Should You Apply for the 75,000-Mile Welcome Offers on the Three Chase Southwest Personal Credit Cards?

About This Offer

Chase is offering a 75,000-mile welcome bonus on all three Southwest personal cards: Southwest Plus, Premier, and Priority. Each card requires $3,000 in spending within the first 3 months. All three offers expire on December 11.

Which One Should You Choose?

The benefits on these three cards basically scale upward step by step. My recommendation is: if you fly a few times each year, choose the Priority; if you are only going after the welcome bonus, choose the Plus, mainly because the differences in annual fee, yearly points, and statement credits are not that large. If Southwest is your hub airline and you fly Southwest often, then the Priority is actually a very good fit.

Here is a comparison of the benefits:

Companion Pass vs. Discount Vouchers

For most people, the main reason to apply for this card is still the Companion Pass (CP). Once you earn CP, both paid Southwest tickets and award tickets effectively become buy-one-get-one, which is especially useful for two people traveling together. CP is still fairly difficult to earn: you need to earn 125,000 Southwest points in a calendar year, or fly 100 qualifying one-way flights.

• Detailed Introduction to the Southwest Companion Pass

The 75,000 points from this card do count toward the 125,000-point requirement, so you would still need another 50,000. Since you can only choose one of the three personal cards, the only way to make up the difference is by applying for a business card as well. So the best strategy is one personal card plus one business card; once you earn both bonuses, you can qualify for CP directly.

In addition, if you can control the timing, it is best to meet the spending requirements on both the business card and personal card in January of next year, then receive the welcome bonuses and satisfy the Companion Pass point requirement. Because if you earn it in January 2024, the CP will remain valid through the end of the following year (the end of 2025), which is effectively almost two full years of CP.