A few months ago, I wrote a post titled The #1 Easy Way We’re Getting the Southwest Companion Pass. I detailed the strategy we’re in the process of going through using a Southwest credit card (or maybe two) to get the Southwest Companion Pass.
If you’re not familiar, the Southwest Companion Pass is a benefit earned that then allows you to book a friend with you for free on every Southwest flight you book. You still have to pay a small amount in taxes/fees for that person, but that generally amounts to next to nothing.
The ability to fly throughout the U.S., Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean with a companion flying free can easily save you thousands of dollars over the course of a year.
Because this is such a valuable benefit, the qualifications to get it are pretty tough. You either need to fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 125,000 points in a calendar year. Then you’ll earn the Companion Pass for the following full calendar year, plus the remainder of the year in which you earned it.
We’re on track to earn the Southwest Companion Pass by this summer by leveraging a couple of bonuses on a Southwest credit card and pushing a lot of spend-through it as well. If for some reason we can’t earn enough points to get the benefit, we’ll sign up for the business credit card as well.
However, Chase has made it tremendously easier to earn the Companion Pass with a promotion they have going on for a short time. Here’s the scoop!
Sign up for a Southwest credit card and get the Companion Pass free!!
For a limited time, you can now sign up for a Southwest credit card (there are three choices) and earn the Southwest Companion Pass after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
That’s it. That’s essentially all you need to do.
Spend $5k in three months on the card and you’ll receive the Companion Pass benefit – valid through 2/28/2023. Additionally, they’re throwing in 30,000 bonus points to go along with it.
Those bonus points alone could actually pay for a round-trip flight to a lot of places. That would make one flight free and then your companion would fly free as well – you’d only have the small taxes/fees to pay. That’s huge!
This is a much simpler way of getting the benefit than the way Lisa and I are working on. We have to go through the hurdles of two different big spend requirements PLUS we’ll have to have spent $25k on the card over the course of the year… attainable but tough!
So yeah, much easier to get the Companion Pass with only a single Southwest credit card and a little bit of spending in three months. For most folks, putting all your spending on the one Southwest credit card over those first three months should knock that out pretty easily.
Which Southwest credit card should I get?
There are currently three different Southwest credit cards offering this promotion:
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Priority Card
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Card
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Card
Each of these cards has the promotion to be able to earn the Companion Pass and the 30k points after spending $5k in the first three months. The differences are in the other perks and the annual fee.
The Plus card has the cheapest annual fee of $69, the Premier at $99, and the Priority at $149.
Knowing how frugal we are, you would think that we would immediately go with the Plus card.
However, this is the second time around that we’ve opted for the Southwest Priority card. Not having foreign transaction fees was helpful while in Panama (which isn’t a current benefit offered with the Plus card). But the $75 annual travel credit of the Priority card makes it a no-brainer versus the Premier card because the difference in the annual cost of those two is only $50.
Also, the 4 upgraded boardings per year and the 7,500 bonus points after your Cardmember anniversary make the Priority card a winner in our book.
Our needs and logic might be different than yours though. You’ll need to decide which Southwest credit card makes the most sense for you. You can see the differences between the three cards on my Recommended Credit Cards page.
No matter which of the Southwest credit cards you go with though, that Companion Pass bonus (along with the 30k in points) is only a hop, skip, and a jump away!
You know that I only post about products and services that I know very well or use myself and enjoy. In this case, this falls under both of these. We’ve earned and used the Companion Pass before and it’s a real money saver. It’s also extremely easy to use.
I’m eager to get the Companion Pass again and I’m excited to offer you this opportunity to get it as well, so don’t let this pass you by! If you’d like to do some flying throughout the U.S., Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean with a companion and save some big money doing it, this is the promotion for you!
Based on the application for the Southwest credit card, it looks like this promotion will be ending on 3/14/2022, so act fast! Once you’re approved, you’re good-to-go though, and will then have 3 months to spend the $5,000 needed to get the Companion Pass. That’ll give you this awesome benefit to use through 2/28/2023!
You can check out each Southwest credit card on my Recommended Credit Cards page.
Plan well, take action, and live your best life!
Thanks for reading!!
— Jim
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