Southwest Credit Card Keeps Flying

A little over a year ago I opened a new credit card, the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier card. I say "new" because it's a new account, but for me it fills an old, familiar slot in my wallet. Between the business and personal variations of Chase Southwest Airline cards, and the various levels of fees and benefits, I've owned at least 7 of these cards over the years.

I opened this one last summer because there was an interesting sign-up bonus. (It's virtually always about the sign-up bonus!) The offer was 60k points after $3,000 spend in 3 months, plus another 60k points after $15,000 spend in 9 months. Combined with the minimum of 15,000 points earned from $15k of charges, that's at least 135,000 points— enough right there to qualify for Southwest's valuable Companion Pass. I gave an example of how that works recently when Hawk joined me on a business trip virtually for free. But rather than earn all those points in one year and get the companion pass for free I split the points earning across two years, last year and this, to combine with all my other Southwest earnings and qualify for the companion pass both years.

The Value So Far

Over the past 12 months I've earned a total of 150,000 points from this card on $26,000 spend. Valuing Rapid Rewards points at $0.02 each that's a whopping $3,000. Subtracting out the 2% opportunity cost of using this card is $520. Furthermore there's an annual fee of $99. Together these bring the net value down to a still amazing $2,381. Adding back in nearly $29 in other credits I earned for targeted spend lands it at a net value of $2,410.

The value of this card in its first year is stunning. $2,400 is unlike any other card I've had. It all comes from the power of that Companion Pass. But how do I value it? I decided to value it through the points I earn. The valuation of 2 cents per point I use is a blended rate that reflects the combination of buying individual tickets, where the redemption rate is about $.013, with adding on a companion for free on some of those flights. Basically I'm figuring that half the tickets I buy I'll add my companion on.

This is not the same as the actual value I draw from the Companion Pass. These are points; and mostly I haven't spend them yet. But I estimate that the actual value of the CP I've seen over the past 12 months, including on tickets both purchased with points redemption and with paying cash, is over $3,600.

The Value The Next 12 Months

It's useful to calculate the value of a card over its year just finished. That informs decisions about whether to apply for new accounts like this again in the future. But the question at hand right now is whether to renew this card for a second year. And for that the first-year value means very little. In subsequent years that whopping signup bonus disappears, leaving the card to fly or fail on the value of its regular benefits.

In terms of regular benefits I've been averaging about 1.15 points per dollar. That represents a blend of the 1x, 2x, and 3x points per dollar rates on different categories of spend. At a valuation of $.02 per point, that's an earnings rate of 2.3% on each dollar charged. That's barely better than the 2% cash I earn from either of my 2% cashback cards. On that basis alone it wouldn't be worth renewing this card, particularly with its $99 annual fee.

But the points aren't the only value of this card. One of its fringe benefits is that it helps me requalify for A-List/A-List Preferred status each year. That $26k spend I've charged has given me 10,000 tier qualifying points. These aren't redeemable miles but are a valuable leg up toward status.

Having this elite status, especially at the highest level, means a lot to making travel on Southwest more comfortable. For example, A-List Preferred gets me near the front of the boarding line. That's a big deal with Southwest's current pick-any-seat-you-want seating plan. When they move to assigned seating next year, A+ will get me the ability to select extra leg-room seats at time of booking. That's going to be huge to my comfort & willingness to fly Southwest versus other carriers. Thus I'm going to keep this card for one more year on the basis of needing it to cinch A-List Preferred status.

Hiking Rancheria Falls

Kaiser Pass travelog #5
Above Huntington Lake · Sat, 9 Aug 2025, 5pm

Update: This journal entry got stuck in my backlog for a few weeks as other trips leapfrogged it. Time to get it unstuck!

We've had a day of driving up in the High Sierra, starting with the climb up from Fresno, a 4x4 trek up to nearly 10,000' in the Kaiser Pass, and a soak at Mono Hot Springs deep in the mountains. Now we're on our way back out, but in a way we've saved the best for last. Coming back down from the Kaiser Pass we've made a slight detour to Rancheria Falls.



Rancheria Falls is surprisingly large for how high up in the mountains it is— elev. 7,750' (2,362 meters). It's also surprisingly full for the date being somewhat late in the season. Though it was even fuller we first visited two years ago. And that was even later in the season by a few weeks. (The difference was a heavier rain/snow season earlier in the year.)

One thing that's also surprising is how hard the easy trail to the falls is. I call it "easy" because it's just 0.6 mile (1km) each way, with an ascent of 200' on the way in. That should be relatively easy. But at nearly 8,000' elevation, when you're not acclimated, it'll leave you panting. Fortunately the payoff is well worth the effort, with a falls you can not only admire from a distance but walk right to the foot of and dunk your head under if you do a bit of scrambling.

Watch on YouTube

One advantage of saving this hike until late in the day is that we minimized the crowds. There were a bunch of people starting the trail just in front of us and at the falls when we arrived, but as we waited a bit most of the groups cleared out. At one point we had the falls entirely to ourselves for several minutes.

Another advantage of timing late in the day is the position of the sun. When we visited in the late morning hours on our previous visit, the sun was shining over the top of the falls. That made capturing really good photos hard. Of course, hard doesn't mean impossible. I'm proud of the photos I made on our visit in 2023. Today, though, in late afternoon, it's been a lot easier. I'll share more photos after these few soon.

Oh, one last quick one for now....



In the video I mentioned that Rancheria Falls is actually quite tall with lots of cascades. When you add them all together it's actually hundreds of feet tall. That top cascade about 80' tall is the prettiest one.