There’s some (more) big news brewing in the world of Chase credit cards: all of Chase’s Southwest cards are drastically changing.

While there are some awesome new cardmember offers of up to 100,000 points, they come at a time masking some pretty drastic changes associated with the card and the airline.

What’s Changing About the Southwest Cards?

Starting today July 24, 2025, all the Southwest cards (both personal and business) are undergoing product refreshes and increasing their annual fees. Here’s a chart that compares the annual fees of the cards:

As you can see, the annual fees are all increasing to some degree across the board. Is this good news? Well, it depends on whether or not you think you can leverage the benefits of the restructured cards.

Since Southwest is transitioning to a more traditional airline with traditional benefits, it should come at no surprise that a lot of the new benefits are reflective of this.

What’s Changing About The <southwest-plus>?

In summary, the <southwest-plus> is essentially restructuring itself to be somewhat similar to the likes of <united-explorer> or <aadvantage-platinum> cards, positioning itself as the cheapest annual fee card amongst the airline options. It will now provide nice introductory benefits for folks flying on Southwest in 2026.

Removed/Ending Soon: All benefits here ending Dec 31, 2025

• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on local transit and commuting, including rideshare
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on internet, cable, and phone services and on select streaming
• 2 EarlyBird Check-In® for 2025 flights

New Benefits as of July 24, 2025

• Complimentary Standard seat: Select a Standard seat within 48 hours prior to departure, when available.*
• 10% Flight Discount: Receive a 10% promo code each year on your cardmember anniversary (Excludes Basic fare)
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers in the same reservation will board with Group 5 giving them earlier access to overhead bins*
• 2 points for every $1 you spend at gas stations and grocery stores on the first $5,000 in combined purchases per anniversary year

*Benefits start for flights operating in 2026 and beyond

What’s Changing About The <southwest-premier>?

The revamped <southwest-premier> is slightly more expensive than its Plus counterpart but offers Complimentary Preferred seats* instead of Standard within 48 hours of departure.

Removed/ending soon: All benefits ending Dec 31, 2025

• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on local transit and commuting, Including rideshare
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on internet, cable, and phone services and on select streaming
• 2 EarlyBird Check-In® for 2025 flights.

New Benefits as of July 24, 2025

• Complimentary Preferred seat: Select a Standard or Preferred seat within 48 hours prior to departure, when available.*
• 15% Flight Discount: Receive a 15% promo code each year on your cardmember anniversary (Excludes Basic fare)
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers in the same reservation will board with Group 5 giving them earlier access to overhead bins*
• 2 points for every $1 you spend at grocery stores and restaurants on the first $8,000 in combined purchases per anniversary year

*Benefits start for flights operating in 2026 and beyond

What’s Changing About The <southwest-priority>?

The <southwest-priority> still carries the title of the most expensive personal Southwest card and primarily differentiates itself with the addition of Extra Legroom seat upgrades alongside the ability to spend towards A-List status. For the price of $80 more per year, you’d need to evaluate closely to see if those additional benefits are worthwhile to you.

Removed/Ending Soon: All benefits here ending Dec 31, 2025

• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners.
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on local transit and commuting, including rideshare
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on internet, cable, and phone services and on select streaming
• 4 Upgraded Boardings when available for 2025 flights.

Removed as of July 24, 2025

• $75 Southwest® Annual Travel Credit

New Benefits as of July 24, 2025

• Complimentary Preferred seat at booking: Select a Preferred seat at booking, at no additional charge, when available.*
• Extra Legroom seat upgrade: Enjoy unlimited upgrades to an Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours prior to departure, at no additional charge, when available.*
• Spend your way to A-List: Earn 2,500 tier qualifying points (TQPs) toward A-List status for every $5,000 spent in purchases annually accelerating your way to A-List status
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers in the same reservation will board with Group 5 giving them earlier access to overhead bins*
• Earn 4 points for every $1 you spend on Southwest Airlines® purchases
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend at gas stations and restaurants

*Benefits start for flights operating in 2026 and beyond

What’s Changing About The <southwest-premier-biz>?

The <southwest-premier-biz> is becoming slightly more expensive as well and is essentially rebooting itself to provide standard airline benefits. At a high level, it essentially just feels like the business version of the <southwest-premier>, which I guess, is by design.

Removed/ending soon: All benefits ending Dec 31, 2025

• 500 dollars fee credit for points transfers per year.
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners.
• 2 EarlyBird Check-In® for 2025 flights

New Benefits as of July 24, 2025

• Complimentary Preferred seat: Select a Standard or Preferred seat within 48 hours prior to departure, when available*
• Spend your way to A-List: Earn 2,000 tier qualifying points (TQPs) toward A-List status for every $5,000 spent in purchases annually accelerating your way to A-List status
• 15% Flight Discount: Receive a 15% promo code each year on your cardmember anniversary (Excludes Basic fare)
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers in the same reservation will board with Group 5 giving them earlier access to overhead bins*
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend at gas stations and restaurants on the first $8,000 in combined purchases per anniversary year.

*Benefits start for flights operating in 2026 and beyond

What’s Changing About The <southwest-performance-biz>?

The revamp to the <southwest-performance-biz> immediately positions it as the most expensive Southwest card available. While this is the only Southwest card that gives a statement credit for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck® or NEXUS every 4 years, it’s still hard to justify the larger annual fee when compared to the <southwest-priority>.

Removed/ending soon: All benefits ending Dec 31, 2025

• 500 dollars fee credit for points transfers per year.
• Earn 3 points for every $1 you spend on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners.
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on social media and search engine advertising, internet, cable, and phone services.
• Up to 365 inflight WiFi Credits per year.
• 4 Upgraded Boardings each year when available for 2025 flights.

New Benefits as of July 24, 2025

• Complimentary Preferred seat at booking: Select a Preferred seat at booking, at no additional charge, when available*
• Extra Legroom seat upgrade: Enjoy unlimited upgrades to an Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours prior to departure, at no additional charge, when available*
• Spend your way to A-List: Earn 2,500 tier qualifying points (TQPs) toward A-List status for every $5,000 spent in purchases annually accelerating your way to A-List status
• Boarding benefit: Cardmembers and up to 8 passengers in the same reservation will board with Group 5 giving them earlier access to overhead bins*
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend at gas stations and restaurants.
• Earn 2 points for every $1 you spend on hotel accommodations booked directly with the hotel.

*Benefits start for flights operating in 2026 and beyond

What Stands Out About The Changes To The New Southwest Cards?

The most apparent thing I noticed here is that all Southwest card holders get Group 5 boarding benefits. This makes it such that you can pay the lower annual fee for the <southwest-plus> and still get the same boarding group as the <southwest-performance-biz>. I find this lack of benefit differentiation to be a little bit weak.

Additionally, it’s clear there are 3 tiers of “seating” benefits, all occurring within 48 hours of departure. Since every “tier” can access the seating below it, it’s clear that Standard seats are likely to become commoditized.

• Complimentary Standard seat: <southwest-plus>
• Complimentary Preferred seat: <southwest-premier>, <southwest-priority, <southwest-premier-biz>, <southwest-performance-biz>
• Extra Legroom seat upgrade: <southwest-priority>, <southwest-performance-biz>

Finally, it’s a bit odd that the <southwest-priority> doesn’t come with any Flight Discount. This feels like a benefit that should definitely be provided with the highest annual fee personal Southwest card, especially considering the others have it as a benefit.

How Do I Pick Between These Southwest Cards?

Despite the higher annual fees, I think the <southwest-priority> or the mid-tier <southwest-premier> seem to be the most valuable Southwest cards to have.

In considering the seat benefits alone, it’s clear to me that the <southwest-priority>’s access to Extra Legroom seats will be nice to have given how oversaturated the access for Standard Seats will be.

However, for those who don’t fly a lot of Southwest Airlines, it may be hard to justify the additional annual fee when comparing the <southwest-premier> to the <southwest-priority>. If you are a frequent Southwest flyer, you will definitely appreciate those Extra Legroom seats, 4x points earned per $1 on Southwest purchases, 2.5k TQPs for A-List/$5,000 spent on the card, and 7,500 points earned every Cardmember anniversary.

If you’re someone who flies Southwest even 1-2 times a year, I still find it hard to justify the <southwest-plus> over the <southwest-premier>. The <southwest-premier> gives 6,000 points every Cardmember anniversary (versus the Plus’s 3,000>, which is already pretty close to covering that annual fee difference.