I've mentioned before that Southwest Airlines is great for my family due to their convenient, family friendly policies. In addition to Southwest having a reasonable rate for redeeming points for a free flight, they have one of the best perks in the business, the Companion Pass.
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What is the Companion Pass?
Simply, the Companion Pass, once earned, allows the holder of the pass to bring one person with them for free (besides taxes and fees) in the year they earn the pass and the following calendar year. So anytime you book a flight, either with cash or with points, you can take your spouse, or child, or anyone with you at no cost. What a deal! Let's take a look at how to make that possible.
How do you earn the Companion Pass
In order to earn the pass, you must either fly 100 one way flights with Southwest or, more commonly, accumulate 125,000 Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year. How do you do that? There are a variety of ways to earn RR points.
Flying with Southwest. You will earn points for every dollar spent at the following rates.
Business Select fare – 12 points per dollar
Anytime fare – 10 points per dollar
Wanna Get Away Plus- 8 points per dollar
Wanna Get Away fare – 6 points per dollar
In addition to those base points, A-List members earn 25% additional points and A-List Preferred earn 100% additional points on paid flights.
Rapid Rewards shopping portal- When you sign up for a Rapid rewards shopping account and go through their portal to make everyday online purchases, you earn bonus points on those transactions. The points you receive varies, but for example on this purchase at Old Navy, you would receive 2 pts/$ extra on the purchase.
Rapid Rewards Dining- By joining and linking your cc and Rapid Rewards account, you can earn bonus points when dining in or taking out from eligible restaurants. See programs specifics here.
Credit cards- For most, the best way to accumulate points toward the Companion Pass will be signing up for the co-branded credit cards that Chase offers. The best part is, not only will the points earned on purchases made on the card count, but the sign up bonus (SUB) you earn when getting the card will also count toward the CP. These high sign up bonuses make earning the pass achievable without an obscene amount of spend required on the card. The current lineup of Chase cards with their respective sign up bonuses are:
Southwest Priority Credit Card – Earn 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first three months.
Southwest Premier Credit Card – Earn 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first three months.
Southwest Plus Credit Card – Earn 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first three months.
Southwest Premier Business Credit Card – Earn 60,000 points when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months.
Southwest Performance Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months.
- You can have only one of the personal credit cards at any given time but can be approved for both of the business cards as well. This allows anyone with a business or side income to apply for both a business card and a personal card in close proximity and stack the SUB's together to earn Companion Pass. More on the timing of that below.
Timing strategy to earn Companion Pass
Having better understood the ways you can earn the Companion Pass, now you can strategize the best way to apply for credit cards in order to maximize the value you can earn from the pass. As I mentioned from the top, you must earn all 125K points in a calendar year in order to earn CP, so earning it as early as possible yields the longest time frame to use the benefit.
Ideally, you would want to apply for a personal card or a personal and business card toward the end of the year, say October/November (remember you have 3 months to complete spend for the SUB). Once approved, you don't want to spend any money on the card till after your December statement date. Say your statement closes Dec 15th, now any points earned on purchases after Dec 15th (as well as the SUB earned once you hit the spend threshold required, as above) won't post till after your Jan 15th statement date, thus the points counting in the new year. Perfect!
Then, as you spend and earn points from January on, after you hit 125K points, the CP will be yours. If you can accomplish this in the 1st quarter of the year, you will then be able to use it for roughly 21 months. Understanding the nuance and timing of this strategy is integral to maximizing the length of time you can use the CP. Obviously if you don't plan to fly Southwest or use the CP till August, this timing is less critical.
Note that with the current sign up offers (May 2022) listed above, if you were only getting a personal card, it would require an obnoxious amount of points earned through flying or spending on the card to hit 125K points (125K-40K SUB= ~$85000 spend, earning 1 point/$). This is why pairing a business card with a personal card can be so opportune, because the SUB's together can get you over the threshold much easier. Alternatively, you can monitor to see if the SUB increases. I have routinely seen 80k or 100k sign up bonuses on the personal cards in the fall, making earning CP through one card and spend much more realistic.
Should you consider Companion Pass?
The process for earning the Companion Pass may seem stressful, but the reason it is so coveted by frequent travelers is because its use can save you tons of points or dollars. I have had the pass since 2019, and despite having several trips cancelled due to covid, by the end of 2022 I will have saved roughly 350,000 points (equivalent to $4900 based on 1.4 cpp valuation). That amounts to ~87,500 points or $1225 per year. This is just savings on my free companion alone, not considering the money saved by using points for my flights instead of paying cash. Now, if the logistics and offerings on Southwest make it a viable option for you or your family, like they do mine, then considering the CP should definitely be on your radar.
Also of note, the Companion Pass allows you to set an initial companion to fly free with you, then change said companion up to 3 times each calendar year. This allows the flexibility to take your spouse with you, then maybe your child, then say a friend, and get extended use of the pass as your travel allows.
Plus, after you earn Companion Pass, you can subsequently transfer any Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn directly to Southwest in order to book future flights and then add your companion for free, as long as you have the Chase Ink Business Preferred or Sapphire Preferred/Reserve card(s). However, points transferred from Chase do not count toward earning CP, that must be done in the manner outlined above.
Conclusion
Traveling with a family is expensive, so anytime you can save money is a win. Southwest's reputation as a family friendly airline make it a great option for domestic and Caribbean travel. Then having the ability to use the Companion Pass for almost 2 years of companion free flying is the icing on the cake. All possible by obtaining one or possibly 2 credit cards, spending money on them, and then packing your bags.
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