Southwest CEO Says Airport Lounges Are Coming — And So Is A New Premium Credit Card

Southwest Airlines will introduce a new premium credit card, tied to a new network of airport lounges that it’s building. CEO Bob Jordan explained this strategy during the airline’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday. [W]e fully intend to continue to expand the co-brand offering and opportunities for our customers. I know I’ve teased the lounges. That’s something, obviously, that there’s work underway. We’re not ready to formally announce that yet. The whole purpose, again, is to expand co-brand opportunities, expand the card set, and provide to our customers something that they really, really want. Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Jordan highlighted enthusiasm for their Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program saying “new members are up 35%” but of course people aren’t joining to be loyal to Southwest or collect points, ‘joining’ now just means ‘registering to use free internet on the plane.’ However, he also reports that “card acquisitions [are] up 28%.” This does not surprise me with recent aggressive with acquisition offers, but mostly because the card is far more useful than it used to be since it helps avoid all of the fees and barriers that the airline has thrown in front of customers – cardmembers can avoid seat fees and checked bag fees. Southwest’s CEO has confirmed they’ve been signing leases for lounge space, even though they haven’t officially announced their lounge plans. They have at least 5 known lounges in their pipeline (Austin, Dallas, Nashville, Denver, and Honolulu). Chase Sapphire Lounge, Philadephia We know they’ve surveyed details on a card at the $395 – $650 price point that would include access to the airline’s lounges, as well as potentially a Priority Pass card (at least initially Southwest’s lounge access wouldn’t be very large). Jordan keeps saying that “there’s work underway” on lounges but that they’re “not ready to formally announce that yet” because lounges tier up to the credit card and the premium credit card needs to be queued up too. The lounges aren’t going unannounced because there’s uncertainty about lounges. He even recently declared lounges the next highest priority after Starlink which they are already doing (and may be first to fully complete installations). Topics on this page