Applies only to tickets purchased directly from Southwest. Other airfare earns 1X.
Limited-time offer: Earn Companion Pass® good through 2/28/26 plus 30,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.
The Southwest Premier credit card is Southwest’s mid-tier personal card. It balances offering some perks while still charging less than a $100 annual fee.
Cardholders will be reimbursed for up to two EarlyBird Check-In purchases each year, get 25% back on inflight purchases on Southwest Airlines, plus get 6,000 bonus points each card anniversary.
The Southwest Premier Card offers some of the broadest spending bonus categories of any card with an annual fee under $100. Cardholders will earn 3x points on Southwest purchases and 2x points on Southwest Rapid Rewards hotel and car partners; local transit, commuting, rideshare; internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming services.
Points earned count toward earning the Southwest Companion Pass. Plus, primary cardholders earn 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points toward A-List Preferred Status for every $10,000 spent on the card each year.
The Southwest Premier Card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, unlike the Southwest Plus Card. Add in the higher earning rate on Southwest purchases, higher anniversary bonus, and ability to earn Tier Qualifying Points toward A-List Preferred Status, and the Premier Card easily justifies its $30 higher annual fee.
Lastly, this card is great for getting a good piece of the way to a Southwest Companion Pass with the bonus offer, since the signup bonus points count. Read our guide on earning a Southwest Companion Pass for up to two years via new account bonuses.
Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.
American Express seems to have positioned the Green Card to more directly compete with high performing mid-tier cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Citi Premier card, offering a few more direct benefits than each of them in exchange for a $150 annual fee (vs. $95 on those other cards). (Rates and Fees)
Whereas the The Platinum Card® from American Express is all about the benefits (elite statuses, statement credits galore, etc), the American Express® Green Card is all about the 3X Membership Rewards points on all things travel (including Transit!) plus 3X on dining – all for a relatively low annual fee of just $150 (Rates and Fees). It’s great for frequent travelers, especially if you don’t already have a card that earns at least 3X on travel purchases.
And it does have a couple of benefits that can cover the annual fee. If you don’t have access to CLEAR (which lets you go ahead of most other people at airport security in select airports / terminals), this card will cover $189 in CLEAR fees which is enough for a whole family to have a membership. And you also get up to $100 in credits for airport lounge access with LoungeBuddy.
It’s worth considering this card in combination with other American Express cards. One solid Trifecta that maximizes points would be an Amex Gold Card, an Amex Green Card, and The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. You’d use the Gold for Dining and U.S. Supermarkets, the Green for 3X points on travel and transit, and the Blue Business Plus for 2X on other eligible purchases (up to $50,000 a year; 1X Membership Rewards points per dollar thereafter).
In another Trifecta replace the Gold Card with a Platinum Card and enjoy all the perks and benefits of the Platinum card while putting all non-airfare travel and transit charges on the Green Card and the rest on your Blue Business Plus.
In short, I don’t think anyone should have the Green Card as their sole credit card, but I do think it has a nice place among a handful of American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards points.
Keep in mind that American Express Membership Rewards points never expire and combine among all of your Membership Rewards-earning cards. All points earned from various American Express cards have the same transfer partners.
The Amex Green card is part of the same family of Amex proprietary cards formerly referred to as charge cards. However, the Green Card has a built-in Pay Over Time feature, making it function in many ways as any other standard credit card. Unlike a typical credit card, the Green Card allows you to carry a balance for certain charges, but not all.
What this means: Amex generally limits a cardmember to 5 credit cards (personal and small business combined), while they have a limit of 10 on proprietary Amex cards (formerly known as Charge). This means that even if you already have 5 Amex credit cards, you would still be eligible for a Green Card.
Bonus Eligibility: They still state that if you had the Green Card before, you are not eligible for a welcome bonus on this card. So you’ll be eligible if you have less than 10 Amex charge cards and have never had the Amex Green card before.
Rates and Fees for the American Express® Green Card