Earning A Southwest Companion Pass With Credit Cards

This forum post is going to be a little longer than the usual one, but it's exclusive to the relationship between Southwest's current promotion and the Companion Pass and a bit more involved than our traditional website column.

Friday’s post focuses on using credit cards to get the Southwest Companion pass. Credit cards certainly aren’t the only way, but they’re the fastest and require the least work. And because of where we are in the calendar and the additional bonuses that the airline is currently offering to get a card, now is absolutely the best time to get one.

The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is the single-best perk in the industry. Full stop. The pass allows you to bring a designated companion for free with you on every Southwest flight that you take not only for the remainder of the calendar year in which you earn it but also the entirety of the following year, as well. So do it right and you’ll have two years with a friend who only has to pay the security tax ($5.60 per one-way) to fly. If you decide that you no longer like your friend, you can change your designated companion up to three times per year. Even better, the companion is confirmable at the time of booking, meaning that you won’t have to wait to see if there’s availability. In other words, this puppy is powerful.

You can earn the Companion Pass (CP) in one of two ways:

-- Fly 100 segments on the airline in a year.

-- Earn 110,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points in the year. Virtually every point that you earn through Southwest, whether it’s from flying, shopping or credit cards (including sign-up bonuses). This is the method that we’re going to concentrate on.

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Credit Cards

Southwest has five different credit cards. We’re concentrating on the most user-friendly. Normally, the cards pay sign-up bonuses in the 30,000 – 50,000 point range. But for now, they’re offering a promotional bonus of 60,000 – 80,000, depending on the type of card you get. Three things to be aware of:

-- A Rapid Rewards Point is worth almost exactly 1.5 cents. Any flight can be booked with either points or miles, so you can always use your points. 80,000 points is worth $1,200 in travel on Southwest.

-- We know that the 80,000 point bonus for the business card ends on October 15.

-- We have no idea when the personal card bonus ends. Get the business card first.

 Not sure if you are eligible for a business card? ==> Read the bottom of this post.

-- Do not complete your initial spend until 2020. You have three months to meet your minimum spend threshold. This last one is incredibly important.

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The Process for Getting the Companion Pass

This isn’t the only way to use credit cards to get the Companion Pass, but it’s the easiest.

Here’s how to play:

1) Get the Performance Business Card first. Yes, it does have an annual fee. Who cares? The $1,200 in travel will cover it six-fold, and that’s excluding the numerous perks. Long-term greedy. Remember, don’t cross the minimum spend threshold until 2020.

2a) Wait until January and earn 30,000 points by spending $10,000 -- $30,000 (Point multipliers may apply, depending on the category.) as fast as possible.

Or…

2b) Wait a month (A month and a week or so won’t hurt. Make a note in your calendar.) and apply for a personal card. The Rewards Plus credit card is the cheapest way to do it. Even if the sign-up bonus drops between now and then, you’ll still have enough points to qualify for the Companion Card.

Remember, you do not want to cross the threshold and earn your bonus points in 2019. We’re saving this all for the first few weeks of January.

Enjoy your Companion Pass! By waiting until January, you’ll have the pass not only for all of 2020 but also 2021. That’s almost two years of a companion flying free, and the points that you earn from the sign-up bonuses will pay for a bunch of your flights, as well.

Note: A few of the links in the post above that link to other LVA Travel posts are not working. Sorry about that.

Mike

Edit: All fixed, and for easy reference, these are all the relevant articles on LVA Travel.

A Fast-Lane to the Southwest Companion Pass

Credit Card Bonus - Two Big Deals - Up To $1000 Bonus (Or More, With Our "Southwest Loophole”)

The Superiority of the Southwest Airlines Credit Cards

Note: As of 2020, the requirement for the Companion Pass has risen to 125,000 RR points.

Mike

Today SWA sent email "We're making some changes to Rapid Rewards."

Bottom line, one FOR the RR customer, two AGAINST the customer.

 - RR points never expire.  I didn't know they expired anyway.  That's the FOR the customer.

 - The aforementioned increase in points required for the Companion Pass.

 - Stand-by benefits are lowering for A List and A List preferred in 2021. 

If you already have a Southwest CC and you cancel it....how long before the you can sign up again and get the

bonus?  Probably wouldn’t do it with Southwest because I like that card even in the absence of a bonus....but I have other cards that offer sign up bonuses that I could part with for awhile.

I think you need to wait 2 years to get the bonus again.  There is alwayts the option to get a business card.  There was some good advice on how you can qualify for one in the article.

You could call Southwest - they would be able to answer your question.

It is not Southwest that decides these things.  You would need to call the credit card issuer, in this case Chase bank.

You might be able to just upgrade your current Southwest CC without canceling.

I took my own advice and called Southwest and was told if I had a card and cancelled it, I would have to wait 24 months to get another card to qualify for the bonus points.