Southwest & Chase to Breakup?
There has been a lot of news lately about credit card co-branded partnerships. Most of the news this year has revolved around American Express losing huge partnerships with companies such as JetBlue and Costco.
One only needs to look at the American Express stock this year to see just how important these types of partnerships are. Since the beginning of the year, shares in American Express have dropped nearly 16%, mostly because of the loss of the $14 billion Costco contract.
Now there is some speculation that Southwest is looking into replacing Chase as their co-branded credit card partner. To investigate this option, Southwest has hired investment bank First Annapolis as advisors according to The Street.
I was unable to find out how long the contract between the two companies still has left, however it is pretty typical for companies to start this process between 1 to 2 years before the switchover. For example, Costco dumped Amex and signed with Citi more than a year before their current contract is up.
While neither Southwest nor Chase has commented on this story, the Street claims to have two reliable sources who are “familiar with the matter”. At this point I think this is probably nothing more than Southwest doing their due diligence, but it would be interesting to see another shakeup in the reward credit card space.
Your Thoughts
You can head over to this The Street article for the full details of this rumor including what the loss of Southwest might mean to Chase’s bottom line. What do you think about rumor? Which bank would be a better fit for Southwest? Let me know in the comments!
HT: Chad C.
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I sure hope they stick with Chase. If they don’t, I would imagine they would disappear from the UR partners, which would really put a damper on my travel plans.
As long as they don’t go with BofA, it won’t really matter to me. When CREDO went with BofA I had so many problems, I just stopped using the card. I may have eventually closed it. I’m very happy with my SW Premier card, and would hate to give it up, but I will if they go with BofA–OR if their new partner uses similar customer non-service practices.
I would LOVE for SW to dump Chase as I’m on their blacklist. I have no trouble getting many cards from other banks, but no Chase cards.
[…] (HT: Miles to Memories) […]
very interesting speculations…. fwliw, we have done well in my family with the chase/SWA promotions and the companion pass off the two card promos…. Even better, when we run short of miles, (from lotssss of happy swa reward travel), we’ve enjoyed being able to transfer over more miles from Chase UR accounts….
Have not had anywhere near as good a CC experiences with travel cards from CITI, Amex, Barclays, or USBank…. Chase would be a tough act to follow….
Then again, be curious to see if SWA could find a better deals elsewhere….
It would be nice to have anothe bank pick up SW. I haven’t gone for the SW CP because I already have way too many fabulous Chase CCs and don’t want to jeopardize getting rejected. BTW, what kind of FICO do I need to qualify for South West personal and business CC…I’m preparing way ahead of time to apply beginning of next year and hopefully land those 110k pts. THANKS ALL!
If Chase gets dropped it will also not be available as a transfer partner for UR, I’m pretty sure.
I dumped both personal & business SW cards a couple weeks ago when the AF was due. They offered me zip for retention and I called three times. Only reason I opened both accounts was for the companion pass which is awesome. I’ve booked 7 round trips to Florida and 4 round trips to Aruba over the last year, all on points. When it ends this year I go to plan B which is Marriott flight and hotel package w/ 120K SW points. I rarely used the SW cards due to the weak reward.
American Express is probably agressively courting new customers, given the loss of Costco.
I think they will get rid of the easy companion pass route some day soon. I hope they don’t dump chase. I’m about maxed out with 8 chase cards open so I’ve held off on Southwest. I bet they will end up with Barclay or AMEX. They have to be looking for a new partnership in this arena.