Southwest Rapid Rewards: 2022 Program Overview

The most straightforward way to earn Rapid Rewards points is to fly with Southwest Airlines. The number of points you earn depends on the type of ticket booked and your Southwest status level. The cheapest Southwest fares are branded as Wanna Get Away, though these flights are completely non-refundable. The other fares, Anytime and Business Select, are more expensive but also offer more flexible fare rules.

Points earned from Southwest flights post within 72 hours. Note that you only earn points on revenue fares; Rapid Rewards points are not awarded on reward tickets.

Southwest partners with Chase to offer five different co-branded credit cards — three personal credit cards and two small business products. Using a co-branded credit card is one of the fastest ways to earn Rapid Rewards points quickly, since the cards often have generous welcome offers.

The perks offered by some of the Southwest co-branded credit cards are excellent. In particular, the [data-lightrail id="1188"]{name}[/data-lightrail] offers a whopping 365 Wi-Fi credits, letting you enjoy Southwest’s in-flight Wi-Fi even if you fly every day.

The [data-lightrail id="421"]{name}[/data-lightrail] is the only one that does not offer tier-qualifying points toward A-List status, and this is also the only card that levies foreign transaction fees. The combination of these two factors makes it the least appealing choice, despite offering the lowest annual fee.

Southwest Airlines has a strong partnership with Chase Bank. Besides offering co-branded Rapid Rewards credit cards, Chase also allows points transfers from its Ultimate Rewards program to Southwest Rapid Rewards. If you want to know how to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards® points to Southwest, you can do that by logging on to your Chase Ultimate Rewards account. You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000 points.

Note that these cards are great for earning points toward airfare, but not for airline perks. Transferred points cannot help you qualify for A-List status or the Southwest Companion Pass.

You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Southwest Rapid Rewards. Marriott offers transfers in increments of 3,000 Bonvoy points to every 1,000 miles or points with its partner programs. However, if you transfer in increments of 60,000 points, you’ll enjoy 5,000 bonus miles/points, yielding a total of 25,000 Rapid Rewards points for every 60,000 Bonvoy points.

Southwest Airlines features a Rapid Rewards dining program where individuals can earn Rapid Rewards points by dining at restaurants within the network:

The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards shopping portal lets you earn points by shopping with 850-plus online retailers. This is a great way to earn extra rewards for shopping you’re already doing. Popular retailers include Apple, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Macy’s and Staples, among many others. The number of Rapid Rewards earned can vary from 0.5 points per $1 spent to 20 points per $1 spent, depending on the retailer. Points can take up to 15 days to post to your Rapid Rewards account.

Southwest Vacations is a great way to bundle your flights and either hotel or rental car together into a cheaper package. You can both save money and earn bonus Rapid Rewards points, depending on the package you book — though you’ll always earn base Rapid Rewards points on the flight portion of the package you book. However, you may also earn additional points if Southwest is running a vacation package promotion.

Southwest partners with Research Now Group to offer Rewards for Opinions, a site where you can earn Rapid Rewards points by completing online surveys. The surveys are consumer market research, asking questions about various services, products and advertising. Each survey opportunity will show the approximate time to finish it and the number of Rapid Rewards points awarded upon completion.

Utilities and gas purchases

If your power provider is NRG, you can earn points just for paying your utility bill, though you’ll have to be a resident of Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

You can also earn at the pump with Marathon MakeItCount Rewards. Program members must select that they want to earn Rapid Rewards points and provide their Rapid Rewards number. Members can earn one Rapid Rewards point per gallon of gas, and they’ll also save 5 cents per gallon every day.

If you already have a Southwest Airlines credit card, you can earn bonus Rapid Rewards points for referring friends for the card. You can currently earn 20,000 Rapid Rewards points per successful referral, up to 100,000 points per year. A successful referral is one where the recipient applies for Southwest Airlines credit card through your referral link and is approved for the card. The Chase Refer-A-Friend program for Southwest credit cards allows the referral recipient to choose their favorite among the three personal cards, so they are not locked into the exact card you hold.

Rocketmiles is a booking service that lets you earn a variety of rewards points for hotel stays. The number of points or miles earned varies by property and by loyalty program. To earn Southwest Rapid Rewards through Rocketmiles, you’ll need to make sure that you perform your search with Rapid Rewards selected.

After you’ve entered your search information, Rocketmiles will provide a list and map of hotel options with the nightly rate and the total number of Rapid Rewards points earned. You can earn upwards of 1,000 points for a single-night stay, making it a potentially very worthwhile option, depending on the price of the hotel.

However, the site can be confusing for multi-night stays. While a user might assume the number of points displayed is per night, it's actually a flat number of points for the full stay.

Southwest lets you buy Rapid Rewards points for either yourself or for any other program member. You can also use this option to gift points to another member. Points are sold at a standard rate of 3 cents each, in increments of 1,000, starting at 2,000 points at a cost of $60.

Given the typical value of Southwest points is only 1.4 cents, this is not a good way to add to your Rapid Rewards balance. Southwest sometimes offers sales of Rapid Rewards points, but even then, it rarely makes sense to purchase.

To earn Southwest A-List Preferred status, you’ll need to fly 50 qualifying one-way flights or earn 70,000 tier qualifying points in a calendar year.

Compared to upgrades and other perks with more traditional airlines, Southwest Airlines A-List status doesn’t offer all that much — for example, everyone already enjoys free bags and no change fees. The biggest benefit is being able to board the aircraft early and get a better seat. A-List Preferred is where Southwest really adds value with a serious bonus on Rapid Rewards points and free Wi-Fi.

Southwest does offer a status match if you’re interested in switching to the carrier from another airline. Southwest will honor your status with any other U.S. carrier. To be eligible for a Southwest status match, you’ll need to sign up for Rapid Rewards and then submit the following:

You will receive promotional A-List status for 90 days. If you fly three round-trips (six one-way flights) during the promotional period, Southwest will extend your A-List status for another 12 months. This offer is available as long as you haven’t received promotional A-List status within the previous 12 months.