Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card

This is the Southwest personal card we recommend most often alongside one of the business cards, and it's the one my husband and I both carry ourselves. Its $99 annual fee is the lowest of the three personal Southwest cards, which makes it the easiest one to justify holding indefinitely — you're not paying a premium for perks you may not use, but you still get everything that matters most for the Companion Pass strategy: points that count toward the 135,000 threshold, a free checked bag for you and up to 8 travel companions, and Group 5 boarding for the whole group.

If you're building a two-card Companion Pass strategy, this is usually the card we point people to for the personal half, paired with a Premier or Performance Business card for the bigger bonus. It won't out-earn the higher-tier personal cards day to day, but for the fee, it pulls its weight. If you want the full breakdown of how we use cards like this one to earn the pass, check out our Companion Pass guide.

The Plus card's welcome bonus generally runs in the 40,000–50,000 point range with a modest spend requirement, making it the entry-level option among Southwest's personal cards. Chase periodically runs limited-time elevated versions — sometimes boosting the point total, other times bundling a Companion Pass directly into the offer alongside a smaller point bonus. Because this is the lowest-annual-fee personal option, it's worth checking for one of those elevated windows before applying, since the gap between standard and elevated offers on this card tends to be larger, proportionally, than on the higher-tier personal cards.