Southwest is at it again! This time they are giving a limited-time New Southwest Companion Pass offer that only lasts for ONE year vs the normal almost 24 months if you play your cards right. We’ve seen this offer before, and I’m indifferent about it. It is definitely a great offer for some, but not so much for others. So, how does this new offer work, and is it worth it to you? Let’s dive in.
The New Southwest Companion Pass offer
Limited-Time offer. Earn promotion Companion Pass through 2/28/2024 and 30,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening with any Southwest Rapid Rewards personal Credit Card. You must apply by 3/13/2023. This offer ended as of March 1, 2023. Remember, there are three different Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Credit Cards and they all are offering the same thing. The biggest differences are the annual fees, plus how many points you will get on each card member’s anniversary year.
For someone who is new to points & miles and wants to test the waters, this is absolutely a great offer!
Business Owners Offers
If you are a small business owner, you can always look at Southwest’s Business Card options. Business Owners can earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points with the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card or the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card. If you still wanted to try for the “old” companion pass, getting the Performance Business Credit Card AND one of the personal cards would get you 80,000 + 85,000 plus another 8,000 from spending for a total of 173,000 Rapid Rewards points. This would be well over the amount of points needed to earn companion pass, but would net you points to book plenty of free flights!
Who it is good for:
The “normal” Southwest Companion Pass offer you have to earn 135,000 points in one calendar year. However, once you earn it you will have the companion pass for the remainder of the year you are in, PLUS the following next year. So if you earned it in 2024, you’d have it through the end of 2025. With that being said, this current temporary offer is good for people who might have a large family and both spouses want to each apply for the card in order to each earn the companion pass. If you are a family of 4, this could easily give you BOGO flights for your entire family where you only pay for two flights and the other two are free. This could also be great for small business owners who are able to also get one of the Southwest Business Cards as well. As a reminder, this card is good for:
- Points & Miles Newbies
- Larger families where opening two cards each is not feasible
- Someone who wants to test the waters and try out the companion pass
- If you don’t qualify for a small business card and can only get one personal card anyway
Warnings:
Remember, you can ONLY earn a welcome offer on a Southwest Personal card ONCE every 24 months. This is on ANY personal card. You can refer back to our Bank Rules of applying for a credit card if you want to learn a little more in-depth about these rules. So if you apply for this now, you will be ineligible to apply for another Southwest personal card until 2026. For example, if today is February 10, 2024, you wouldn’t be able to apply for any of the personal Southwest Credit cards until March 1, 2026.
If this isn’t a big deal if you don’t mind waiting until then for another card. I just want to make sure you are warned!
My Verdict:
If you just want to try it out and see what this pass is all about, go for it. Just remember, at the end of the year Southwest typically has offers where you could easily earn 50,000 or 60,000 point offers instead. This offer IS definitely the easiest way to earn companion pass and you only have the one time spending requirement. This might be a great card for my family who might only take a trip or two a year and this would enable them to get one of the flights for free.
Will you go for this temporary pass or are you going to hold out for the end of the year offers?
