New Card Review: Chase Southwest Performance Business Card with 70,000 Points Signup Bonus and $199 Annual Fee

Update: Bonus is down to 70,000 now.

Update 10/17/19: This link is still showing the 80k bonus.  I’d recommend signing up now if you’re at all interested in this offer. Might be a good idea given the companion pass will cost 125,000 points.

Update 8/10/19: See this post 4 Southwest Credit Card Bonuses Slated To End on October 16th.

Update 8/19/19: Just a quick update: this signup offer should be around until 10/16/19, as per a Facebook ad which is showing. See image here (hat tip to reader Alex). A lot of people were interested in knowing if this would be around near the end of the year for Companion Pass timing purposes. Given the 10/16/19 end-date showing, that should work perfectly. Just make sure the signup bonus points don’t post until January so that it’ll count toward the 2020-2021 Pass.

Chase Southwest Performance Business Card

Direct Signup Link   | Press Release

As rumored, Chase has launched a new Southwest business card, a premium version of the Southwest Premier business card. The new card has a highest-ever signup bonus for a Southwest card:

• Earn 80,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points when you get approved for the Chase Southwest Performance business credit card and spend $5,000 within 3 months.

This new Cardmember bonus offer is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of this business credit card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of this business credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this business credit card within the last 24 months.

Card Basics

Card earns at the following rates:

• 3x Southwest points per $1 spent on Southwest and Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases
• 2x Southwest points per $1 spent on purchases in the following rewards categories: social media and search engine advertising; internet, cable, and phone services
• 1x Southwest points per $1 spent on all other purchases

Other Details:

• $199 annual fee (not waived first year)
• Four upgrade boardings per year when available
  • Every anniversary year you will be reimbursed for the purchase of 4 upgraded boardings. Upgraded boardings are positions A1-A15. These can be purchased on the day of travel only at either the departure gate or ticket counter and aren’t always available. Price of these upgraded boardings varies based on the itinerary, I think it’s usually $30-$40.
  • The benefits of being in this boarding position is you may be able to get an exit row seat (and at worst you’ll get another seat you want) and you can find overhead bin space.
  • Anniversary year is defined as ‘the year beginning with your account open date through the first statement date after your account open date anniversary, and the 12 monthly billing cycles after that each year.’
• Up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck Fee Credit
• No foreign transaction fees
• 9,000 anniversary points each year
• Inflight WiFi Credits, up to a total of 365 $8 credits per year for all WiFi transactions on the overall business card account
• Earn tier qualifying points towards A-list status
  • For every $10,000 in purchases you make you’ll earn 1,500 tier qualifying points (TQPs), you’re limited to $100,000 in spend or 15,000 TQPs. These can be used towards qualifying for A-List status (35,000 TQPs or 25 qualifying one way flights) or A-List preferred (70,000 TQPS or 50 qualifying one way flights).
  • For this benefit, “Annually” means the year beginning with your account open date through the first December statement date of that same year, and each 12 billing cycles starting after your December statement date through the following December statement date.
• Points earned count towards Companion Pass
• Employee cards at no additional cost
• 5/24 does apply to this card

F.A.Q’s

Is the Chase Southwest Premier business card still available?

Yes. From the press release, it sounds like that card is here to stay.

If I have the Chase Southwest Premier business card, can I get the bonus?

The 24 month limitation states:

“This new Cardmember bonus offer is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of this business credit card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of this business credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this business credit card within the last 24 months.”

The language of the terms indicates that it does not combine with the other Southwest business card. So if you got the bonus on the business Premier card, you should still be eligible to signup for this one. That’s different than the rule on the Southwest personal cards where the 24 months is combined across all Southwest personal cards. 

Can you product change to this product?

It should be possible to upgrade from the Premier to the Performance product. Let us know if you try. In the past, they even sometimes offered bonuses to upgrade to a premium product.

If you are under 5/24, you might do better applying for the new card separately to get another bonus.

Does the Chase 5/24 rule apply to this card?

The Chase 5/24 rule has applied to all other Southwest cards for some time. All indications so far are pointing that it applies to this one too.

When does the sign up bonus end?

No end date is showing, currently, but I’d guess the 80,000 bonus is a temporary thing for a few months or whatever as an initial rollout promotion, and eventually it’ll go down to 60,000. That’s my guess.

Is the card metal?

No idea. I’m guessing no since it’s not advertised as such but metal credit cards are so common these days it’s hard to know for sure.

Our Verdict

The 80,000 points bonus is terrific, after meeting the minimum spend you’ll have between 85k-95k points toward your Companion Pass requirement. It does have a hefty $199 annual fee, but that’s in a large way offset on an annual basis by the 9,000 points annual bonus. There are lots of other benefits too, like the $8 wifi credit; for someone who flies Southwest roundtrip once per month, that can easily be worth $200+ per year. And the four upgrades has value too.

Obviously, many of us won’t be eligible for this card due to 5/24, but if you are eligible this is a really great deal, especially for Southwest flyers. Will be adding this to the list of the best credit card bonuses.