As was reported by a number of outlets yesterday, Southwest Airlines has announced that, effective January 1, 2020, the Southwest Companion Pass will require earning 125,000 Rapid Rewards points within a calendar year. That’s an increase of 15,000 points over the current requirement of 110K points. This only affects those looking to earn the pass in 2020 for use through December 31, 2021 — if you have earned or are en route to earning 110K points this year, you will still earn a companion pass valid through December 31, 2020.
A modest increase
Truthfully, this is a fairly modest increase as devaluations go. While the higher bonuses were set to expire recently, at the time of writing, there are still working links to increased bonuses on all of the various Southwest cards on our Best Offers page. Here are the best current offers:
| Card Offer |
|---|
40K points + $400 ⓘ Affiliate 40K points + a $400 statement credit after $3K spend in the first 4 months. (Offer Expires 12/9/2024)$69 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Current public offer is 50K points after $1K spend in 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). |
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). |
40K points + $400 ⓘ Friend-Referral 40K points + a $400 statement credit after $3K spend in the first 4 months. (Offer Expires 12/9/2024)$99 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Current public offer is 50K points after $1K spend in 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. |
40K points + $400 ⓘ Affiliate 40K points + a $400 statement credit after $3K spend in the first 4 months. (Offer Expires 12/9/2024)$149 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Current public offer is 50K points after $1K spend in 3 months. This card is known to be subject to Chase's 5/24 rule. |
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). |
At the time of writing, it is still possible to earn a companion pass with two new card welcome offers since there is one business card offering a bonus of as much as 80K and a couple of personal card offers that can fill the gap once you have met minimum spending requirements.
Note that the affiliate offers on most of the above cards have expired at the time of writing. There is no telling how long the public links for the above offers will last. If you have a Southwest Companion Pass in mind for 2020-2021, now is a good time to consider these offers because…
Now is the best time to go after a Companion Pass
Timing is everything when it comes to the Southwest Companion Pass. That’s because you need to earn the points required within a single calendar year in order to qualify for the Companion Pass. Once you earn the required points, your Companion Pass is good for the rest of the year in which you have earned it and the entire following calendar year.
Therefore, in order to maximize the value of a Southwest Companion Pass, you would want to meet the spending requirements to earn your welcome bonuses as early in the year as possible. Since you have 3 months to meet the minimum spending requirements, the best strategy is to open new Southwest cards at this time of year and then wait until after January 1st to meet the spending requirements. The bonus points will then post with your January statement and your Companion Pass will be good for nearly two years (until the following December 31st).
It is crucially important that the points must be earned in a single calendar year. If you have already earned one of the welcome bonuses this year, do not wait until January to meet the spending requirement for the second card. Particularly among those new to rewards, I find that there is a common misconception that the points need to be earned within a rolling 12 months, but that is not correct. You must earn all all of the required points within a single calendar year (i.e. 110K points if you are earning this year for a Companion Pass good through December 31, 2019 or 125K points if you are earning a Companion Pass after January 1, 2020 that is good through December 31, 2021). Also worth a mention is that you do not need to save up all of the points in your account waiting for the Companion Pass — the requirement is to earn the points in a single calendar year, you do not need to stockpile them (in other words, you can use your points as you earn them — you don’t need a balance of 110K / 125K at the same time, you just need to have earned that many total during the calendar year).
If you do choose to go after a new application(s) for Southwest credit cards, it would be smart to be cautious about using the cards until January. While some will likely spending up to within a couple hundred bucks of the requirement and then hold off until after January 1st to finish the spend, I recommend caution there. Every year, I read a report or two of someone who has accidentally met the spending requirements early — now and then due to fraudulent purchases that put them over the top of the spending requirements. Once you’ve met the purchase requirements, the points post on your next statement. I recommend holding off on as much spend as you can easily accomplish in the beginning of January.
Keep in mind that these cards are subject to 24-month language: if you have any of the personal Southwest credit cards currently or have received a new cardmember bonus on any of the personal cards within the past 24 months, you are ineligible for the bonus on a new personal card. You would need to close any currently open Southwest personal cards and be outside of the 24-month window since you last earned the bonus in order to earn a bonus again. Note that the 24-month clock starts when you last earned the bonus, not when you last opened the card.
Also note that all of the Southwest cards are subject to the Chase 5/24 rule.
| Chase's 5/24 Rule: With most Chase credit cards, Chase will not approve your application if you have opened 5 or more cards with any bank in the past 24 months. To determine your 5/24 status, see: 3 Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely. |
Other changes: Points don’t expire / slight change to standby policy
The other two key changes to the Southwest Rapid Rewards program are:
- Rapid Rewards points no longer expire (they previously expired after 24 months of inactivity
- A-list and A-list preferred members will still get mostly free same-day standby/changes, but beginning January 1, 2021 they will need to pay the government taxes & fees on those changes
The elimination of an expiration date on points is a very customer-friendly move. I just read a report in our Frequent Miler Insiders group yesterday from someone whose parents lost 91K Southwest Rapid Rewards points to expiration earlier this year. I’m glad to see that kind of thing will not happen to folks in the future.
The change to same-day standby is of minimal consequence to most folks. Not a big hit there.
Bottom line
It’s never nice to see a devaluation, but frankly I’m glad to see that the Companion Pass will still be achievable with credit card bonus points. The path has surely become more difficult with 24-month language and the Chase 5/24 rule. Furthermore, the timing on this change (just after increased offers were set to expire and at the ideal time of year to go after a Companion Pass) is poor. That said, it’s still possible to earn the pass through welcome bonuses at the time of writing and in my opinion, the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass continues to be the hands down best value in domestic award travel. See our Complete Guide to the Southwest Companion Pass for more.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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I was approved for the Southwest Rapids Rewards Performance Business Card on 10/09/19. I will earn 80,000 points after I spend $5,000 in purchases in the first three months. My statement dates were Nov. 8 and Dec. 8. I have spent around $4,500 so far. Can I spend the rest after Dec. 8 statement or should I wait until after Jan. 1? On January 7 the card will have been opened 90 days. Since the statement is the next day and the points post shortly after that am I still OK? In other words does the $5,000 spend have to be done in three months or posted in three months? Thanks!
Just closed a SW personal card today that I’ve had for 5 years and looking to apply for one biz and one personal to get companion pass thru 2021. Any DPs on getting approved for bonus on a new personal card same-day as closing an existing one? Or is it wise to wait 24hrs after closing before applying?
Also: Any advice on applying for business and personal on the same day rather than on separate days?
I’d wait at least 24hrs. Conventional wisdom says to wait 1-2 weeks for Chase to “forget” that you have the card before you apply new. Some people have been able to re-apply for a card the same day they canceled, but I had issues with that last year on a different Chase card. In this case, maybe you don’t want to wait a week since you don’t know what the bonuses will be by then, but I’d probably wait least the 24hrs.
You can do both biz and personal on the same day, but note that applying for two cards on the same day / close together is a potential trigger for a Chase review / shut down depending on your history / activity. If you don’t have a history of opening and closing quickly and/or a lot of MS activity on your accounts, you’re probably OK to do 1 biz and 1 personal on the same day. If you have recently opened a couple of cards with other issuers, it may be better to open one now and then the other a month from now. If that’s the plan, you’d want to do the Performance Business now (since the 80K link may not last much longer and the biz account will not add to your 5/24 count) and then a personal a month from now, which would also mitigate the risk of getting declined because the system doesn’t yet recognize your personal account as closed. However, following that plan runs the risk that the offer could dip as low as 40K after $1K on the personal cards — though if you do all the minimum spend for both offers in January, you’ll still be at the 125K you need.
So, to recap, you can probably do both in the same day. That said, the “safe” approach would be the biz today and the personal after 30 days have passed.
Thanks, Nick, for the thorough reply! Makes sense and much appreciated.
Nick – circling back here. I took the safe approach you recommended and applied for the personal Plus card today for the 40k bonus (30 days after closing the same card). Was instantly approved and am well on my way to companion pass until the end of 2021! Now, to figure out the best way to earn the remaining 9k needed to reach 125k as fast as possible in January…
Thanks again for the tips!
@Nick Reyes
FWIW: 15K RR points via BT on Premier Biz Card
Just found reading T&C that you can also earn 15K points with Premier Biz card 1:$1 – not available on Performance card – of course timing will be everything – also its rare to earn points/miles on BT
“. 1 point on balance transfers: You’ll earn 1 point for each $1 of the first $15,000 of balance transfers made during the first 90 days from your original account open date. 6,000 bonus points each account anniversary year: You’ll receive 6,000 bonus points each account anniversary year. “Account anniversary year” means the year beginning with your account open date through the anniversary of your account open date, and each 12 months after that. 1,500 tier qualifying points: You’ll earn 1,500 tier qualifying points…..”
I also shared on DoC and later was thinking that not everyone has 15K that they can BT ( I’m Arbitraging 0% on Biz cards) but it might be a way for some who signed up for Premier to earn those extra 15K points from the increase.
Interesting. Thanks for this comment — definitely hadn’t noticed that.
Nice find, but is there a 0% interest BT offer available? The card offer only mentions a 17-24% BT interest.