In the world of travel credit card rewards, few things are more enticing than an enhanced welcome offer, especially for cards with affordable annual fees.
The Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card and the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card offer very generous welcome bonuses for new applicants, and if you have a side hustle, are a freelancer, or own your own small business, these cards are worth considering.
Both credit cards offer up to 120,000 bonus points, but these bonuses work a little differently than a standard welcome offer: These bonuses grow with the amount you spend, rather than being paid out once.
With Premier Business, you’ll earn 60,000 Rapid Rewards® bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months after account opening, and an additional 60,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after you spend $15,000 in the first nine months.
The Performance Business Card offers 80,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after you spend $5,000 within the first three months of account opening, and an additional 40,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 within nine months.
Premier Business and Performance Business
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
- Earn 3x points on purchases with Southwest®.
- Earn 2x points at Rapid Rewards® hotel and car rental partners.
- Earn 2x points on local transportation, including rideshare, and commuting.
- Earn 1x points on all other purchases.
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
- Earn 4x points on purchases with Southwest®.
- Earn 3x points at Rapid Rewards® hotel and car rental partners.
- Earn 2x points on rideshares.
- Earn double points on social media and search engine advertising, as well as internet, cable and phone services.
- All other purchases earn 1x points.
The most notable difference between the two cards is the annual fee: the Premier has a $99 annual fee, compared to $199 for the Performance. The Premier is $100 cheaper, but it’s not as good a value as the upgraded version.
Additionally, this card doesn’t offer enough incentives compared to competing cards (such as Chase’s Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card ) at the same fee level to justify choosing this card over other options.
Premier Business offers:
- A handful of travel insurance
- A credit to reimburse the cost of transferring points to another Rapid Rewards member (up to a $500 statement credit per anniversary)
- 6K Anniversary Points Bonus
- Standard 25% rebate on in-flight purchases
- 2 annual early check-in passes
But that alone isn’t enough to justify the cost of the card.
Meanwhile, the Performance Business Card improves on everything the Premier Card offers, including TSA PreCheck or Global Entry application fee credits, in-flight Wi-Fi credits, faster attainment of A-List status, and increased qualification points for companion passes, among other perks.
If you’re trying to decide between these two cards, the Performance card is the better value.
New Welcome Offer
The new welcome bonuses make both credit cards more valuable — but only if you can meet your spending requirements without going over budget.
- Premier Business Cards: Earn 60,000 Rapid Rewards® bonus points after you spend $3,000 in your first 3 months, and earn an additional 60,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after you spend $15,000 in your first 9 months.
- Performance business cardEarn 80,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months after account opening, and earn an additional 40,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 in the first 9 months.
The first half of each bonus is pretty standard for the amount of spending required, but once you hit the second threshold, you can increase your payout even further, though it requires a significant amount of spending — $12,000 more for Premier and $10,000 more for Performance.
To qualify for the larger bonus, you’d need to spend at least $1,667 per month for nine months. $15,000 is no small amount, so make sure your company budget can accommodate it first.
But there are additional perks to hitting that spending threshold, including the possibility of earning a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass good for use through 2025.
A Southwest Companion Pass is essentially a ticket that allows one free companion on a flight. Once you designate one person as your companion, they can accompany you on any flight during the year that you get the pass. You will have to pay TSA fees of $5.60 each way, plus taxes and fees for international flights. The pass is valid from the year you get it until the end of the following year, after which you must re-qualify.
How much is the bonus worth?
Southwest points are worth 1.3 cents. The Points GuySo if you were to earn the full bonus from either card and redeem it for a Southwest ticket, you would have $1,560 (120,000 x 0.013) to put towards your flight.
This is probably enough to cover one or two round trip flights, and if you get a Companion Pass you can bring one person along each time for just the taxes and fees on the ticket.
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