Three New Changes to the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Program
Southwest began sending out notifications that they will be making some changes to their frequent flyer program starting in October 2019. Often times when these alerts come out, we fear for the worst news possible. Fortunately, the first change is actually one that helps customers!
Southwest Points No Longer Expire
Woohoo! Starting on October 17th, 2019, Southwest Airlines Points will no longer expire. I really like that more and more airlines are changing to the no expiration date policy. United Airlines was the last to do it a few months ago. You’ll find our full guide to all of the other airlines and what their points expiration policies are here.
New Taxes & Fees for Sameday Standby Customers
A-List and A-List Preferred members have always been able to change their flights for free on the same day they are traveling to a standby ticket, if available. This is a nice perk of having A-List status with Southwest Airlines. Starting on January 1st, 2021 members who choose to change their flight using the Sameday Standby option will have to pay the government taxes and fees associated with the new flight.
New Companion Pass Points Requirement
For years Southwest Frequent Flyers could either accumulate 110,000 Southwest Points in the same calendar year or fly 100 One-Way flight segments in order to earn the Companion Pass.
The Southwest Companion Pass is essentially a Buy-One-Get-One FREE Pass that is good for the remainder of the year that it is earned and the entire following year. The only costs to the customer for using the pass are the government taxes and fees. These fees work out to be $5.60 each way on domestic flights which aren’t bad at all!
Unfortunately, starting on January 1st, 2022 Southwest Customers will now need to accrue 135,000 southwest points in order to earn a companion pass.
Our Basic Verdict
Is this the worst news? No, I don’t believe so. They certainly could have raised it even higher which would have made it more difficult to achieve the 135,000 point requirement. If you’ve read our guide to the Southwest Companion Pass then you’ll know that basic travelers typically earn the pass by opening up two Southwest Credit Cards and combining the bonus. This strategy can certainly still be used, however, it will now take more points or spending on the credit cards in order to meet the 135,000 minimum points required.
Offers often vary, so see below for our current updated offers for the Southwest personal and business credit cards. These offers usually vary from 40,000-85,000 points for the personal card and around 60,000-125,000 for the business cards. If you opened one personal and one business card, you’d most likely be very close to meeting the 135,000 companion pass requirements.
All in all, I still LOVE the companion pass and believe it’s still one of the best Basic Travel strategies out there. Lisa and I have traveled all over the United States and have visited a handful of Caribbean islands using the companion pass. We certainly would have not had the number of points or cash required to take all of those trips without the benefit of buy-one-get-one-free flights!
