Popular Southwest Credit Card Comes with 50,000-Point Bonus

As it has been doing with some regularity, Southwest has upped the sign-up bonus for its Rapid Rewards Premier credit card to 50,000 points.

The 50,000-point bonus kicks in after a new cardholder charges $2,000 within three months.

There’s no published end date to this 50,000-point sign-up bonus, so it could be ratcheted back at any time.

Other card details:

• Annual fee: $99.
• Annual percentage rate (APR) is variable, currently between 16.24% to 23.24%, based on the Prime Rate and creditworthiness.
• The card awards two points per $1 on purchases of Southwest tickets and Rapid Rewards hotel and rental car partners; one point per $1 for other charges.
• Premier cardholders receive 6,000 bonus points on their anniversary, enough for $100 toward a Wanna Get Away award ticket.
• No foreign transaction fees.

Deal or No Deal

In Southwest’s program, 50,000 Rapid Rewards points translate into more than $700 toward Wanna Get Away award tickets—probably two free round-trip flights.

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As credit card sign-up bonuses go, this is a solid one. And as Southwest offers go, it’s as good as it’s ever been, and probably as good as it’ll ever get.

Unless you’re a serial card acquirer—a flipper, who signs up solely for the bonus, and then moves on—the question posed by credit-card bonuses has less to do with the card itself than it does with the program it’s linked to. So in this case, the question is: Is Southwest’s Rapid Rewards a program that meets your needs?

If it is, this would be a good time to pull the trigger on the program-affiliated card.

Reader Reality Check

What would you do with 50,000 Rapid Rewards points?

More from SmarterTravel:

• Airfares Fall to Lowest Levels Since 2010
• In Run Up to Merger, Virgin America Continues Upgrading Loyalty Program
• $48 Sleeper Seats Between L.A. and San Francisco? Think ‘Bus’

After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.

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