most; the $99 Plus has the same free bag and Group 5 boarding, and the Priority’s real cost is about $130 a year after the anniversary points.
- Bank’s page: Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority on chase.com
The highlights
- 4x Southwest, 2x gas stations and restaurants (no cap listed), 5x Lyft through 12/31/2027, 1x elsewhere
- Top tier: free first checked bag for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation, tied for the most companions of any card I review (United’s cards cover one companion, the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select four)
- A free Preferred seat at booking and unlimited Extra Legroom upgrades within 48 hours of departure, when available, for up to 9 seats on the reservation
- Group 5 boarding for the whole reservation
- 7,500 anniversary points each anniversary year (the old $75 Southwest credit is gone)
- Through 2026, 2,500 tier qualifying points toward A-List for every $5,000 you spend; from January 1, 2027, 1 tier qualifying point per $1 (no cap) toward Silver, Gold and Platinum, the same as every Southwest card
- Through December 31, 2026: 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points a year, and the card’s points, welcome bonus included, count toward the pass. From 2027 the pass is earned with tier qualifying points and card bonuses no longer count (what’s changing)
- 25% back on inflight drinks and Wi-Fi, including authorized users’ purchases
- $10 monthly Instacart credit while you have Instacart+ (3 months free), DashPass plus $10 off one non-restaurant DoorDash order a month (a quarter if you activated DashPass before 9/1/2026), through 12/31/2027
- Lost luggage, baggage delay, secondary rental car coverage, purchase protection and extended warranty; no foreign transaction fees
How it earns
| Category | Rate | Caps and fine print |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines purchases | 4x | Flights, inflight, Southwest gift cards and Getaways packages; cruises, charters and cargo excluded |
| Gas stations and restaurants | 2x | No cap listed on the card page |
| Lyft rides in the Lyft app | 5x | Through 12/31/2027; gift cards and car rentals excluded |
| Everything else | 1x | — |
I value Southwest points at a minimum of 1.3 cents each toward Southwest fares (see what points and miles are worth), they don’t expire, and they stay in Southwest (they don’t transfer to other programs). Through December 31, 2026, every point you earn on the card also counts toward the Companion Pass, and every $5,000 you spend adds 2,500 tier qualifying points toward A-List. From January 1, 2027, the card instead earns 1 tier qualifying point per dollar toward Southwest status and the new Companion Pass levels (95,000 for three companion trips, 140,000 for Platinum with unlimited trips), and welcome bonuses and bonus-category points stop counting toward the pass.
Credits and how to use them
See when each of these credits resets, and how many days you have left on each, in my credit card credits calendar.
The $75 Southwest travel credit and the four upgraded boardings ended after December 31, 2025. What’s left is the anniversary points plus partner perks that depend on services you may not use.
| Credit | Amount | How often | Where / how | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anniversary points | 7,500 points | Each account anniversary | Automatic | Worth roughly $98 toward Southwest fares. The easiest benefit on the card. |
| Inflight purchases | 25% back | Ongoing | Statement credit on Southwest inflight drinks and Wi-Fi, including authorized users’ purchases | — |
| Instacart credit | $10 a month | Monthly | One $10+ Instacart order while you’re an Instacart+ member | Only the first 3 months of Instacart+ are free; after that it renews at $99 a year unless you cancel, so this is only worth it if you’d pay for Instacart+ anyway. Through 12/31/2027; unused months don’t roll over. |
| DoorDash non-restaurant promo | $10 off one order a month | Monthly (quarterly if you activated DashPass before 9/1/2026) | Grocery, convenience and other non-restaurant DoorDash orders with DashPass | Needs its own non-restaurant order each month. Through 12/31/2027. |
| DashPass membership | 12 months free | Once | Activate between 2/1/2025 and 12/31/2027 | Renews at the monthly rate afterward unless you cancel. |
Seats, bags, boarding and other perks
- Preferred seat at booking: a free Preferred seat when you book, when available, for you and up to 8 people on the reservation. The Plus and Premier only let you pick a seat within 48 hours of departure.
- Extra Legroom upgrades: unlimited free upgrades to an Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours of departure, when available, for up to 9 seats on the reservation. Southwest’s boarding page puts Extra Legroom seats on Choice and Choice Preferred fares in Group 2, and Chase’s terms say cardmembers can board earlier than Group 5 based on seat type, but neither page spells out the boarding group for an upgraded seat.
- Free first checked bag for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation, on Southwest-operated flights, as long as your Rapid Rewards number is on the reservation. Chase puts the savings at $45 per bag each way. Authorized users aren’t eligible.
- Group 5 boarding for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation. Since Southwest moved to assigned seats, everyone boards in groups 1 to 8: A-List members (Silver and Gold from 2027) and Choice Extra fares go first, cardmembers are in Group 5 unless they qualify for something earlier, and Basic fares board last in Group 8. With assigned seats this mostly decides how much overhead bin space is left.
- Tier qualifying points: 2,500 toward A-List for every $5,000 in purchases through December 31, 2026. A-List boards in Group 1. From January 1, 2027, every Southwest card earns 1 tier qualifying point per $1 with no cap, so $35,000 of spending alone reaches Silver (the new name for A-List), $65,000 Gold and, with a one-time 10,000-point boost in 2027, $130,000 Platinum, which comes with unlimited Companion Pass trips.
- Companion Pass: through December 31, 2026, the card adds 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points a year and every point earned on it, welcome bonus included, counts toward the 135,000 needed; a pass earned in 2026 lasts through December 31, 2027. From January 1, 2027, Southwest retires those points: the pass is earned with tier qualifying points (95,000 for three companion trips, 140,000 for Platinum status with unlimited trips), and welcome, referral and anniversary bonuses and bonus-category points no longer count. A card approved by December 2, 2026 still gets its welcome bonus counted toward the pass even if you finish the spend in early 2027. The Companion Pass lets one person you choose fly with you for just the taxes (from $5.60 each way).
- Southwest perks for everyone: no change fees (you pay any fare difference), no blackout dates on reward seats, and points that don’t expire.
Insurance and protections
| Benefit | What the bank says |
|---|---|
| Auto rental collision damage waiver | Up to $60,000 for theft and collision damage, secondary in the U.S. (primary outside the U.S. or if you have no other insurance), rentals up to 31 days; you have to decline the rental company’s CDW. This comes from the guide to benefits; the card page doesn’t list it. |
| Trip delay | None |
| Trip cancellation / interruption | None |
| Baggage delay | Up to $100 a day for up to 3 days after a 6-hour delay One-way and award tickets: Yes to both: the guide covers round-trip or one-way fares paid all or in part with the card or its rewards, so putting the award taxes on the card counts. |
| Lost luggage | Up to $3,000 per covered traveler ($2,000 per bag and $10,000 per trip for New York residents) One-way and award tickets: Yes to both, same rule as baggage delay. |
| Travel accident insurance | Up to $500,000 on common carrier trips when all or part of the fare is on the card (per the guide) |
| Roadside assistance | Pay-per-use dispatch at a pre-negotiated price, not free |
| Purchase protection | 120 days, up to $500 per item (90 days for New York residents) |
| Extended warranty | Adds one year to U.S. warranties of three years or less |
The card page lists lost luggage, baggage delay, purchase protection and extended warranty. The rental car, travel accident and roadside terms, and the one-way and award ticket rules, come from the Guide to Benefits that the card page links to (Visa Signature, effective 10/01/24). Claims need receipts and the airline’s delay or loss report.
For how this compares with other cards, see my card travel benefits comparison.
Application rules for this card
- You can’t get this card if you have any Southwest personal card open now (Plus, Premier or Priority), and the bonus isn’t available if you received a new cardmember bonus on any Southwest personal card in the last 24 months. Chase’s page says this doesn’t apply to the Southwest business cards, so you can hold one personal and one business Southwest card (Chase rules).
- Chase’s 5/24 rule applies: you’ll be denied if you’ve opened 5 or more personal cards from any bank in the last 24 months.
- Because of the one-card rule, pick the Southwest card you want before you apply; you can’t collect bonuses on the Plus, Premier and Priority one after another.
The full rules for every bank are in my credit card application rules guide.
My take
A $229 fee minus the 7,500 anniversary points (roughly $98) makes it about $131 a year in my eyes, compared with about $60 for the Plus. What the extra $70 or so buys you is a Preferred seat at booking, Extra Legroom upgrades when they’re open, 4x instead of 2x on Southwest and 2,500 tier points per $5,000 (through 2026; from 2027 every Southwest card earns tier points at the same 1 per dollar). If you fly Southwest often and care where you sit, that can be worth it; if you fly it a couple of times a year, the Plus does the important part.
Without the old $75 credit, this is no longer the card that pays for itself that it used to be. The Companion Pass angle is the same on all three cards, and it’s mostly over: through December 31, 2026, the welcome bonus and the yearly 10,000-point boost still count toward the 135,000 qualifying points, and a pass earned this year lasts through 2027. From January 1, 2027, card bonuses no longer count, every Southwest card earns the same 1 tier qualifying point per dollar (so the Priority’s tier-point edge goes away), and the pass takes 95,000 tier points for three companion trips or 140,000 for Platinum. I go through what’s changing and the last-chance plan in my Southwest Companion Pass guide.
If you want this card, now is a good time: Chase’s and Southwest’s card pages are offering 90,000 points after $3,000 until December 2, 2026, the same as the May to July 2026 offer and far better than the 60,000 Chase’s page showed until late October.
The catch
$229 with no travel credit any more: the $75 Southwest credit and four upgraded boardings ended after 2025, so the case now rests on 7,500 anniversary points, the seat perks and the tier points. Seat selection and Extra Legroom upgrades are only “when available,” so on full flights they may not be there.
Southwest’s 2025 and 2026 changes (bag fees for everyone else, assigned seats, Basic fares that board last) made the card perks more useful, but they also made Southwest points less of a slam dunk than they used to be. The bag benefit only works on Southwest-operated flights with your Rapid Rewards number on the reservation.
The Instacart and DoorDash perks only help if you already pay for or use those services, and the Instacart credit needs a $99-a-year membership after the free 3 months. Chase, like other banks with similar hard-to-use credits, hopes that you forget to use these benefits.
Keep it after year one?
The fee to me is $229 minus the 7,500 anniversary points (about $98), which is roughly $131. Keep it if you fly Southwest often enough that a Preferred seat at booking and Extra Legroom upgrades matter to you. If you mostly want the free bag and boarding, the Plus does that for about $70 a year less; Chase doesn’t offer a no-fee Southwest card, so ask Chase what it can switch you to before you cancel.
Is it worth it for you?
Almost any card is worth it in the first year because of the welcome bonus, so the bonus isn’t the question. The question is whether the credits and benefits you’d really use cover the annual fee every year after that. Tick what you’d use without changing your habits, and lower any amount you’d only use part of. Benefits without a price tag, like lounge access, start at $0: put in what they’re worth to you. Points you earn from spending aren’t counted here. “Start with the easy ones” ticks the credits I count as easy above.
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You pay the full $229 a year.
Tick what you would really use and the total updates.
Offer history
Best offer today: 90,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months. Close to its 2-year high. The best offer since November 2024 was 100,000 points after $4,000 in 5 months (about Jul 24, 2025 to about Sept 18, 2025). Raised for a limited time 7 times in the last two years.
| When | Best available offer |
|---|---|
| about Oct 27, 2026 to today | 90,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months (limited time) |
| Jul 2, 2026 to Nov 9, 2026 | 60,000 points after $2,000 in 3 months (bank’s public page) |
| May 28, 2026 to Jul 2, 2026 | 90,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months (limited time) |
| about Mar 19, 2026 to about May 28, 2026 | 60,000 points after $2,000 in 3 months |
| about Feb 10, 2026 to about Mar 19, 2026 | Companion Pass (through Feb 28, 2027) + 40,000 points after $5,000 in 3 months (limited time) |
| about Dec 16, 2025 to about Feb 10, 2026 | 50,000 points after $1,000 in 3 months |
| Oct 28, 2025 to Dec 16, 2025 | 85,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months (limited time) |
| about Sept 18, 2025 to about Oct 28, 2025 | 50,000 points after $1,000 in 3 months |
| about Jul 24, 2025 to about Sept 18, 2025 | 100,000 points after $4,000 in 5 months (limited time) ★ 2-year high |
| Apr 2025 to about Jul 24, 2025 | 50,000 points after $1,000 in 3 months |
| Feb 2025 to about Mar 23, 2025 | Companion Pass (through Feb 28, 2026) + 30,000 points after $4,000 in 3 months (limited time) |
| about Dec 16, 2024 to Feb 2025 | 50,000 points after $1,000 in 3 months (1 source) |
| Nov 12, 2024 to Dec 16, 2024 | 40,000 points + $400 statement credit after $3,000 in 4 months (limited time) |
| Oct 2024 to about Nov 12, 2024 | 50,000 points after $1,000 in 3 months |
| about Sept 18, 2024 to Oct 2024 | 85,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months (limited time) |
The best offer you could get on your own at the time: the bank’s public page, plus direct landing pages, in-branch, in-flight and phone offers (marked). Referral and targeted offers are left out, and nothing here is an affiliate link. “About” means the exact switch day isn’t known. Last checked: November 9, 2026. Compare every card’s offer history.
Quick Answers
$229 a year as of October 2026. It isn’t waived the first year, and the old $75 annual Southwest credit ended after December 31, 2025.
As of November 9, 2026 the best offer is 90,000 points after $3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months, on Chase’s and Southwest’s card pages until December 2, 2026.
No. The $75 Southwest credit and the four upgraded boardings a year ended after December 31, 2025. In their place the card has a free Preferred seat at booking, unlimited Extra Legroom upgrades within 48 hours, Group 5 boarding and a free checked bag for you and up to 8 people on the reservation.
Only if you care about seats. After the anniversary points it costs about $131 a year versus about $60 for the Plus, and the extra buys a Preferred seat at booking, Extra Legroom upgrades and 4x on Southwest. Both cards get the free checked bag and Group 5 boarding.
No. Chase only lets you hold one Southwest personal card, and the bonus isn’t available if you got a Southwest personal card bonus in the last 24 months. You can hold a Southwest business card alongside it.
Only through December 31, 2026, or for a card approved by December 2, 2026. From January 1, 2027, Southwest no longer counts welcome, referral or anniversary bonuses toward the pass. It’s earned with tier qualifying points instead, and every Southwest card earns 1 per dollar of spending: 95,000 for three companion trips, 140,000 for Platinum with unlimited trips.
Card terms change often, so confirm on the bank’s page before you apply. There are no affiliate or referral links on this site, ever; links go to the bank’s own page.
Changelog
- November 9, 2026: Southwest card welcome offers are now on Chase’s own card pages too (Plus 80,000 after $1,000, Premier 85,000 after $2,000, Priority 90,000 after $3,000, until December 2, 2026; Chase’s pages had shown 50,000 / 55,000 / 60,000)
- October 27, 2026: Southwest Priority offer: My take and the bonus answer in Quick Answers now give the 90,000-point offer instead of 60,000.
- October 27, 2026: Southwest Premier offer 55,000 points after $1,500 → 85,000 after $2,000 and Southwest Priority 60,000 after $2,000 → 90,000 after $3,000 in 3 months, on Southwest’s credit card page until December 2, 2026 (Chase’s own pages still show the old offers)
- October 15, 2026: Updated for Southwest’s 2027 Rapid Rewards overhaul: card bonuses stop counting toward the Companion Pass after 2026, every Southwest card earns 1 tier qualifying point per $1 from January 1, 2027, and A-List becomes Silver.
- The Companion Pass math changes in 2027: the welcome bonus no longer counts toward the pass, and earning it takes 95,000 to 140,000 tier qualifying points, which is $95,000 to $140,000 of spending on the card by itself.
- October 15, 2026: Offer history now tracks the best available offer (direct-link, in-branch, in-flight and phone offers added and marked).
- October 14, 2026: Offer history rebuilt with every public offer since October 2024 and its dates (the old list was short and partly wrong).
- October 14, 2026: The $10 DoorDash non-restaurant promo is now monthly for anyone who first activates DashPass from September 1, 2026 (quarterly for earlier activations).
Last checked: October 14, 2026.