It's baaaack!
Right now, Feb 2026, the sign up bonus for ANY Southwest Personal Credit Card will get you a buy one, get one flights; earning a companion pass through 2/28/2027!
Now, there are a few cons to this offer; or at least differences from the “traditional companion pass”, that you should consider before taking this offer. The Cons are covered later on in this post, so that you can know full scope and decide if this offer is right for you.
Promotional Southwest Companion Pass
There are 3 Southwest personal credit cards with an elevated offer right now, that includes earning Companion Pass, through 2/28/27. Each card's minimum spend, sign up bonus offer, annual fee, and benefits vary. Let's talk through each card!
Rapid Rewards Plus Card
Current Elevated Offer: Spend $3,000 in 3 months; earn 20,000 points AND Companion Pass through 2/28/27
Annual Fee: $99
5/24: This is a personal card, therefore it takes a spot for the Chase 5/24 rule (Chase will only allow you to have 4 personal credit cards from ANY bank/store/airline/hotel/etc in the previous 24 months. If you exceed this limit, Chase likely will automatically not approve you for more cards. Read Item 2 here for more beginner basics)
Benefits:
- Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 people on the same reservation. You do NOT have to use the card to purchase flights in order to utilize this benefit
- Free standard seat selection 48 hours in advance of flights for everyone one your reservation
- 10% Flight Discount
- No foreign transaction fees
- 3,000 anniversary points yearly
Rapid Rewards Premier Card Current Elevated Offer: Spend $4,000 in 3 months; earn 30,000 points AND Companion Pass through 2/28/27
Annual Fee $149
5/24: This is a personal card, therefore it takes a spot for the Chase 5/24 rule (Chase will only allow you to have 4 personal credit cards from ANY bank/store/airline/hotel/etc in the previous 24 months. If you exceed this limit, Chase likely will automatically not approve you for more cards.
Read Item 2 here for more beginner basics)
Benefits:
- Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 people on the same reservation. You do NOT have to use the card to purchase flights in order to utilize this benefit
- Free Preferred seat selection 48 hours in advance of flights for everyone one your reservation
- 15% Flight Discount
- No foreign transaction fees
- 6,000 anniversary points yearly
Rapid Rewards Priority Card
Current Elevated Offer: Spend $5,000 in 3 months; earn 50,000 points AND Companion Pass through 2/28/27
Annual Fee $229
5/24: This is a personal card, therefore it takes a spot for the Chase 5/24 rule (Chase will only allow you to have 4 personal credit cards from ANY bank/store/airline/hotel/etc in the previous 24 months. If you exceed this limit, Chase likely will automatically not approve you for more cards.
Read Item 2 here for more beginner basics)
Benefits:
- Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 people on the same reservation. You do NOT have to use the card to purchase flights in order to utilize this benefit
- Free Preferred seat selection at time of booking for everyone one your reservation
- No foreign transaction fees
- 7,600 anniversary points yearly
Comparing All 3 Cards...
Cons for this Elevated Offer
You can only earn a sign up bonus on ANY Southwest Personal card every 24 months. That means, if you open one of the cards listed above now, you will not be eligible to earn a sign up bonus on a Southwest Personal card for 24 months after you hit the Feb 2026 Personal card SUB.
Why does this matter? This promo CP only lasts until 2/28/27. While a year of BOGO flights is great, the traditional method of earning companion pass lets you earn bogo flights for up to 24 months.
Additionally, with the traditional method of earning CP, you earn 125,000 points that you can then spend to book flights! The offers above only get you 20,000-40,000 points, which may not even be enough for a one-way flight in some cases.
If you have opened a SW Personal card in the past 24 months and earned a sign up bonus, then you are NOT eligible for this offer.
This is a Great Offer For...
1. People who absolutely cannot open a business card. Although, you really should read this post and reconsider!
2. Someone who has big holiday travel planned, especially over Christmas 2026/New Years 2027. Going to Hawaii next winter? SW roundtrip flight to Hawaii around the holidays can easily cost 120,000 points for ONE person, round trip. If you have companion pass, then you're saving ~120,000 points with this offer by itself, which is easily just as good as any other sign up bonus!
Summary
___________________________
Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.
Wondering how I keep all of this information organized? Check out my Points Tracker!
Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!
No comments:
Post a Comment