There are few things in the world of travel credit card rewards as exciting as a boosted welcome offer -- especially on cards with affordable annual fees.
The Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card and Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card are offering remarkably high welcome bonuses for new applicants. If you have a side hustle, freelance or own your own small business, these cards are worth considering.
Both credit cards are offering up to 120,000 bonus points, but these bonuses work a bit differently than a standard welcome offer. Instead of paying out once, these bonuses increase, depending on how much you spend.
For the Premier Business, you’ll earn 60,000 Rapid Rewards® bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first three months of account opening and another 60,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after spending $15,000 in nine months.
The Performance Business card is offering 80,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after spending $5,000 within the first three months of account opening and another 40,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 in nine months.
The Premier Business vs. the Performance Business
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
- Earn 3X pts on Southwest® purchases.
- Earn 2X pts on Rapid Rewards® hotel and car rental partners.
- Earn 2X pts on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
- Earn 1X pts on all other purchases.
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
- Earn 4X pts on Southwest® purchases.
- Earn 3X points on Rapid Rewards® hotel and car rental partners.
- Earn 2X points on rideshare.
- Earn 2X points on social media and search engine advertising, internet, cable, and phone services.
- 1X points on all other purchases.
The most noticeable difference between the two cards is their annual fees. The Premier costs $99 annually, while the Performance is $199. Although the Premier costs $100 less, it doesn’t offer nearly as much value as its upgraded version.
Nor does it offer enough incentive over competitor cards at its fee level -- like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card or Ink Business Cash® Credit Card from Chase -- for you to choose it over other options.
What the Premier Business does offer are:
- A handful of travel protections
- A credit to reimburse you the cost of transferring points to another Rapid Rewards member (up to $500 in statement credits per anniversary year)
- A 6K anniversary point bonus
- A standard 25% back on inflight purchases
- two annual Early Bird check-in passes
But that’s hardly enough to justify the card’s cost.
The Performance Business card on the other hand improves upon everything offered by the Premier. For example, it offers an application fee credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, in-flight Wi-Fi credits, faster A-list status and a boost to companion pass qualifying points, among other things.
If you’re torn between these two cards, the Performance card provides the better value.
The new welcome offer
The new welcome bonuses give both credit cards a value boost -- as long as you can meet the spending requirements without breaking your budget.
- Premier Business card: 60,000 Rapid Rewards® bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first three months of account opening and another 60,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after spending $15,000 in nine months.
- Performance Business card: 80,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points after spending $5,000 within the first three months of account opening and another 40,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 in nine months.
The first half of each bonus is pretty standard for the required spending, but you could boost the payout even higher by reaching the second threshold. However, that takes considerably more spending -- $12,000 more for the Premier and $10,000 for the Performance.
To qualify for the larger bonus, you’d need to spend at least $1,667 monthly for nine months. $15,000 isn’t an insignificant amount of money, so first check to see if your business’ budget can support that.
Reaching that spending threshold also has some extra benefits, though, like potentially earning a Southwest companion pass that you can use until 2025.
The Southwest companion pass is essentially a free ticket you can use to bring one other person with you on your flights. You designate one person as your companion and they can fly with you on any flight throughout the year that you’ve earned the pass. You’ll just have to pay the $5.60 TSA fee one-way plus any taxes or fees on international flights. The pass lasts through the year it’s earned to the end of the following year, and you then need to requalify for it.
How much is the bonus worth?
Southwest points are worth 1.3 cents, according to The Points Guy, which means if you’re able to earn the full bonus from either card and redeem it for Southwest airfare, you’ll have $1,560 (120,000 x .013) to put toward flights.
That’s enough to likely cover one or two roundtrip flights. And if you earn the companion pass, you can take someone with you each time for only the cost of the tax and fees on a ticket.
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