Key links:

• Southwest Premier Credit card (60,000 point welcome offer) 
• Southwest Plus Credit card (60,000 point welcome offer)
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card (60,000 point welcome offer)

The various Southwest cards typically go between 40,000 and 60,000 points as a welcome offer every couple of months. Since these cards are under Chase 5/24, it typically makes sense to wait and apply for the cards when they’re at their all-time high of 60,000 points as a welcome offer.

If you’ve been waiting for the cards to go back up to the Southwest 60,000 mile offer, you’re in luck – now’s the time!

60,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards bonus

The 2 Southwest credit cards are at all time high signup bonuses – 60,000 Rapid Rewards points each.  Obviously, if you were able to get both of them and meet the spending bonus, 60,000 + 60,000 = 120,000 or more than enough to earn the Southwest Companion Pass. But instead of a straight Southwest 60,000 offer, each of the 3 cards offer a staggered bonus with a relatively big spending requirement

• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card: 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months and another 20,000 points after you spend $12,000 within your first year. $69 annual fee
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card: 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months and another 20,000 points after you spend $12,000 within your first year; $99 annual fee
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card: 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months and another 20,000 points after you spend $12,000 within your first year; $99 annual fee

As I mentioned before, both of these cards ARE subject to Chase 5/24.  There are also Southwest business cards that are also subject to Chase 5/24 (but don’t count TOWARDS your 5/24 limit)

The Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card ALSO currently has a 60,000 point offer, but its spending requirement is much more straightforward – just spend $3000 in the first 3 months ($99 annual fee).

Getting the Southwest Companion Pass without a ton of spend

Obviously spending $12,000 total to get those extra 20,000 points is quite a lot, and may put these Southwest 60,000 point offers out of the reach of all but the biggest spenders.

One possibility might be to get the Southwest Business card for 60,000 points after $3000 in spend and then one of the 3 personal cards. Even if you only spend the $1000 right away to get the 40,000 points from the first part of the welcome offer, you’ll be at 104,000 points and only need 6,000 more points to get the Companion Pass.

Southwest Companion Pass

One of the reasons to consider these Southwest 60,000 Rapid Rewards point offers (or their corresponding business cards) is to get the Southwest Companion Pass.

It’s a little bit out of date, but back in January we looked at whether it still makes sense to get the Southwest Companion Pass in 2018. A lot of the same logic still applies for 2019.

What is the Southwest Companion Pass?

From my original article about What is the Southwest Companion Pass (and how to get it), here are a few basics of what the Southwest Companion Pass is

• You earn the Southwest Companion Pass by earning at least 110,000 miles in one calendar year
• Flying and points on the Southwest credit cards (see below) count
• Points transferred from Chase do not count (nor do points transferred from hotels)
• Here’s a link on how to change your Southwest Companion Pass companion
• And one on how to check your Companion Pass status
• Once you earn it, then your companion flies FREE on any Southwest flight that you fly on, be that booked with cash or with points.  You only need to have one seat available for your companion (not just Wanna Get Away fares)

So you can see that, all things being equal, it behooves you to get the Southwest Companion Pass as early in the year as possible, since you get it for the entire calendar year you earn it AND the next one too.  So earning the pass in Dec 2018 would get it through the end of 2019, whereas earning the pass in Jan 2019 would get it through the end of 2020! These Southwest 60,000 point offers are perfectly timed for this – just make sure to get your bonus points in JANUARY and not in December. Of course there is no guarantee that earning the Southwest Companion Pass will work the same in 2019 (they’ve changed the rules on us before!)

Another thing to note is that the Companion Pass is most useful for couples with no kids (since it’s essentially a Buy 1 Get 1 Free ticket).  I’ve also heard of families of 4 that get TWO companion passes and then mom and dad each choose one of the kids as a companion.  For my family of 8, a Buy 7 get 1 Free pass is not nearly as lucrative.  And of course, living near an airport with lots of Southwest availability makes the Companion Pass more lucrative

Are you planning something like the above to get the Southwest Companion Pass in 2019?  Thanks in advance if you use the links on our top credit card offers page (I may receive a commission)

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