There are some great new welcome offers available via referral on personal Southwest credit cards which allow you to earn a Companion Pass valid through the end of February next year, as well as 30,000 Rapid Rewards points when meeting the minimum spend requirement.
The Offers & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
30K points + Companion Pass ⓘ Friend-Referral 30K points + Companion Pass valid through 2/28/26 after $4K spend in the first 3 months. (Offer Expires 3/23/2025)$69 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: 65K points after $1K spend in the first 3 months After clicking through, be sure to manually select the exact Southwest card in which you are interested. This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: This card can be great for its new cardmember bonus, but its ongoing perks are worth the annual fee only if fully used each year. Earning rate: 2X local transit and commuting, including rideshare ✦ 2X internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming ✦ 2X Southwest Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Chase. This card imposes foreign transaction 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. Noteworthy perks: 3000 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 |
|---|
30K points + Companion Pass ⓘ Friend-Referral 30K points + Companion Pass valid through 2/28/26 after $4K spend in the first 3 months. (Offer Expires 3/23/2025)$99 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: 50K points after $1K spend in the first 3 months This card is known to be subject to Chase's 5/24 rule. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: The combination of 6,000 points plus 2 EarlyBird Checkins each year make this card a keeper for those who fly Southwest often. Earning rate: 3X Southwest ✦ 2X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X local transit and rideshare ✦ 2X internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming ✦ 1X on all other purchases. Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum 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: 6000 bonus points each year upon card renewal. 2 EarlyBird Check-Ins each year. 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year ✦ 25% back on in-flight drinks, Wi-Fi, messaging, and movies. |
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
30K points + Companion Pass ⓘ Friend-Referral 30K points + Companion Pass valid through 2/28/26 after $4K spend in the first 3 months. (Offer Expires 3/23/2025)$149 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: 50K points after $1K spend in the first 3 months This card is known to be subject to Chase's 5/24 rule. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Great for frequent Southwest flyers - this card could easily be a long-term keeper. Earning rate: 3X Southwest ✦ 2X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X local transit and rideshare ✦ 2X internet, cable, phone services, and select streaming ✦ 1X on all other purchases. Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum 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: ✦ 7,500 anniversary points each year ✦ $75 Southwest annual travel credit ✦ Four A1-15 boardings every year ✦ 25% back on in-flight drinks, Wi-Fi, messaging, and movies. ✦ 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year |
Quick Thoughts
Southwest has run these Companion Pass welcome offers every February for several years, so it’s great to see them make a return for 2025.
Unlike some Southwest flight-related promotions that award a Companion Pass that’s only valid for three months after taking a round trip flight or two one-way flights, the Companion Pass you earn from these credit card welcome offers is valid through February 28, 2026.
While that sounds like you’d get a Companion Pass for a full year, in reality it’s likely going to be less than that unless you’re really able to maximize things. That’s because after being approved for the card you have to meet the minimum spend requirement of $4,000 within three months of account opening, then you have to wait for your statement to close after meeting that spend requirement. If you manage to spend $4,000 quickly, that might be done in sufficient time to occur before your first statement cuts.
Once you’ve completed the required spend, the terms state that you need to allow up to 8 weeks for the Companion Pass to post to your account. I believe those 8 weeks take into account the potential for you to meet the minimum spend requirement the day after a statement cuts, so in reality I suspect you’ll see the Companion Pass on your Rapid Rewards account within a few weeks of your statement closing after you’ve spent $4,000 – hopefully even sooner than that.
In addition to the Companion Pass, you’ll earn 30,000 Rapid Rewards points which will be on top of the 4,000+ points you’ll earn from meeting the minimum spend requirement.
These offers are available on all three of the personal Southwest cards – the Plus, Premier and Priority cards. The welcome offers are identical on all three cards, so in that sense it doesn’t matter which of those cards you apply for. However, the cards have different annual fees, different benefits and different bonus points awarded at renewal each year, so it’s worth comparing the three cards to decide which of them best fit your needs both now and potentially on an ongoing basis after the first year.
These Companion Pass + 30K points welcome offers are currently only available via referral. We’ve therefore added referral links to those offers which you can access by clicking on the card names in the boxes above which will take you through to the card details pages.
It’s worth being aware though that there are alternative welcome offers out there for these cards. The best alternate offers for the Southwest Premier and Priority cards award 50,000 Rapid Rewards points, while there’s an offer on the Southwest Plus card where you can earn 65,000 bonus points. We have each of those bonuses listed as alternate offers with direct links to them also provided on the relevant card pages. If you’re someone who travels solo, the offers awarding a higher number of points will make far more sense than only earning 30,000 points + a Companion Pass. Similarly, someone who might only take one or two flights with a companion before February 28, 2026 will likely do better earning a higher number of bonus points up front.
For others though, the Companion Pass could prove to be extremely valuable. The best alternate offer at the moment is the 65,000 points on the Plus card. With these new welcome offers via referral, you’re effectively forgoing 35,000 points in exchange for a Companion Pass. If having a Companion Pass would save you 35,001+ points by next February, this new referral offer will be better. And don’t forget that the Companion Pass works for both award flights and cash flights. Due to the (somewhat) fixed value of Southwest Rapid Rewards points, those forgone 35,000 points on the alternate Plus card offer would get you ~$500 of travel. If you’d have otherwise spent that much in cash for your companion’s flights, once again you’ll come out ahead with the Companion Pass offer.
These Companion Pass offers are around until March 23, 2025, so there’s not necessarily any need to jump on the offer immediately. However, with the Companion Pass having a fixed expiry date of February 28, 2026 rather than being valid for a year from when it’s earned, the earlier you earn it, the longer you get to utilize it.
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If one already has one of the SW personal cards, can you get the bonus if you apply for one of the other two personal cards?
Unfortunately not – you can only have one personal Southwest card at a time. You can get a business card though (albeit without the Companion Pass as part of the welcome offer), or you could cancel your existing card and apply for one of the other two. The risk with that though is that you get declined and end up having no Southwest card.
Well, this is cool, but I’m actually disappointed that this referral offer changed. I just got the Southwest business card 80k offer last month and was planning to refer my wife in order to make my way to earning the companion pass and earn her a chunk of points but we hadn’t gotten around to it yet. (With tax payments and the referral I would have been good for the companion pass). Its just the two of us so we don’t both need a companion pass so its a bummer for her to earn a smaller welcome bonus and an unnecessary companion pass. In thinking it through, I could still refer her for a business card bonus of a larger chunk of points, but curious if there is a way of pulling up the standard personal card offer as a referral that I haven’t been able to figure out. Thanks for all the great work FM team!