The Southwest Companion Pass is one, if not the best, travel perk among U.S. airlines. If you qualify for this benefit, you can add a companion to any booked Southwest trip, paid or with mile, after paying for taxes for your companion.
This benefit has allowed me and my significant other to take amazing trips to Aruba, Bahamas, New Orleans, San Francisco, Boston, and many other destinations.
Requirements to qualify
Southwest requires you to earn 125,000 points to qualify for the Companion Pass. You can earn these points by traveling or Credit Card spending with one of the Chase Southwest Credit cards.
Once you qualify for a Companion Pass, it’s valid until the end of the following year. Thus, if you qualify for it in September 2022, it’s good until December 31, 2023. So, if you plan it accordingly, you could be eligible for a Companion Pass for almost two years (from January until December of the following year).
How did I qualify?
Flying 125,000 miles or spending $125,000 (or a combination of both) might be unrealistic for many. However, there’s one more avenue to achieve the requirements to qualify for the Companion Pass: Credit Card welcome bonuses.
Chase offers five different Southwest Co-branded credit cards, three personal and two business cards:
Personal
Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card – 50,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $69 annual fee.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card* – Earn 50,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $99 annual fee.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card – Earn 50,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $149 annual fee.
Business
Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Card* – Earn 60,000 points when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. $99 annual fee.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Card* – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. $199 annual fee.
Since the points from the welcome bonus count towards qualifying for the Southwest Companion Pass, by applying and getting approved for a personal and a business card and meeting the minimum spending, you could qualify for the Companion Pass or be very close.
In my case, I applied for both business cards, and after meeting the minimum spending for both cards, I earned more than 140,000 points and the Companion Pass. That’s worth more than $2,000, and using the Companion Pass would double its value to more than $4,000. So the value of the points, perks, and Companion Pass outweighs both annual fees.
Chase does have some restrictions on its credit products.
For the Southwest Personal Cards:
The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card products.
For the Southwest Business Cards:
This new Cardmember bonus offer is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of this business credit card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of this business credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this business credit card within the last 24 months.
Notice the difference in language between personal and business cards. For personal cards, it’s clear that you can only receive one bonus for all personal cards in 24 months. For the Business Card
Also, Chase tends to deny applications if you have applied for five credit cards in the last 24 months.
If these restrictions do not affect you, you can apply for any of these credit cards.
Strategy Advice
You qualify for the companion pass after earning 125,000 points. Once you qualify, the Companion Pass is valid for the remainder of the calendar year and the following calendar year. Also, only points earned during a calendar year count towards that year’s qualification. For example, if you earn 60,000 points this year, 2022, and 80,000 next year, 2023, you will not qualify for the companion pass since they count towards different calendar years. You need to earn both bonuses during the same calendar year.
My strategy was to apply for the first Southwest Business Credit Card in December of 2021 and start using the card close to the end of the year to meet its spending requirement. With this strategy, I received a welcome bonus of 80,000 points on January 17, 2022. If I had received the bonus before 2022, it wouldn’t have counted towards the 2022 qualification.
I waited until March 2022 to apply for the second Southwest Business Credit card. I also wanted to wait a prudent amount of time between applications, and 3-4 months seemed reasonable. I met the spending requirement in April 2022 and received a second bonus of 60,000.
Applying for both business cards was my strategy to qualify for the Companion Pass; however, there might be other routes you prefer to take. For example, CulturaIQ, my website, is a registered business, and both cards are linked to my business. In the past, I rented out my car using Turo or did event planning and used business cards specific to those side projects.
Also, if planned accordingly with your companion, you can have close to four years of the Companion Pass if your partner repeats the application process right before the first pass expires.
Other Options
You can consider applying for one personal card and one business card. If this option doesn’t work for you, you can wait for a better bonus promotion from Chase. Previously, there have been 100,000 bonus offers for personal cards or even a version of the Companion Pass after some minimum spending or qualifying activity.
In 2021 Chase offered a personal card with a Companion Pass for 12 months after meeting the minimum spending and repeated the offer earlier in 2022. Also, as recently as September 2022, Southwest offered a promo to earn a two-month companion pass valid between January 4 and March 4, 2023.
Conclusion
The Companion Pass is a fantastic travel perk. Not only has it allowed me and my companion to visit family, friends, and new destinations, but we have already booked trips to Turks & Caicos and the Cayman Islands in the following months, and hopefully we will keep enjoying this perk.
If you find a strategy to qualify for this perk, I highly encourage you to pursue it. Safe travels!
*Myself or someone in my household has or recently had this card.