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The Southwest Companion Pass is widely regarded by travel experts as the best airline perk available today. The companion pass allows you to fly a companion for free with you, whether you purchased your flight with dollars or points. This extraordinary perk can be worth thousands of dollars, depending on how frequently you’ll utilize it. Surprisingly, you can earn the pass without even flying on Southwest Airlines. We’ll show you step by step how to earn the Southwest Companion Pass, and when you should earn it for maximum value.

Perks of Southwest Airlines

Southwest is by far our favorite airline for domestic travels. We’ve also enjoyed some cheap international flights to Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Aruba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and Grand Cayman Islands.  We love it for its excellent fares, fun flight attendants, easy and free cancellation/change policy, 2 free checked bags (which offers huge savings while traveling with kids), and large selection of nonstop flights from our home base in Baltimore.

What we like the most about Southwest Airlines is the Companion Pass. The Southwest Companion Pass is undoubtedly the most generous airline perk we have discovered. It is a perk that has the potential to save you a tremendous amount of money when traveling as a couple, as a family, or even with a favorite friend.

Thanks to @SouthwestAir Companion Pass status, our family of 4 traveled to #Hawaii from @BWI_Airport for only $82 + SWA miles. This perk is one of many reasons we have been loyal customers of #SouthwestAirlines for the past 16 years.#ProTravelHacker #WorldTravelAdventurers pic.twitter.com/DCpOACvCGL

— World Travel Adventurers (@ProTravelHacker) March 23, 2021

What is the Southwest Companion Pass?

The Companion Pass is a Southwest Airlines perk that allows you to choose a designated companion to fly with you for free. Well, it’s amost free since you have to pay the taxes and airport fees which are $5.60 each way for most domestic flights but vary for international flights.

Upon reaching the Companion Pass status (more on this below), you simply choose your companion by either calling Southwest Airlines at 1-800-435-9792 or by adding them through your Southwest Rapid Rewards account. It’s important to know that you can change your companion up to 3 times per year.

So if you fly with your spouse the majority of the year but then decide to treat your mom to a weekend getaway, you can make her your companion. You can change it to your child or best friend, or anyone you would like to treat to a free flight. That’s part of the beauty and flexibility of this perk. We’ve changed ours several times to treat different family members to free flights.

The Companion Pass status is valid for a maximum of 2 calendar years. However, we’ve seen Southwest offer promotional Companion Passes valid for a year or a few months with different requirements to earn them, based on the promotional offer. We recommend signing up for Southwest’s email list to be notified of any promotional offers.

For the standard Companion Pass, if you earn the status in January, you will be able to enjoy the perks through December of the following year. If you earn the status in December of this year, you will only have it until December of next year to enjoy it. It is preferable to earn the status early in the year so you have more time to get value out of it.

Your companion can fly for free with you on one-way or roundtrip flights, whether you purchased your flight with money or points. You can add your companion to your flight at any time, as long as there’s still a seat left on the flight. We recommend adding them as soon as you make your booking. Your companion still benefits from free checked luggage benefits as well as the no change or cancellation fees.

How to earn the Southwest Companion Pass

Southwest does a great job simplifying the process to get the Companion Pass. In order to attain this unbeatable perk and enjoy all of its savings, you have to do one of the following:

• Fly 100 one-way qualifying flights within a calendar year (January 1st – December 31st).
• Earn 135,000 qualifying Southwest points within a calendar year (increased from 125K as of Jan 1, 2023)

Once you complete one of those two options, Southwest will send you an envelope with a card welcoming you to the Companion Pass status. It is recommended to carry the card with you while flying with a companion. However, no one has ever asked to see the card during boarding.

How to earn the Companion Pass through 2 Southwest Credit Card bonus offers

For those who do not fly enough to secure the Companion Pass, you can still obtain this status without even flying on Southwest Airlines. Southwest is very generous with its Chase credit card sign-up bonus offers. You can earn the pass by strategically opening 2 Chase Southwest credit cards- a personal card and a business card, or 2 business cards, within the same calendar year. Here’s how it breaks down.

Personal Southwest Airlines Credit Card Offers

Southwest credit card offers fluctuate, so keep an eye out for bonus offers that will put you near or preferably over the points required when combined. The most common offer for all Southwest personal credit cards cards is to earn 40,000 Southwest points after meeting the minimum spending requirement within the first 3 months.

We’ve seen the bonus as high as 85,000 points in the past. Check the current offer on the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Credit Card, and Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card. All information about the Premier card has been collected independently by World Travel Adventurers. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

All three personal cards usually offer the same sign-up bonus, but each card comes with different perks and a different annual fee. We prefer the Priority card, which has the highest annual fee but since we use the $75 annual credit, the annual fee turns out to be the lowest. Keep in mind that you can only earn a sign-up bonus on ONE personal Southwest credit card every 24 months.

Southwest Airlines Business Credit Card Offers

You may be thinking that you don’t qualify for a business credit card if you don’t have a traditional small business. However, even a small side hustle that earns some income, like selling things on eBay or being an occasional Uber driver, can qualify you for a business credit card.

There are two Southwest Business Credit Cards: the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card and the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card. The Premier Business card typically offers 60,000 bonus points after meeting the minimum spending requirement within the first 3 months and comes with a $99 annual fee.

The Performance Business Card typically offers 70,000-80,000 points after meeting the minimum spending requirement within the first 3 months and comes with a $199 annual fee. There are additional perks of these cards like earning points every year on your card anniversary and travel protections.

Combine two bonus offers to earn SW Companion Pass

One path to earning the Companion Pass would be to open a personal Southwest card (with a 50K bonus point offer) plus the Performance Business card (with a 80K bonus point offer), coming in at 130K bonus points. You would earn the other 5K points needed to earn the Companion Pass while meeting the minimum spending requirement on your Southwest credit cards.

Another option would be to open both business cards.  Although you are not allowed to earn the bonus on 2 personal cards, you are able to earn the bonus on 2 business cards.  So if you open the Performance Business Card (with a 80K point bonus) and the Premier Business card (with a 60K point bonus), you’ll have 140K bonus points- more than you’ll need.

A third option would be to open a personal card (at 50K bonus points) plus the Premier Business Card (60K), coming in short at 110K points. You would get an extra 10K point boost for having a Southwest credit card (this is new in 2023 since they raised the requirement to 135K points instead of 125K points).  You would need to earn the additional 15K points through spending on your card, paid flights, or the Rapid Rewards Dining Program. You’d earn a minimum of 4,000 points (at 1 pt/$ on the minimum spend) or up to 12,000 points (if you spend all of the minimum spending requirement on Southwest purchases to earn 3 pts/$ spent).

Time your applications right

A key thing to remember is that the points must be earned in the same calendar year, so don’t make the common mistake of earning one sign-up bonus at the end of the year and the second one at the beginning of the next year. The best strategy to get the most time and value out of your companion pass is to apply for the Southwest credit cards in November or December.

However, make sure NOT TO MEET THE MINIMUM SPENDING REQUIREMENT UNTIL AFTER JANUARY 1st on both credit cards. This way, you’ll earn the pass in the beginning of the next year and will have almost 2 full years to take advantage of it. So if you open your card in November or December, wait to use the card for spending until after January 1st so you don’t accidentally meet the minimum spending requirement at the end of the year.

You get to keep the earned Southwest points for free flights

What’s more, you don’t have to trade in your rapid rewards points for the Companion Pass. You get to keep them in addition to the pass. So now with those 135,000 points or more that you’ve earned, you can take a fantastic family vacation (or multiple).

You could fly your family roundtrip to pretty much anywhere in the U.S. (including Hawaii and Puerto Rico) or even Costa Rica, Mexico, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica, and Dominican Republic depending on where you’re traveling from and your travel dates.

We recommend using the Low Fare Calendar on Southwest.com to find the best fares for the routes you need. This allowed us to find $49 tickets to Denver during our ski trip to Snowmass. We also flew last-minute to Mexico over Christmas for less than 7,000 points per person.

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Check flight prices on Tuesdays, which is when Southwest usually starts their fare sales, for the best deals. Sign up for their fare alerts so you know when they are having a sale. If the price for your flight goes down after purchasing it, contact Southwest and they’ll credit you the difference. Or you can cancel and rebook it yourself at the better fare. We’ve saved so many points and dollars this way by regularly checking on the price for flights we’ve already booked when a new sale begins.

You still have to pay taxes and fees on flights paid for with points and for your companion’s flight, which start at $5.60 per one-way for domestic flights and vary considerably for international flights. The most we’ve paid was $80 roundtrip to Costa Rica. Check out our post on how to visit Costa Rica on points when paired with a free stay at the Andaz Papagayo.

We’ve saved over $15,000 with our Companion Pass and Rapid Reward Points

In summary, thanks to the Southwest Companion Pass and Rapid Reward Points, we’ve managed to save over $15,000 while traveling both as a couple and as a family in the first several years we had the pass. Such tremendous savings allow us to splurge on unique experiences that create amazing memories with our family.

We strongly encourage you to earn the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass if you travel often. If you travel with a companion often, whether that’s a significant other, friend, child, or parent, the savings really add up. If you are married and have 2 or more children, then both you and your spouse can follow the above steps and earn the companion pass to save even more on family vacations. We both have had the companion pass for a few years and our kids always fly free with us, which has saved us thousands of dollars (and points).

If you have earned a Companion Pass status, how much have you saved? Where is the best place you’ve taken your companion for free? Please share your success stories below in the comments, or let us know if you have any questions. For more travel hacking inspiration, see how we saved $271K during 2.5 years in our first WTA Savings Report. If you want to get started or improve your travel hacking savvy, sign up for our email list to be on your way to traveling like a millionaire without spending a fortune!

*The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

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