I am normally against any credit card that charges an annual fee, especially a large one such as this one does. However, the benefits of this card allow you to travel like a 1st class passenger at the airport which is a BIG DEAL these days. You get to use the 1st class entrance at the airport without buying a first class ticket, saving you an hour or more in line each flight. Two free premium drinks (cocktails, beer) every flight. As long as you pay off your balance every month to avoid the APR, these benefits far outweigh any "cash back" type of cards. Think about how much you'd have to spend to make up the different in airline fare for a first class ticket? Impossible. You are also always boarding A-List, so you never have problems getting access to overhead bins. This card is a MUST HAVE if you travel as much as I do and I would highly recommend it.

I love my southwest card, customer service is been great so far and you only have to spend $2,000.00 to get 50,000 points which is very easy considering I only use it to pay bills. Highly recommend this. You do have to have excellent credit though so it may be harder for others.

While cards with flyer miles seem to be a dime a dozen these days, there are still some that stand out above others. You have your typical fees like you would on any card, but they are very reasonable. What makes this card special is how quickly you can accumulate the points and the variety of things you can spend them on. Let’s look at a few Pros of this card.

Pros:

- If you spend $2,000 within the first three months of owning the card, you get a bonus of 50,000 points right off the bat. That’s enough alone for a vacation right off the bat. It practically pays for itself immediately. It’s quite an impressive offer.

- Point redemption isn’t limited to just flights. You can use them toward car rentals, cruises, hotels, and several other carrier flights.

- You can get gift cards using the points. That’s right, you can get gift cards using these points. How many other airline cards let you do that? That alone is a huge plus for me and enough to earn its own bullet point.

- No earn or redemption limit on points. Some cards will only let you store a certain amount of points at a time rather than let them accumulate. What’s worse is some cards actually have points that expire, which is just plain ridiculous and unfair. If I get cash back that never expires, so why should my points? Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card gets it.

- No over limit fees is another great feature of this card. Most cards will try to squeeze every penny they can from you, but this card has a little forgiveness. Be warned, you will have to pay a fee if you tell them you’re going to purposely go over the limit.

- Reasonable late fees in the form of tiered late fees. Depending how much you owe from your bill you can owe a different amount of late fees. For example, if you owe $100 in late fees, then you will owe them $15. The max late fee you can owe is $35.

- No foreign transaction fee is probably the one feature every airline card should offer. You are going to be traveling and they want you to travel. They even offer two points per dollar when you buy from them. Why would any airline card try to prevent you from spending money while overseas?

All of these features sound great, but there’s some that might be a kick in the rear for some people.

Cons:

- Excellent credit is needed, so they’re very picky about who they’ll hand this card out to. They do like to force it upon you at the airport, though.

- An annual fee of $99 can be a deal breaker for a lot of people. It seems to be one from a lot of the comments I’ve read.

Final Verdict

As you can see, there weren’t many cons since the APR of 15.99% is standard. All of the comments I’ve seen indicate the card has great customer service and you receive your points very quickly. Others and I would consider this can excellent card and one everybody should consider.

I have had my Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card since the beginning of 2014. Their initial offer of 25000 miles after $1000 in purchases within the first 3 months was a huge incentive. Upon reaching the milestone I was pleased by the options available.

I signed up for the Rapid Rewards Visa Premier card in April when they were running a promotion to get 25,000 bonus points when you spend $1000 or more your first 3 months of having the card. Instead I only got 11,758 points and I called to see what the problem was. The operator at Chase card services said the promotion I enrolled in was not for the 25,000 bonus points that were advertised to me, but instead for just 10,000 bonus points if i spent $500 or more within the first 3 months. This is wrong, like a bait and switch scheme. I feel like I was slammed with a worse promotion. The operator said he would open a ticket with the marketing department to investigate but it has been a week and nothing was done to resolve my issue.

Since I fly literally all the time, this card is perfect for me. I like that I can use this on separate Southwest accounts, since sometimes I purchase tickets for family members who have different accounts. The interest rate on this card is also not bad, considering it is pretty average for this type of card. I've saved probably $300-400 since I first got this card, which paid for approximately two free hotel stays. I would recommend this card to anyone who travels a lot.

This is a great frequent flyer card! I have had this card for over two years, and have been extremely happy with it. They give a generous bonus when you sign up, and also on your yearly anniversary. You have the ability to earn free flights with your Rapid Rewards points, as well as gift cards, hotel stays, and other travel. When you use your card to purchase flights, you are awarded double points. I would highly recommend this card to anyone who flies very often. Since it is a VISA card, it is accepted all over the world. Rates and balance transfer offers seem to be comparable to other cards.

By far one of the best frequent flyer credit cards around! I've had this card as well as the business card for the last two years, signed up when Soutwest was offering 50000 reward points. I use my premier card exclusely for purchases and airfare. There are many opportunities to gain more reward points as Southwest has teamed up with many partners such as Marriott. I'm planning two trips this year on my accrued points, doesn't get much better than that! My interest rate is just under ten percent but I pay in full each month. Very easy to check balance and in addition after accruing a set amount of dollars and or one way trips, a borrower could be eligible for a Southwest companion pass ( companion flies for free). I love flying no frill Southwest anyway....no baggage fees and many routes to use.

I signed up for this card before a wedding a couple years ago and I am glad I did! If you're someone who travels a lot, this card is perfect for you. I use it for almost everything and the miles quickly add up. I've been able to go on quite a few free trips already! There is an annual fee, however, it is definitely worth it in my opinion!

The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards card is a great card to have if you're looking to earn towards flights or if you travel a lot. The signing bonus reward is pretty nice because you get 25,000 points to put towards flights after you spend $1,000 in the first three months. If you're going to have to pay bills and such then that isn't too hard. The only part that drives me crazy about this is the annual fee. It's pretty steep. You get extra points if you use the card to buy your Southwest airline tickets so that helps rack them up even faster. Overall I'd say this card is only useful if you're planning on taking some trips. If not then it won't be much good at all and the fees aren't worth it.