Update: This offer is showing an expiration date of 9/16/24 on Chase’s website. If this holds, it means that you could score a companion pass for two years by waiting to apply until mid-September and changing the statement date to the first of the month (this would cause points earned in December to post in January). This would allow you to finish the initial three months spending after December 1, so the first 60,000 or 80,000 points should be awarded on January 1, 2025, counting towards CP qualification for 2025 instead of 2024. This would enable you to earn the entire 120K in 2025, thus the resulting pass would be valid for all of 2025 AND 2026. (h/t: reader Daniel)
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Both of the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Business Cards have new welcome offers which could be very interesting provided you can meet the minimum spend requirements: each one lets you potentially earn a Southwest Companion Pass with only one card.
Complete Guide to the Southwest Companion Pass
The Offers & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Up to 120K points ⓘ Affiliate 60K points after $3K spend within first 3 months and an additional 60K after $15K total spend within first 9 months.$99 Annual Fee This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Earning rate: 3X Southwest ✦ 2X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X rideshare ✦ 1X on all other purchases. Card Info: Visa issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: If you earn 135,000 points in one calendar year, you'll get a companion pass good for the rest of that calendar year and all of the next year ✦ Earn 1,500 TQPs for each $10K in purchases Noteworthy perks: 6000 bonus points each year upon card renewal. 2 EarlyBird Check-Ins each year. 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year. |
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Up to 120K points ⓘ Affiliate 80K points after $5K spend within first 3 months and an additional 40K after $15K total spend within first 9 months.$199 Annual Fee This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Earning rate: 4X Southwest ✦ 3X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X rideshare ✦ 2X social media and search engine advertising, internet, cable, and phone services ✦ 1X on all other purchases. Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: If you earn 135,000 points in one calendar year, you'll get a companion pass good for the rest of that calendar year and all of the next year ✦ Earn 1,500 TQPs for each $5K in purchases Noteworthy perks: 9000 bonus points each year upon card renewal ✦ 4 Upgraded Boardings per year when available ✦ Global Entry or TSA Pre✔ Fee Credit ✦ Up to 365 Inflight WiFi Credits ✦ 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year. |
Quick Thoughts
These are excellent offers which match the highest that we’ve seen on the Southwest Business cards.
Each one comes in a two-tiered format – 80,000 or 60,000 Rapid Rewards points after spending $5K/$3K within 3 months, with the remainder of the bonus points awarded after reaching a total of $15K spend within 9 months of opening the card. The return per dollar is much better for the first tier as it represents a 16-20x return on top of your regular points earnings versus only 4-5x for the subsequent $10-12K. That said, many people will be interested in spending the full $15,000 because that’s enough to get you a Southwest Companion Pass.
In order to get a pass, Southwest credit cardholders need to earn 125,000 Companion Pass-Qualifying Rapid Rewards points within a calendar year. If you complete the entire $15K in 2024, you’ll get a Companion Pass for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025 when you combine the bonus points from the welcome offer with the additional points that you’d earn from the actual spend. That’s a fairly good deal, although how good it is depends on how quickly you can meet that spend requirement. If you don’t hit $15K until late in the year, you might get as little as 13 months to enjoy the pass.
Also note that, although the offers allow for nine months to complete the $15K spend, in order to get a Companion Pass you must earn the entire 125,000 points within a calendar year. If you were to take the full nine months to reach the full $15K spend, that second tranche of points would be awarded in 2025…which would apply towards a 2026 Companion Pass.
If you’re going from 0 to 125K and need all of the points to post in 2024, you’d need to complete all $15K in spend before your December statement close, or ~ 6 months. That works out to ~$2,500 spend per month, which is probably doable for most folks.
Traditionally, the best time to open Southwest Airlines credit cards is after October 1st because of the ability to time the spending requirements and earn the bonus points after January 1st, securing a Companion Pass for nearly 2 full years. Welcome offers on these cards increase and decrease throughout the year, but have historically ranged from 40,000 points to 100,000 points, which means that it’s often possible to earn enough points for a companion pass, or very close to it, by opening one or two credit cards and meeting the minimum spending requirements in early January.
So, although these excellent offers are more straightforward (as you can earn a pass with one card), it’s worth considering whether it’s a better idea go for 13-18 of Companion Pass now or roll the dice on getting approved for two cards later in year for 23-24 months of companion joy.
Chase Application Tips
- 5/24 Rule: You most likely will not get approved for a new card if you have opened 5 or more cards (with any bank) within the past 24 months. Most business cards do not count towards that five card total.
- 24 Month Rule: If you’ve previously had a card before, you can only get a welcome offer on that card again if you no longer have the card AND if it has been more than 24 months since you last received a welcome offer for that card. This rule does not apply to the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards (see below). There can be exceptions with some business cards.
- 48 Month Rule: If you’ve previously had either the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve cards, you can get the welcome offer for another Sapphire card only if you no longer have either card AND if it has been more than 48 months since you last received a welcome offer for the card.
- "Family" Rules: In addition to Sapphire cards' 48-month rule, Chase applies additional "family" rules to the Southwest cards. You're not eligible for the welcome offer on a personal Southwest card if you currently have one, or if you've received a welcome offer on any personal Southwest card within the last 24 months. This doesn't apply to business cards.
- 2 per month Rule: Most applicants are limited to 2 new cards per month.
- Marriott cards: Approval for any Marriott card is governed by a labyrinthine set of unintuitive rules. You can see the full eligibility chart here.
- Card Limits: Chase doesn't have a strict limit on the amount of cards that you can have, but it does place limits on the total amount of credit that they will issue you across all cards. Because of this, reconsideration can sometimes be successful by moving credit from one existing card to the new card that you want.
- Application Status: Call (888) 338-2586 to check your application status.
- Reconsideration: If denied, call (888) 270-2127 for personal cards, or (800) 453-9719 for business cards, and ask for your application to be reconsidered.
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These are the steps I follow to get companion pass for 2025-26?
1)wait to apply until mid-September
2)change statement date to 1st of month
3)finish first $5000 after 12/1
4)finish 15k after 1/1
So I can’t spend on the card until after 12/1?
You can spend on the card, you just can’t spend the 5,000th dollar on it until after December 1st. To be safe, I’d spend no more than $4k before December 1st, just in case so you don’t accidentally hit that threshold too soon.
Worst case scenario if opening in mid September would be to reach the first goal by end of year. However, if that happens the 2nd half of the bonus in 2025 and another card puts you back at a 2 card companion pass, correct?
We’re a two-player household and I was planning to do the three-card trick for both of us to get the companion pass next year. Has anyone done the math on whether this approach is better? It’s more spend, I think, but also more points, yes?
So what day should I apply for this card? Do I have wait until September 16th to execute the plan effectively?
Seems Chase has been a lot more conservative on approvals in 2024 from all the DP iI have read – think it could be a real gamble for some people to count on getting approved for two cards to earn CP like previous method. This removes the risk.
We have had P2 take breather from chase last Fall – with our plans to get CP for 2025-26 and do more domestic travel with CP.
This is intresting offer but also opens other doors of opportunities iif P2 stays 2/24.
The only potential challenge is we are scheduled to fly to Europe the week the offer expires -so its not Ideal. If its not an instant approval – recon could be expensive at ..25c p/m from the EU and we won’t return till Oct 16th – so it would be to late to recon after returning.
Can I apply and get accepted for a Southwest buisness card if I am currently at 5/25?
“Most” business cards are not subject to the 5/24 rule? If approved for these cards, do they count toward 5/24, even if business cards? a little confused
No Chase business cards count towards 5/24. The only issuer’s cards that do (as far as I know) are TD Bank, Discover and the Capital One Spark cards.
Last year, this offer had an end date of September 4th. I applied on 9/4 and later changed the payment due date to the 26th of the month. I made sure not to put enough spend on the card to get the signup bonus before the end of the year. After my December 2nd statement closed, I spent like crazy on the card to get a full 2 years of companion pass from one card.
any word on how long this will last?
The Southwest website lists the offers as ending on September 16, 2024.
Nice catch. I’ll add an update to the post that it would be possible to apply in September and earn a pass for two years.