Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Card
$299 annual fee · $30/yr in printed statement credits · 1x on everything else · no foreign transaction fees
Terms verified 2026-08-21 against issuer terms · welcome offer re-checked 2026-10-28
Earn rates · how we got this
| Category | Rate | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Hotels | 2x 2.4¢ per $1 |
uncapped |
| Gas | 2x 2.4¢ per $1 |
uncapped |
| Dining | 2x 2.4¢ per $1 |
uncapped |
| Transit | 2x 2.4¢ per $1 |
uncapped |
| Everything else | 1x 1.2¢ per $1 |
uncapped |
| Flights at Southwest only — anywhere else in this category the card earns its base rate, so it is excluded from every ranking on this site |
4x | uncapped |
Signup bonus: 80,000 points after $5,000 in 3 months. We never count unearned bonuses in savings math — a bonus you don't clear is worth zero. Bonus figure confirmed on the issuer's page 2026-10-28.
Statement credits — $30/yr on paper · how we got this
Monthly and quarterly credits expire if unused — that's where most of their printed value quietly disappears.
Non-cash perks
- 9,000 bonus points every account-anniversary year
- First checked bag free for cardholder + up to 8 companions
- Group 5 boarding for cardholder + up to 8 companions
- Complimentary Preferred seat selection at booking
- Unlimited Extra Legroom seat upgrades within 48 hours of departure when available
- 2,500 Tier Qualifying Points per $5,000 spent per program year toward A-List/A-List Preferred status (through 2026)
- 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points boost each calendar year (through 2026: Southwest retires Companion Pass qualifying points after 2026-12-31)
- Welcome bonus counts as 2026 Companion Pass qualifying points (toward a pass valid through 2027-12-31) if you apply on or before 2026-12-02, are approved, and meet the bonus spend, even if the spend is met in early 2027
- From 2027-01-01 every $1 of card purchases earns 1 Tier Qualifying Point toward status and Companion Pass trips (3 trips at 95,000 TQPs, unlimited at Platinum, 140,000 TQPs); welcome bonuses, referral bonuses, anniversary points and category bonus points no longer count toward Companion Pass
Does the fee earn out? · how we got this
The $299 fee minus $30 in printed credits leaves $269/yr to earn back through rewards — roughly $11,209 of hotels spending at 2x (valuing Southwest Rapid Rewards at the same mid-range value the optimizer uses). Whether that clears depends on your actual spending.
Is this $299 fee worth it? See the break-even math →
Check the current offer on the issuer's site → Where a card link will appear once available — no link on this page pays us today.
Who this card is not for
Every point below is a term the issuer prints, read off this card's own row in our database — not an opinion about the card. two things on this card rule out a kind of spender:
- Anyone who doesn't spend at Southwest. Its largest printed rate, 4x on flights, pays only at Southwest. Anywhere else it earns its base 1x, so the headline number is a loyalty rate rather than a category rate — which is why no ranking on this site counts it.
- Anyone who won't work the statement credits. The $299 fee is argued for by $30 of printed credits, spread across 2 separate credits. Each one only pays if you were going to spend that way anyway; ignore them and the whole $299 has to come back through earn rates instead.
Don't want the fee any more?
Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Card can normally be product-changed to one lower-fee card in the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards (business) family instead of being closed — which keeps the account, its age and its credit line.
What does Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Card downgrade to? →
Comparing cards in the same currency? See the best cards that earn Southwest Rapid Rewards →
More from Chase
Which card should this spending actually be on? The demo re-scores a year of realistic spending against every card in a wallet — free, no signup. See it on sample data →
Verified 2026-08-21 against issuer terms · sources: creditcards.chase.com · www.southwest.com · www.southwest.com. Spot an error? Tell us.