Southwest Companion Pass (+ Elevated Offer)

 Southwest has announced and begun to implement a lot of changes this year. 

As of May 28th, Southwest no longer allows free bags for all passengers and starting at the end of January 2026, Southwest will also start having assigned seats on flights. These changes have ruffled a lot of feathers; but I continue to be a loyal Southwest flyer and there's one reason why...

Southwest Companion Pass

What is Companion Pass? 

Southwest Companion Pass (often referred to as SW CP) is an earned benefit that allows you (as SW CP-holder) to add one guest to any booked flight for only the cost of taxes/fees (in the US this is $5.60 per one-way flight; international travel will vary).

You assign someone in your SW account as a companion and have the ability to change companions up to three times in a calendar year.

Your flight can be booked with cash, credits, or points. Once you book your flight, you can add your companion:

A companion pass is valid for the remainder of the year you qualify AND the entire year following. I'll hit more on this later, want you to understand that there is a timing component to getting the SW CP from a strategy standpoint.

For a family of four, like myself, this means that if both my husband and myself have our own companion passes, then our two kids fly free. We have used this to our advantage in the past year and a half we've had our SW CPs!

How to Earn Companion Pass?

There are a two ways to earn Companion Pass:

1. Fly 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year.

2. Earn 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year.

We're going to focus on earning 135,000 points; because thanks to credit card sign up bonuses - this is TOTALLY achievable! What's even better, is that you get to use those points then to book free flights!!

Note: points transferred to Southwest, like your Chase points, do NOT count as qualifying points towards CP.

Traditional Two-Card Method

The "traditional" method of earning 135,000 points in a calendar year is to open one Southwest Business card and one Southwest Personal card and earn the sign up bonus for both cards within the same calendar year. There are several versions of the cards (for both personal and business). You CAN hold multiple business cards at the same time, but you CANNOT hold more than one personal SW hard at a time. 

Southwest automatically gives you an annual 10,000 points boost towards Companion Pass when you are a cardholder. Note: regardless of how many cards you hold, you only get one 10,000 points boost. Also, the 10,000 points boost only counts towards CP. It does not allow you to use these 10,000 points to book travel.

In addition, Southwest personal cards have a rule that you cannot earn a new sign up bonus on a personal card until it's been 24 months since your last SW Personal card sign up bonus. (This is important to keep in mind for long term strategy and repeat companion passes).

How to earn 135,000 points: 

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Personal card (lowest annual fee/lowest benefits) standard offer is to earn 50,000 points when you spend $1,000 in 3 months 
• Southwest Performance Business Card (highest annual fee/highest benefits) standard offer is 80,000 points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months.

From above, you would earn: 50,000pts + 1,000pts (for 1 point per dollar spent to hit the minimum spend) on the Personal Card and 80,000pts + 5,000pts (for 1 point per dollar spent to hit the minimum spend) on the Business Card, plus the 10,000 point boost for holding SW Cards. 

Adding these numbers up: 50,000 + 1,000 + 80,000 + 5,000 + 10,000 puts you at 146,000 points, which surpasses the 135,000 points needed to earn companion pass!

Keep in mind, that with Chase cards, when you hit a minimum spend, the sign up bonus points typically do not hit your account immediately. They hit at statement close. So if you hit a spend on the first of the month, but your statement closes on the 20th of the month, then you won't actually have those points in your account until at least the 20th of the month.

Timing of Earning Points

I mentioned above, that once your account hits 135,000 points, you earn a companion pass that is valid for the remainder of the year you qualify AND the entire year following. Therefore, it is CRITICAL to understand timing of when your points will hit, because it could make a difference of prolonging your SW CP.

So let's say you signed up for a SW card today and hit the minimum spent two months from now (September for the sake of this discussion). Immediately after you hit that signup bonus, you open a second SW card and hit that card's sign up bonus a month later (October in this example). That means that in October or November of this year, your SW account would have at least 135,000 points and earn you a Companion Pass for the remainder of 2025 AND all of 2026.

Pretty cool, right?

Buuuuuuut; if you had waited a few months, and strategically timed the opening of your cards and when you hit the minimum spend, you could have had all of the points hit your account in January 2026; and then you'd have earned SW CP for almost all of 2026 AND all of 2027! This is where timing and understanding when your points will hit is CRITICAL.

When we earned our SW CP's for 2024 and 2025; we starting opening SW cards in late October 2023. I very very carefully monitored the spending on those cards and once we were within $400 of the minimum spend we STOPPED using the card. Then I waited until January 2024, finished the remainder of the minimum spend requirement and boom, earned the CP, valid for almost two full years!

2-Person/3-Card Method

If your head is spinning from above, I'm going to warn you, this is even more advanced. However, the benefit is that if you need to earn two SW CPs, you can utilize the 3-Card Method so that you're opening one less card total (compared to above, where each person who wants a CP needs to open 2 cards).

The 3-card method utilizes referral points, which also count towards the needed 135K points for a Companion Pass. The easiest timing for all of this for the points to hit so that both people (player 1 and player 2) have companion passes is to start in January; but it technically can be done any time of year.

To use this method you need to pay attention to referral and sign up bonus offers, as both can and will change periodically!

Step 1: Player-1 needs to open a SW business card with an 80,000 pt sign up bonus minimum offer. Note, this is the SW Business Performance standard offer. Taking advantage of an elevated offer, such as 85K points would be more ideal.

Player-1 Point Status: from opening this card, Player 1 will earn: 80,000pts + 5,000 (from minimum spend) + 10,000pts (SW boost), putting them at 100,000 points. Which is 40,000 points short of a CP.

Step 2: Player-1 then refers Player-2 to a SW card. The referral bonus needs to be 20,000 points or higher, unless Player-1 opened an elevated 85K+ point card. (note: at the time of writing this post, the referral offer is 20,000 points, which is standard; but can drop).

Player-1 Point Status: 20,000pts from referral + 100,000 points from Step-1, putting Player 1 at 120,000 points (still shy of 135,000 required points)

Step 3: Player 2 hits the sign up bonus for their first card. Let's say it was the cheaper of the business card options, Premier Business, which has a standard offer of 60,000pts for $3,000 spend in 3 months.

Player-2 Point Status: 60,000pts + 3,000 (from the spend) + 10,000 point boost. Player-2 is at 73,000 points. Which is 62,000 points short of 135,000 needed.

Step 4: Player-1 refers Player-2 to a second SW card. Since Player-2 optioned a business card for their first card, this time Player 2 will open a personal card. Because Player-2 still needs 62,000 points, the standard offer for the lower tier personal card, Rapid Rewards Plus, isn't going to be enough. Player-2 will need to open a personal (or business card) that has a 60,000 point or greater sign up bonus. 

From this move, Player 2 would then have earned over 135,000 points to get their SW CP.

AND

Player 1, would earn another 20,000 points in referral, which gets them to 140,000 points, enough for them to also earn a companion pass!!

What about the current elevated Personal Card Offer??

Today, 7/24, Southwest announced an elevated 100,000 sign up bonus offer for all three of the personal cards. Earn 100,000 points by spending $4,000 in 5 months. This offer is valid through September 17, 2025.

This is a longer minimum spend period than normal, which is pretty great! However, if you're wanting to earn a companion pass with this offer and maximize how long you have the CP; I would wait until September to apply. That way your 5-month period to hit the minimum spend will end in Jan/Feb 2026. As long as you wait until then to complete the $4,000 minimum spend - then you'll earn:

100,000pt sign up bonus + 4,000pt spend + 10,000pt boost; which puts you at 114K points; just 21,000 points short of the 135,000k points needed for companion pass.

To find the additional 21K points needed, you could:

• Pay cash for Southwest flights; you'll earn miles for your flight distance and bonus points for shopping on Southwest with your SW card.
• Refer a friend/family member to the card
• You can refer from any southwest card to any other type of southwest card. The person opening a card from your referral doesn't have to open the same exact card as you!
• Earn additional points through Southwest Shopping Portal
• Earn additional points through strategic spend; here are the differences between the card options and ways your can earn more points by spending category!

The SW Rapid Rewards Plus Card has a $99 annual fee and similar additional points as SW Rapid Rewards Premier Card which has a $149 annual fee, but gets you (and up to 8 passengers on your reservation) a free checked bag, puts you in Group 5 boarding, allows you to select a seat within 48 hours of departure

• For additional points earn, this card gets:
• 3x points for every dollar spent on Southwest
• 2x points for every dollar spent at grocery stores and restaurants (up to $8K in a year)
• For the remainder of 2025:
• 2x points on Rapid Rewards hotels and car rental partners
• 2x points for local transit and rideshare
• 2x points for internet, cable, phone and streaming.
• 1x point on everything else

The SW Rapid Rewards Priority Card has a $229 annual fee, but gets you (and up to 8 passengers on your reservation) a free checked bag, puts you in Group 5 boarding, allows you to select a seat at booking

• For additional points earn, this card gets:
• 4x points for every dollar spent on Southwest
• 2x points for every dollar spent at grocery stores and restaurants
• For the remainder of 2025:
• 2x points on Rapid Rewards hotels and car rental partners
• 2x points for local transit and rideshare
• 2x points for internet, cable, phone and streaming.
• 1x point on everything else

I think this approach is worthwhile to consider getting this card while the offer is elevated if you want to earn a companion pass IF you have someone to refer to and it's definitely worth trying if you are unable to open a business card (you may qualify for a business and business card! Read here).

And if you don't care about the companion pass and just like flying Southwest, I still think this offer is a great one to take advantage of; especially with the recent changes like charged checked bags and assigned seats. Having a Southwest card could more than pay for it's self with those two benefits alone!

Remember, in order to earn a sign up bonus for a Southwest Personal card, it has to have been more then 24 months since you last earned a sign up bonus. If you already have a Southwest personal card and it's been more than 24 months, you could close your current card (read here on closing cards), wait 30 days, and apply for a new one to take advantage of this elevated offer!

Summary

That is A LOT!!! What do you think? Will you try for a companion pass?!

For any of the methods that require someone to open to cards, it's advised to open the business card first. This is to ensure that you can get approved for the business card and that your overall plan will succeed!

You can use the same link to apply for any of the Southwest cards! As always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!

If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!

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> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!