Southwest Companion Pass: Fall 2025 Earning Timelines

This guide will give you specific card combinations and considerations for earning the Southwest Companion Pass. We aim to keep this page up to date all through the fall as offers change.

The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired.

Southwest Companion Pass Overview

This article is not in depth about the ins and outs of earning a Companion Pass. Those details are covered in this blog post. But they are covered even more in depth in the Southwest Companion Pass Bootcamp module in my free course. Sign up today! This is the most complete set of resources I have (arguably, the most complete set on the whole internet, as far as I know).

In the free course, I cover one person vs two person considerations in depth as well as how to earn two passes with three years and set yourself up to do it perpetually.

Quick overview: The most straightforward way to earn a companion pass way is by opening 1 or 2 new Southwest credit cards from Chase, which is the exclusive issuer of Southwest cards.

If a person earns 135,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year, besides all those points you just got, you will also earn a Southwest Companion Pass.

Once you earn the Companion Pass: for the rest of that calendar year and the next calendar year, you can name a person who will then fly with you anytime you fly and only pay about £5 in fees each way. (International Flights will have higher taxes).

Southwest credit card holders also automatically earn 10,000 Companion Pass “Qualifying Points” so the requirement essentially if you hold a Southwest credit card is to earn 125,000 points. These are not points that you can redeem for flights, these just basically jumpstart your Companion Pass Tracker with 10,000 points.

Each dollar spent on a Southwest credit card earns you at least 1 Southwest Rapid Rewards point but it is the sign up bonus that is most helpful in earning a companion pass.

Since earning our first companion pass in 2015, we have exclusively traveled on Southwest for domestic flights. For much of that time, my husband and I EACH held a companion pass. That means both of our kids were flying domestically for £5 each!

Timing Is Everything

Timing is important when it comes to the companion pass.

You have to earn 135,000 points in a calendar year (January 1 – December 31) in order to earn your Companion Pass.

When you log in to Southwest’s website, you’ll see your Companion Pass Tracker on your Account page. This resets on January 1 each year.

The good news: if you’re applying for cards early in the year, you really don’t have to worry about timing. Those warnings are all for people who are jump starting the process in the fall.

Check your Eligibility

Card eligibility varies by card.

To be eligible for the Southwest personal credit card bonuses you need to:

• have good or excellent credit
• qualify under Chase’s unofficial “5/24 rule“
• not be a current cardholder of any Southwest personal card
• not have earned a welcome bonus in the past 24 months from any personal Southwest card

If you are a current cardholder of any Southwest personal card and want to earn another bonus, you need to (1) make sure it has been 24 months since you got your bonus and (2) cancel your card and wait at least 14 days before applying to a new card.

The free course covers how to close your Southwest card for max value in depth and I recommend you review that lesson.

Business Card Tips

In contrast to the personal cards, you are allowed to open each of the Southwest business cards. Chase business cards seem to be following some unpublished guidelines and you can find data points and analysis here. 

If you have 3 or more Chase business cards open and you will be applying as a sole proprietor, I recommend you consider cancelling business cards until you have only 1 or 2 before applying. 

Updates July 2025

Normally this is way too soon to be talking about Companion Pass strategy but with some new offers on the personal cards, we do want to discuss it. 

Will Southwest discontinue or change the Companion Pass? 

There are rumors flying everywhere about changes Southwest may be making to make it harder to earn a Companion Pass. At this point, these are rumors. I haven’t seen anything from any credible sources. 

Go into this knowing that like all the points deals — this could change at any time. 

It could change in the fall for 2026-2027. It also might not. Officially Southwest has said no changes are coming to the Companion Pass. Southwest also said that bags fly free forever and we know how that ended. So we can’t exactly take them at their word. 

I personally think if any change happens, the most likely would be a change to the number of points required to earn it. This has happened twice in my memory. The reason I personally don’t think it’s going away entirely or massively changing its earning is that the landing pages for the Southwest cards still clearly state that the points from the cards–even bonus offer points– count towards a Companion Pass. 

Ultimately, I don’t know. No one knows. If you start trying to earn a Companion Pass and it goes away in a puff of smoke — the worst case scenario is that you end up with some Southwest points and no Companion Pass. You’ll still have some free flights coming your way, it might just not be as many. 

Using the current 100,000 point offer

The current 100,000 point offer on the personal cards is different that normal in that it allows you 5 months to complete the spend requirement. That means it can be opened earlier and still be used for a 2026/2027 Companion Pass. 

If you are a current cardholder of a Southwest personal card and you want to get this 100k offer you must:

1. Make sure you’re eligible. Are you under 5/24? Has it been 24 months since you got a bonus on the personal card?
2. Cancel your Southwest personal card 14-30 days before you want to apply again (by September 1 at the latest)
3. Apply by September 17, 2026 which is the end date the landing pages list for this card. 

The most popular way to earn those points is by earning welcome offers on 2 Southwest cards. You can see sample card combos below. With the current 100,000 point offer — you could get by with just opening a personal card and timing it all very carefully and coming up with a strategy to top off your points. 

2025 Business Card Approval Issues

We saw a lot more people getting denied for these business cards in early 2025. Here’s our findings.  The biggest pattern so far is that almost everyone with 3 or more business cards from Chase is getting denied for additional business cards. 

If you have other Chase business cards that you’re not using that are 1+ year old, you may have better success getting approved if you cancel them and wait a few weeks before applying. 

Example: How to use the 100,000 point personal offer to earn a Companion Pass

This offer currently is showing an end date on some sites of 9/17/2025. 

Standard Method (1 Business Card, 1 Personal Card): 

With the standard method to earn 1 Companion Pass, you’ll open 1 business card and 1 personal card to earn the total 135,000 needed for a Companion Pass.

The exact dates of when you open the cards aren’t so specific. What IS important is that you do not earn your points too soon. You cannot have your bonus points post in 2025.

August 15: If you are currently a cardholder of a Southwest personal card — cancel your card by August 15th. 

September 1: Open a personal Southwest Card. If someone in your household has a Southwest card, they can refer you here. If not, we appreciate when you use our affiliate links. You can see the different options here in our card guide.

September 1-December 31: Spend no more than £3500 on your card. Returns count (if you spend £500 and then return the items, they still sometimes count that £500 to your total required spending)! Error on the side of spending LESS.

November 8 (or this can be shifted later if you prefer): Open a Southwest business card. To keep your total expenses the lowest, open the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card.

November 8-December 31: Spend no more than £2250 on your business card (this is assuming you opened a card with a £3000 minimum spend requirement, check your own details). Returns count (if you spend £500 and then return the items, they still sometimes count that £500 to your total)! Error on the side of spending LESS.

January: Complete the spending on your personal card. You must spend a total of £4000 by February 1st.

February 1: Complete the spending on your business card. You must spend a total of £3000 by February 7th if you opened the Premier Business card (or 90 days after you opened it, if you opened it later).

You will earn your Companion Pass when you’ve completed the spending on both cards and your credit card statements have closed that show all the spending being completed. You will also have a bunch of points! Over 160,000!

Alternative 1 Card Method (1 Personal Card + earn extra points) with 100k offer: 

You could also use this offer by itself to earn a Companion Pass but you’ll need to use extra effort to earn the full 135k points. Also note that in the case that Southwest does change the requirements and requires more than 135k for a Companion Pass, you may have even more work. 

The exact dates of when you open the cards aren’t so specific, you could open a week before or a week after. What IS important is that you do not earn your points too soon. You cannot have your bonus points post in 2025.

August 15: If you are currently a cardholder of a Southwest personal card — cancel your card by August 15th. 

September 1: Open a personal Southwest Card. If someone in your household has a Southwest card, they can refer you here You can see the different options here in our card guide.

September 1-December 31: Spend no more than £3500 on your card. With this method, the less you spend, the better. Returns count (if you spend £500 and then return the items, they still sometimes count that £500 to your total required spending)! Error on the side of spending LESS.

January: Complete the spending on your personal card. You must spend a total of £4000 by February 1st.

January: Start earning more Southwest points. You’ll need to earn at least another 21,000 points to earn your Companion Pass. 

You’ll earn:

• 100,000 points (bonus)
• 4,000 points from £4,000 spending (this may vary. Any spending you do before your December statement closes will not count towards your 135k you need for the Companion Pass. If you spend in the 2x categories, you’ll earn double points). 
• 10,000 “boost” added to your tracker before January 31

That comes to about 114,000 points — leaving you about 21,000 points short. 

You could make up those 21,000 points by

• Referring a friend or spouse to a SW card (20k points, but can’t do it till after your December statement closes)
• Southwest Rapid Rewards shopping
• Booking hotels through Southwest.com 
• Extra spending on your Southwest card

These methods are explained more fully in the Southwest bootcamp module of my free course. 

February 1: Complete the spending on your personal card. 

You will earn your Companion Pass when you’ve completed the spending on your card and your credit card statements have closed that show all the spending being completed. And when you have a total of 135,000 points on your Companion Pass tracker. 

Current Card Combos Compared:

I’ve added tables to compare how you can earn a Companion Pass. You can do any combination of a personal card + business card with this 100,000 point offer. 

Lowest Annual Fee Combo

Also check: this link for the 65k airport offer may work for you and allow you to have a lower spend overall 

Higher Annual Fee and Highest Total Points

This card combo gives you the highest level of benefits from Southwest cards. It requires a higher level of spending to achieve both bonuses but will offer more points, too.

Standard Method (2 cards, 1 Pass): using 2 Business Cards

If you aren’t eligible for any of the Southwest personal cards, you can also earn a Companion Pass by opening both business cards.

Card Combo for 2 business cards