KEY LINKS:
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $69 annual fee
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $99 annual fee
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $149 annual fee
- Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $199 annual fee
- Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $99 annual fee
Now is the time to lay the groundwork to get Southwest flights Buy One, Get One flights for all of 2024 and 2025. My family first started taking advantage of the Southwest Companion pass at the beginning of 2014 when I earned it for 2014-2015. The process to earn the Companion Pass is not as easy as it was before last year. Both times I was able to hit the threshold by signing up for two personal cards, each with a 60k welcome bonus on the same day. Unfortunately, this strategy no longer works. However, even with the increased difficulty the Companion Pass remains one of the best travel perks out there and Southwest continues to be a great airline for families as well.
What is the Companion Pass?
The Companion Pass is a perk that allows you to book BOGO flights with a travel partner for two calendar years. Once you earn the pass, you can book a flight with points (plus taxes and fees starting at $5.60 each way) and then add your companion at no charge besides the taxes and fees.  The companion pass can be achieved by earning 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year.
How Do I Earn the Companion Pass?
You can earn the required 135,000 Rapid Rewards points through flying Southwest, making eligible purchases on a Southwest credit card or my favorite method…welcome bonuses. While the days of applying for two personal Southwest credit cards to hit the threshold are a thing of the past, the perk is still well within reach. Nowadays, the simplest way to earn the Companion Pass is to sign up for a business and personal card at the same time.
What Cards Can Help Me Get There?
Currently Chase offers a total of five Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit cards. While all of the cards have varying levels of benefits and for many flyers make sense to keep long term, I will focus on the Rapid Rewards points available through welcome bonuses to help us reach the Companion Pass.
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $69 annual fee
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $99 annual fee
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $149 annual fee
There are two business card options as well
- Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $199 annual fee
- Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $99 annual fee
How I Plan to Earn the Companion Pass For 2024
The welcome offers on the Southwest cards fluctuate over time, but at the time we are planning on going for it, our strategy will net 155,000 Rapid Rewards points through two welcome bonuses. We will sign up for the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card and the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card (check out the Southwest Performance Business Card Review here.). I am choosing the Plus as the personal card since it has the lowest annual fee and the Performance Business card has all the perks that I would get from either higher end personal card. I understand this approach will be tough for many readers with the 5/24 rule. Others may not be sure they have a business that would qualify, but this article may help. If you can qualify for both cards, then we are entering the sweet spot to position yourself for 2024-2025 BOGO flying!
Why Now the Best Time to Start Working Towards the 2024 Companion Pass
Since your companion will be able to fly for free on any of your bookings in the year that you earn the Companion Pass AND the following calendar year, you want to maximize the time that you have the benefit in the first year. The best way to do this is to earn the Companion Pass as early as you can in the new year. Since it generally takes time (for most of us) to hit the spending requirements for the bonuses, it pays to start working towards those now. Chase gives three months from sign up to reach the spending requirement necessary to earn the welcome bonus. Typically, it is ideal to apply in the second or third week of October which would give until mid-January to hit the spend requirement.
Be Mindful of Your Spend!
The key…and I cannot stress this enough, is to make sure you don’t reach the spending requirement and activate the bonus before 2024. It would be a shame to do all the planning and then mistakenly eclipse the threshold in December. This would be effectively mean throwing away a year of BOGO flights. The best approach is to get within $100 of the spending requirements and then wait until the beginning of January to make the purchase that pushes you over the spending requirement to trigger the bonus. Also, make sure the purchase has enough time to post before the statement closing date. That is why it pays to have a buffer into mid-January. Once the January statement closes, it will be a few days until the points are credited and you can enjoy nearly 24 months of BOGO Southwest flights!
The Bottom Line
KEY LINKS:
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $69 annual fee
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $99 annual fee
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card – Earn a $400 statement credit and 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening. $149 annual fee
- Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $199 annual fee
- Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card – Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $99 annual fee
With the expanding number of Southwest flight options, particularly to Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, this perk can provide a ton of value. The fact that you can earn this for two years from a fairly low spend and a little preparation makes it an even sweeter deal. I am planning on extending our run with the Southwest Companion pass and hope you can earn it too!
Have you earned the Southwest Companion Pass, or do you plan to? Did you accidentally hit your spend too early? Tell us about it in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Hi! I understand the companion can be anyone. But does the “first” or original passenger need to be the cardholder who earned the pass? In other words, if I earn a companion pass, could I use the BOGO for two family members on a trip I’m not taking?
Unfortunately no. You (the companion pass holder) have to be one of the passengers
According to ads I have seen, today is the last day for the 80,000 point offer. I applied–and received–mine on Monday. I will wait a bit before applying for the personal one, since it only requires $1000 spend. And I will be careful not to put too much on the business card too soon. 🙂
Good luck – enjoy the Companion Pass!
Please help me with this regarding timing of the bonus…
As I understand it, you can’t get the bonus again if you had one in the past 24 months. I applied for and received a card back in Dec of ’21. I got the bonus in Jan or Feb of ’22. Do I need to wait to apply for a card in Jan / Feb of ’24 or not complete the spend until Jan / Feb of ’24 or not get the bonus until AFTER Jan / Feb of ’24.
Thanks!
I have gotten the companion pass dozens of times over the years by alternating my wife and I every two years. Retired now, but when I used to work I did it by flying and partners. Now I do it with credit cards. In terms of hitting the minimum spend (unless they have changed the rules), one could hit it in the preceding year, (this year it would be in Dec, 2023) as long at that date would be in the billing cycle that posts in Jan, 2024. Is that still correct? I am doing it again this year.