Chase just launched a brand new Southwest Airlines business credit card, the Southwest Performance Business Card. It’s a great card as I’ll show you in a moment but let’s first look at the initial bonus offer for the card, meant to make a really big splash and it does.

They’re out of the gate with the Southwest Performance Business Card offering 80,000 Rapid Rewards points with $5000 spend within 3 months. [Offer expired]

Better Than an Offer for a Companion Pass

Earlier this year Chase offered to let new cardmembers earn points and a companion pass with new Southwest personal card signup. That was a compelling offer and many folks jumped at the chance to have a designated companion fly for just the cost of security taxes whenever the cardmember was on a paid or redemption ticket with Southwest.

That offer was for a companion pass valid through the end of 2019. Earning 80,000 bonus points is even better.

• 110,000 points in a calendar year earns a companion pass. The initial bonus plus the points earned on the card from spending count towards that total.

• When you earn a companion pass (rather than receiving a promotional one) — and this offer gets you most of the way there — it’s valid for the rest of the calendar year and the entire next calendar year.

• So this offer can get you 2019 and 2020 and since you’re also earning a lot of points those points can cover a lot of air travel for you to take along a companion for the cost of taxes alone.

As a result I would rate this Southwest Performance Business Card offer as significantly better than the great offer for a companion pass earlier this year. What’s more, even though Chase credit cards are generally subject to ‘5/24’ (you’re eligible only if you’ve had fewer than 5 new cards in the last 24 months), Chase business cards should not increase your 5/24 total. If you’re under 5/24 and are approved for this card you should stay under 5/24.

Southwest Performance Business Card Benefits

Here’s points earning with this new card: 3x on Southwest Airlines purchases, as well as hotel and car rental partner purchases through Southwest’s website; 2x social media + search ads and internet/cable/phone; 1x on everything else.

Where this card really shines is in the travel benefits it offers. Like the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card personal card, cardmembers receive 4 upgraded boardings per year, A1-15 boarding, which you purchase at the gate and get statement credit back for.

Southwest Performance Business Card cardmembers are eligible to receive a statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years. But a unique benefit is Southwest Airlines inflight wifi credits.

I regularly pay $8 per flight for internet on Southwest Airlines. This card will give you up to 365 wifi purchase credits per year. And employee cards come with no annual fee, so I believe getting extra cards should allow you to spread around the wifi credit benefit.

Southwest Performance Business Card is Huge for Southwest Flyers

These are great and valuable benefits which make the card’s $199 annual fee well worth it. You also receive 9000 Southwest anniversary points with card renewal each year. In cash terms I value Southwest points at 1.3 cents apiece though they buy about 1.5 cents apiece in travel. An 80,000 point offer should get you around $1200 in Southwest Airlines travel, and 9000 more points should get you $135 in travel on and ongoing basis. That’s most of the annual fee right there as well.

As with other Southwest co-brand cards spending contributes towards elite status: 1500 tier qualifying points for each $10,000 in purchases (up to $100,000 in purchases annually or 15,000 tier qualifying points) and of course it goes a long way towards Southwest’s companion pass. This Visa Signature card has no foreign transaction fees as well.