What is the SouthWest Companion Pass and why you want it! It’s a benefit that allows you to choose your FAVORITE +1 to fly with you for free (does not include taxes and fees from $5.60 one-way) every time you purchase or redeem points for a flight. Perfect for the budget wanderluster, at least mostly domestically within the US. With Southwest now opening routes to parts of Mexico and Hawaii, this deal just got even sweeter.

Imagine buying a ticket to New York for $180 one way. With the Companion Pass, you are technically only paying $90 if you split it with your companion! It’s essentially 50% off flights for two!

You can save even MORE MONEY and essentially travel for FREE (almost) by using the 110,000+ rewards points you’ve accumulated to cover the costs of your flights. In fact, most of the trips featured so far on this blog were done with the Companion Pass. We traveled to these places by using points and just paying $5.60 for taxes and fees one way.

Sounds awesome! How do I get it? To qualify, fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 110,000 qualifying points in a calendar year, and you’ll earn Companion Pass for the following full calendar year, plus the remainder of the year in which you earned it.

Pro-Tip: Timing is everything!! You can MAX OUT this benefit by trying to get your qualifying points as early as possible at the beginning of the calendar year. Vince and I qualified for the Companion pass this late April 2019. So that means we’ll have companion pass for the remainder of 2019 and all of 2020 which is ALMOST 2 years worth of buy-one-get-one free flights; actually 20 months to be exact.

Pro-Tip: Southwest introduced a tempting new offer earlier this year that would allow you to get the Companion Pass with a single credit card. Spend $4,000, get 30,000 points, and get Companion Pass! Sounds awesome right? Nope. Reading the fine print, you only get the pass which was valid only until 12/31/2019 instead of until end of 2020. On top of that, you only end up with a measly 30,000 points. This offer is NOT worth it. We saw this offer and immediately ignored it, choosing instead to be patient and wait for a better credit card deal. Follow along and see how we got the best possible bang-for-our-buck!

STEP 1: I did this by signing up with a SouthWest Rapid Rewards Business Premier Credit Card in January 2019. Of course, you’d need to have a business to sign up; my business i.e. this blog you’re reading qualified me.

When you sign up you earn 60,000 points after you spend $3000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. This is an average of $1000 spent a month.

In addition to the 60,000 points, you get the following perks: Reward rates for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier credit card are 2x points for every $1 spent on Southwest purchases and Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases. And 1x points per $1 spent on all other purchases. Annual fee is $99 , and you also get 6,000 anniversary points.

$3000 … It sounds like a lot, and IT IS! But I did not have to forcibly cause myself to spend $3000 more than I already have to. I just pay ALL of my bills and expenses with this credit card to achieve that initial requirement. Paying for group dinners or events and having everyone Venmo/PayPal you back is another quick way to reach your target.

STEP 2: One month after signing up for the Business Premier card, I signed up for Southwest Rapid Rewards PLUS credit card. You get 40,000 points if you spend $1000 within three months.

I chose this PLUS card over the Priority and Premier Cards because the Plus has an annual fee of $69 versus an annual fee of $149 for the Priority card and $99 annual fee for the Premier card. ALL 3 of the aforementioned cards offer a 40,000 bonus point offer after spending $1000 for initial spend after the first 3 months of opening your account. ALL 3 cards also offer the same rewards : 2x points for every $1 spent on Southwest purchases and Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases and 1x points per $1 spent on all other purchases. So, I went with the Southwest PLUS card as my second card of choice; my thoughts were “Why spend more money than I have to to get the same benefit.”

So after completing your initial spends for both credit cards you should have earned at least 104,000 Rapid Rewards Points.

Breakdown:

$3,000 spend = 3,000 RR points from Business Premier card

+ 60,000 initial sign-up bonus points reward from Business Premier Card

= 63,000 points points earned

+

$1,000 spend = 1,000 RR points for PLUS card

+ 40,000 initial sign-up bonus points from PLUS credit card

= 41,000 points earned

_________________________________________________________________________

= 104,000 points.

NOW you’re just 6,000 points away from a Companion Pass!

STEP 3A: Instead of spending $6,000 outright to get the points, we came up with a better (and more affordable) approach. In addition to flights, Southwest also provides hotel booking services. With a family member’s wedding around the corner, we strategically chose a hotel near the event that offered 4,000 Rapid Rewards Points when booked through Southwest. The hotel stay itself was $187 a night. The remaining 2,000 points were obtained through regular spending over the last 4 months.

STEP 3B: Another alternative to get the remaining 6,000 points is to just sign up for a third Southwest credit card. I initially tried to sign up for a third card but was denied because of the 2/30 Chase Rule. The 2/30 states you can’t apply for more than two personal Chase credit cards (or one business card) in a 30-day period. Chase also has a 5/24 rule where if you opened more than five credit card accounts within the past 24 months, you will automatically be denied. )

If you DO decide to sign up for a third credit card, I’d consider the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority I mentioned earlier. You get 40,000 points for spending $1,000. In spite of it having the largest annual fee of $149 of all the cards offered right now, benefits include a $75 travel credit each year, which is the equivalent of cutting the annual fee in-half. Other noteworthy benefits this card offers: 7,500 bonus points after your Cardmember anniversary, 4 Upgraded Boardings per year when available, and 20% back on in-flight drinks & WiFi.

And that’s how we got get the Southwest Companion Pass this year 2019! Do note that credit card offers change throughout the year. What I described above provides a general framework you can still use to obtain the Companion pass.