Chase continues to offer this great credit card deal: Get approved for the Southwest Airlines Visa card and earn 16 rapid rewards credits after your first purchase, enough for a free round-trip ticket. Just pay the $59 annual fee. It's like paying $59 bucks to fly round trip any one of many destinations Southwest serves.
Although other airlines, such as United, offer huge first-use bonuses that often equate to a free flight after just a single card purchase, the ability to utilize those miles toward a free trip comes with many strings attached. If you use miles for a last minute flight, for example, United and American Airlines will charge a "close-in" fee. If you book a flight, then decide to cancel it, UA and AA will charge a "redeposit" fee to place the miles back in your account.
Southwest has neither fee. Using your Rapid Reward credits for a last minute flight, or making changes to an award ticket - even cancelling it all together, results in no fee. But, like the other airlines, Southwest award flights are now capacity controlled, meaning only a select number of seats are availed for free flights.