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Update 9/5/24: We’ve been informed that these increased Southwest Business card offers will be ending on 9/17/24 at 7am Eastern. Luckily, now is the ideal time to apply and use the method described below to get a Companion Pass for ~two years with one card.
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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.
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 beginning of the month (this would cause points earned in December to post in January).
For example, if you applied (and are approved) on September 10th, you’d have until 12/10 to finish the spend. If you then changed the statement date to the 5th of the month, your first statement would be 10/5, you second would be 11/5 and your third would be 12/5.
If you then finished the initial phase of spending between 12/6 and 12/10, the first 60,000 or 80,000 points should be awarded on January 6th, 2025, which would count towards CP qualification for 2025 instead of 2024. This would enable you to earn the entire 120K in 2025 and the resulting pass would be valid for all of 2025 AND 2026. (h/t: reader Daniel)
These improved business card offers are also showing on referral links, allowing you to earn even more points if you’re able to do a household referral (where P1 refers P2 or vice versa).
Complete Guide to the Southwest Companion Pass
The Offers & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
60K points ⓘ Affiliate 60K points after $3K spend within first 3 months your account is open$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 $5,000 spent in purchases annually. 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 |
|---|
80K points ⓘ Affiliate 80K points after $5K spend within first 3 months your account is open$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. Business cards that DO count include: TD Bank, Discover and the Capital One Spark Cash Select, Spark Miles and Spark Miles Select.
- 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 (Sapphire cards): 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.
- Southwest "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. You also can't be approved for Southwest consumer card if you already have one open.
- IHG "Family" Rules: You're not eligible for the welcome offer if you've received a welcome offer on any personal IHG card within the last 24 months. You also can't be approved another IHG consumer card if you already have one open.
- 2 per month Rule: Most applicants are limited to 2 new cards per month. Business cards are usually limited to one 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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Does anyone have experience with the new account bonus spend tracker in the Chase app not matching actual net purchases? I made a return (posted to my account weeks ago), and this has not been reflected in the tracker. Typically I wouldn’t complain, but I need that return to be accounted for to avoid hitting $3k spend before December! Hoping the status tracker isn’t official and that actual SUB spend will be calculated based on net purchases as of statement closing.
“in order to get a Companion Pass you must earn the entire 125,000 points within a calendar year. “
135k required
If you’re a cardholder you automatically get 10K, so the total that you have to earn is 125K.
My husband received a targeted 120K offer for the SW business performance in the mail on 10/2. When he enters the invitation code, nothing is mentioned about the SUB amount, and there is not an expiration date on the letter.
Everything I read says the SUB is now 80K with a 5K spend. How can we confirm he is eligible for the additional 40K points after a 15K total spend? Also, I would like the card to be in my name since I travel more often. We are both owners of our business but the offer is addressed to him. Will it work if I apply instead?
simple. call Chase
I recently got my card (applied on sept 8th). My current due to date is 20th of every month. I have couple of questions:
due date is irrelevant. All about the transaction date. Although that can be delayed a day or 2 depending on when merchant closes out their day
That’s not correct. Point are awarded after statement close, not when transactions post. So, if you have a statement close December 2nd, all points between that statement close and your next statement closing in January will post in January, not in December.
Unfortunately, the important part of his comment was unanswered.
He is getting the same message that I am getting. I have already clicked on the change due date button as well. I am getting an error message stating account is too new.
Do you have suggestions on dealing with this issue?
Just updating with my experience.
I was just able to request a new due date. It is apparently not automatic, but since I have not requested a change in the last 180 days, I am guessing they will approve the change.
just wanted to throw in that oddly enough, even if they do not change the date, I will still have a one day window to make it all happen.
Because I forgot to unlock my report, my approval was not automatic; therefore, SUB date is Dec 25, but my statement closing date is currently the 23rd. Go figure!
Needless to say, I still requested the change, and hope they approve it so that I do not have to thread the needle here. Good luck!
I want to apply for the sw performance 120k offer on 9/16/24, but I got approved for the CIBP 8/21/24. I won’t have 30 days since my last Chase Business card approval. I assume that would cause an instant denial and I would have to wait till 9/22/24 to try a reconsideration call. Is there any chance some referral links will still be available with the 120k Southwest offer till 9/22?
Chase allows you to change and Due Date not the Statement date, at least that is how it is for CSR, Am I missing something? And if we have to change the Due Date, what should it be based on your example above?
My question too.
Hoping someone can answer this. The author hasn’t commented in a couple months so hopefully someone else can chime in before I make a big mistake.
Yes, Chase allows you to change the due date. When you change the due date the statement close date must also change so that the 2 dates remain the same number of days apart. For example one of my Chase business cards has a due date of 9/9/24 and a statement close date of 9/15/24. If I ask Chase to change my due date to the 1st of each month my statement close date will be changed to the 7th so they will still be 6 days apart.
In the original post he says move the due date earlier in the month so that the statement closes before the date on which you must finish your spend to obtain the bonus.
You must then finish your spend in between the statement close date, and the date you must finish your spend.
There seems to be a another problem with changing the due date though. Some of us are getting an error message stating the account is still new.
Tim, you say that these cards get “10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year” but I don’t see that on the Offer Terms. I see just the 9,000 points after next anniversary.
Am I missing something?
Apologies for being a complete n00b here. What’s the point of changing statement date in this process?
The objective is to get the spend points post in January statement and not this year and yet comply with the spend within required 3 months.
Question for FM Hosts: Chase only allows you to change the Due Date not Statement Date. And if that is the case, what should we request and how will it work in your example above?
You just need to call Chase and ask them to change your statement date. They can do that no problem. I’ve done it a few times without issue. (As far as I’m aware, there’s no option on the website to make this particular change, though you can change the payment due date, which in turn will change your statement closing date. But then you’re sort of guessing what the resulting statement closing date will be.)
The offer from your link that I see is a bit different from what’s publicly available if I find the app via google search:
Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening* and an additional 40,000 points when you spend $15,000 in 9 months.*
got it -crazy to think $1,800 in value from one SUB
I plan on doing this one – apply on 9/16/24, change payment date to the 5th, spend no more than 4K until 12/5/24, then spend add’l 11K needed by 1/4/25 so I’ll get the companion pass right away in 2025. Question – the last time I received the bonus on this card was 9/16/22 – that is the day it showed up in my SW RR account – am I eligible on 9/16/24 to apply or now? How is the 24 months from last received SUB eligibility calculated? Does anyone know or have a data point?
I believe it starts counting from when you last received the bonus. It would keep rejecting me earlier this year due this reason and when I applied after the last bonus received date (plus 2 years), it approved.
Don’t do that. You still have to meet the SUB spend in between the new closing date, and the original date upon which you must finish your spend.
Have you been successful at changing the die date yet though?
I picked up the Southwest Priority (personal) and Performance Business in late 2022 and got the Companion Pass in 23/24. I have since closed the Performance Business. Just to confirm, I should be eligible for the Premier Business in late 2024 to get Companion Pass for 25/26?
I own a couple of LLCs and each one has its own EIN. Can I apply for a RR Biz Perf card with each LLC/EIN, but use the same RR member number on each application?
Over the past several years I have had several Chase Biz cards for my sole proprietorship, but have never applied with any of my LLCs.
An easier way to do this is knowing which credit bureau Chase pulls in your region and freezing it.
For example, in CA they pull EX. Last year for a similar southwest offer I froze EX through their app and delayed the approval date by ~3 weeks (unfreeze the credit bureau and call Chase to recon).
The bonus posted just fine in Jan and I did not have to play with the statement date. Also, this gives some breathing room for the ideal duration of spend (after Dec statement close)
Just wanted to clarify the steps to get CP in Jan 2025.
Apply for the card mid Sept.
Change the payment due date to the 26th. This can be done online. This will make the statement close date the 1st of the month.
After 12/1, finish the $5K spend or even the entire $15K.
If you’re able to complete the $15K spend in Dec, 135K points will hit your SWA account on 1/1/25. CP will be available starting around 1/5/25 for 2 full years.