If you’ve read more than a few posts on this blog, then by now you’ve most definitely heard me mention our Southwest Companion Pass.
This magical pass, which I consider to be one of the all-time best deals in the points and miles travel-hacking game, allows you to designate a companion, and then bring them along FOR FREE on any trip you take with Southwest Airlines. Once you earn the Companion Pass, it’s generally good for the rest of the current year, AND the entire next year, meaning you can get 2-for-1 travel on Southwest for nearly two full years with this one single perk.
As such, we’ve done a LOT of travel with Southwest over the years, and it’s fair to say that Southwest is our preferred domestic airline.
But, unfortunately, this year the Companion Pass got just a bit harder to attain. While the pass still requires you to earn 110,000 Southwest points in one calendar year, just as it has in previous years, Southwest recently began restricting the ability of flyers to earn more than one credit card bonus per 24-month period.
That means that where we used to just have to apply and meet the minimum spending on two credit cards to earn Companion Pass status, this was no longer a reliable method of reaching our goal.
However, fate smiled on us this year. Just after the hubby applied for the Southwest Premier Visa card, which at the time was offering 40,000 points bonus after $1,000 in spend in the first three months of card opening, and an additional 20,000 points if you spent $12,000 total within the first year, we entered a contest over on The Points Guy for 60,000 Southwest points that count towards Companion Pass status..
And wouldn’t you know it — we won!
As such, we now had 101,000 Southwest points earned in January alone — $1,000 in credit card spending, 40,000 in credit card bonus points, and 60,000 from The Points Guy contest. Meaning we were just 9,000 points shy of our Companion Pass. With a little more credit card spending and a couple work trips on Southwest for the hubby, we were able to knock out the remaining 9,000 points needed and once again earn our Companion Pass!
Best of all — it’s good through December 31, 2020.
But I know what you’re saying. “That’s great, Mrs. Millennial, but it’s unlikely that I’m going to win some random contest. How can I get my Companion Pass?!”
And on this note I have good news for you as well. First of all, Southwest currently has a NEW promotion on their personal credit cards where you can earn 30,000 bonus points and a Companion Pass good for 2019 ONLY if you apply and spend $4,000 in the first three months of account creation.
This offer isn’t nearly as good as the “old” way, because you lose out on a year of the pass, and have far fewer bonus points to start with, but if you’re simply wanting to “dip your toe” in the proverbial Companion Pass pool, this is a nice way to do it. Just hurry — this card offer is only rumored to be around through February 11th.
Alternately, if you have a side business, you may be eligible for a business credit card. And while they have restricted personal credit cards to just one bonus per 24-month period, you are still able to get one personal card AND one business card, as a way to still get your companion pass using the “old” method. If this is your plan, though, you’re probably better off waiting to apply for the personal card until AFTER February 11th, as the # of bonus points is likely to return to the 50k or 60k level after they remove the companion pass perk from that offer.
And if all else fails? Time to grind it out. Apply for one credit card, put every cent of spending you can on it, shop using the Southwest shopping portal, make sure your card is signed up with the Southwest dining program, and book all your travel – not just flights, but hotels and rental cars too – through Southwest as a way of raking up those extra points. It might take a bit of time, but you may still be able to earn the extended two-year pass by the end of the year.
All in all – we’re thrilled that we were able to once again earn Companion Pass status on our favorite airline, and are looking forward to all the great adventures we’ll take with it over the next couple of years!
