Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Upgrade F.A.Q

Chase recently launched the new Rapid Rewards Priority credit card. Some existing Chase Southwest Premier & Plus cardholders have been targeted for a 5,000 point bonus for upgrading to the new card. It should also be possible to upgrade without any point bonus for those not targeted. A lot of readers have questions regarding this upgrade process so I thought I’d try to answer some of the most common questions and also give readers a dedicated post to ask more questions and try to get some attempts.

If I upgrade my card now, when will I get the anniversary points?

It’s important to be clear about this because people are likely talking about two sets of anniversary points. Current Premier cardholders get 6,000 on account anniversary, Plus cardholders get 3,000 points and Priority cardholders get 7,500 points. When you upgrade what effectively happens is that your account anniversary resets.

Let’s say you’re Premier cardholder and you signed up last December. If you upgrade now you won’t receive any anniversary points in December, you’ll have to wait until late July next year and then you’ll receive 7,500 points. You’re basically forfeiting those anniversary points. That being said on previous conversions between the Plus & Premier this hasn’t been the case so it’s entirely possible that it will work differently in practice.

When do I have to pay the annual fee?

When you upgrade you’ll be charged the $149 annual fee when doing so. You’ll also receive a prorated annual fee refund depending on how long you’ve had the card. If you’re six months into your cardmember year and hold the Plus card ($69 annual fee) you’d receive a prorated annual fee of $34.50.

What do I have to do to get the 5,000 bonus points?

You must have been targeted and upgrade by 09/30/18 11:59 p.m. ET. You also need to make a purchase on the new card before that time.

When Will I Get My 5,000 Points?

Within 8 weeks of doing the above.

When Does My $75 Southwest Annual Travel Credit Start/Reset?

This is based on your account open date, for those product changing/upgrading the account open date is the date the switch is official in the Chase system. I suspect this will be the day you request the upgrade, but it might be a day or two later. You should be able to send a secured message to get clarification.

Should I Upgrade?

I think this card is significantly better for keeping long term than the Plus/Premier cards. For Southwest flyers you should come out ahead with the anniversary points (worth $96 towards Southwest flights) plus the $75 annual travel credit and all the other perks when compared to the annual fee and that hasn’t been the case with the other two cards. That being said it might make sense to just apply for this card directly to get the sign up bonus if you’re under 5/24 (you’d need to cancel your existing cards first as it isn’t available to existing Chase Southwest cardholders) or wait for anniversary points to post and then upgrade (if they will post before the September end date).

Will This Change My Card Open Date On My Credit Report?

No, when product changing this remains the same even if your account anniversary date changes.

If I Upgrade Does This Reset The 24 Month Clock For Getting The Bonus?

The terms state you can’t get the sign up bonus if (emphasis mine):

The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapids Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months.

I think the key is NEW cardmember bonus. This is an upgrade offer, so it shouldn’t reset that clock.

I Have More Questions, What Should I Do?

I’d recommend asking in the comments. Chase says you can also call Rapid Rewards Cardmember Services on 1-800-792-0001 (TTY:1-200-955-8060).

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Ray Flyer
Ray Flyer (@guest_673402)
November 15, 2018 13:50

I cancelled my premier card and tried to sign up for the new Priority with the SUB, but chase denied me saying I already have a SW card and tried to get me to upgrade my old premier card instead. How long do i have to wait after cancelling one card before trying to get the SUB for the priority? Anyone else dealt with this?

Ed M
Ed M (@guest_663466)
October 26, 2018 10:33

After viewing the fine print, I decided this “upgrade” was in fact a significant loss of point potential. It limits one to 15,000 Tier Qualifying Points per year; worse yet is that instead of 1 TQP per dollar spent, it’s now $10,000 for 1,500 points, only .17 points per dollar. Most years I get 20 to 40 thousand points just from hotels and car rentals, and it has made the difference between getting a Companion Pass or not. YMMV.

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_627873)
August 7, 2018 22:53

Does anyone think they’ll create a “Premium” version of their Business Card?

The earnings are pretty slim and I don’t see why anyone would get it aside from the SUB.

Considering Ink Preffered has a lesser AF ($95>$99) and better earning rate on Travel 3x > 2x, not to mention that you can just transfer points earned from Ink Preffered to SouthWest as a benefit of the Ink Preffered.

I just got the Biz Card to get enough points for the CP, i’d like to keep it past the 1 year mark but can’t justify it. Even with the 6k Anniversary Bonus I cant see it being worth it.

Jan B
Jan B (@guest_627453)
August 6, 2018 12:04

Just as an aside: one can buy 5K WN points for only $96.25 until Aug 13th.

Perhaps I am too much the short term thinker but even $149 – 96.25 for a $75 FUTURE credit doesn’t float the boat long enough to enjoy the water. I did the 5/24 count and can’t get past it for another year for a new application. I just got renewed with my Plus with no AF going forward another year. Sometimes it’s ok to be comfortable with whatcha got already. 🙂

PS You may delete the prior comment since it turned out I expressed a similar but lesser sentiment.

zMay
zMay (@guest_623478)
July 29, 2018 10:26

Is there a way of getting the companion pass with this card?
Thank you!

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_626750)
August 3, 2018 20:28

Yeah, get this and the Biz Card both SUB’s count.

Jan B
Jan B (@guest_621829)
July 25, 2018 17:46

Just got my AF comp for another year on my PLUS and the 3K anniversary. Not chasing WN these days, so this one can nap.

tinytavosa
tinytavosa (@guest_621823)
July 25, 2018 17:37

The terms that state you can’t get this card if you have another Southwest card – I assume this doesn’t include a business Southwest card? Surely they wouldn’t want to restrict people from having a personal and business version?

Bobby
Bobby (@guest_621704)
July 25, 2018 13:39

Has anyone been able to upgrade a Premier that’s less than 1 year old?

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_623377)
July 28, 2018 22:17

You shouldn’t be able to do to the CARD Act.

Grant
Grant (@guest_621665)
July 25, 2018 12:33

My girlfriend has the Plus card, when she called Chase to upgrade, they said she could only upgrade after she’s had the card for one year.

JQ
JQ (@guest_621648)
July 25, 2018 12:03

All things being equal, which card makes more sense to upgrade: Plus or Premier?

Cody
Cody (@guest_621669)
July 25, 2018 12:35
  JQ

I’m probably one of the few other people in this situation since there has been a limit of one southwest card for awhile now, but was able to get Anniversary points for plus and premier cards, and then get the AFs refunded for each by closing one and upgrading the other (this seemed like the best option to me since I consistently fly SWA and I didn’t have the upgrade offer)