Credit Card Bonus - Southwest

Have you heard of the Southwest Companion Pass? About 11 years ago, I remember I was in my apartment logging into my Southwest account and seeing this magical message:

The Southwest card was the first card I got with the main purpose of earning the sign up bonus and then the Companion Pass! Earning the Companion Pass was a bit easier to do 10 years ago, but no worries! It’s still very much possible. In fact, I earned it just a few months ago again!

Here are the main features of the Companion Pass:

• Must earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards in the same calendar year.

• When earned, the Companion Pass lasts for the rest of the current year, as well as the entire following year.

• You can take your companion with you for FREE on any flight, plus the $5.60 tax fee on a one way flight ($11.20 round trip).

• You can change who your companion is up to 3 times per calendar year.

Sounds amazing, right? So to earn this Companion Pass, you either need to spend about $135,000 (crazy), or just earn a signup bonus or two! (There’s a few other ways to earn it, but I promise the signup bonus is the easiest and quickest way.)

Chase offers 3 personal Southwest credit cards and 2 business Southwest credit cards. Right now there is an increased signup bonus for all 3 of the personal cards for 100,000 Rapid Reward points!

You can only earn the signup bonus on a Southwest personal card once every 24 months, but you can earn the signup bonus on one of the Southwest business cards to go along with the bonus from the personal card. That would easily get you over the 135,000 Rapid Rewards points needed!

If you can’t get approved for a business card, you can still make it to the 135,000 points. 

-($4,000 required spend = at least 4,000 points),

-the 10,000 point Annual Companion Pass Boost

-and obviously the 100,000 signup bonus.

After making those 114,000 points, you'll need to spend about $21,000 on the card to get up to 35,000 points, which will earn you the Companion Pass.

Does that sound like a lot? Ask friends or family members if you can make some big purchases for them using your card. I remember I bought new car tires for my dad once, and he just wrote me a check to pay me back. It helped me reach that required spend for a signup bonus I was working on!

A very important reminder: all 135,000 points must be deposited into your Southwest account in the same calendar year to qualify for the Companion Pass. You can’t earn 100,000 points in December of 2025, then 35,000 in January of 2026. You would not earn the Companion Pass. So pay attention to your timing!

As always, read the fine print to make sure you absolutely qualify for that signup bonus! Good luck and happy flying!

I've always loved Southwest for how friendly they are with kids! Pictured is Teagan and Austin taking a late night nap back in 2017. Thank goodness it wasn't a full flight!

P.S. Thank you for using my links. It makes all the work for sharing this information worth it!