Chase Southwest Companion Pass When Can I Do It Again

For the last eight years, since 2014, nosotros've had Southwest's Companion Laissez passer.

And I know I'll have information technology until the stop of the year, 2023, because we re-qualified last twelvemonth.

I'thou not a "travel hacker" or some guru. I'm a regular person similar you.

I have little involvement in getting a dozen credit cards, joining one-half a dozen rewards and loyalty programs, and figure out the most efficient way to catechumen hotel points into airline points into whatever. I don't want to do a spreadsheet to track it all. I don't desire to download any calculators.

To the folks who dearest that stuff, I salute you lot. I'thou a huge nerd myself and dear a expert spreadsheet, everyone knows that, simply travel hacking isn't one of those things.

That said, I see why it's appealing. Going on nearly free trips, staying at swanky hotels for about cypher, and getting the about out of a credit card is fantastic.

Here's stride by step how I did information technology.

Earlier I got the Southwest Companion Pass, I was looking into the whole travel hacking phenomenon. I learned it wasn't for me, except with one exception — Southwest Companion Pass. We live near BWI airport (Baltimore/Washington International, Thurgood Marshall Airport), which is a big Southwest hub, so this was a perfect fit. From BWI, nosotros could fly to many destinations including international airports similar Aruba.

Southwest Companion Laissez passer was the manner to go.

The Best Way to Get Companion Pass in 2022

For a really short time, Chase and Southwest offered Companion Pass and points equally a new sign-on bonus.

And correct now, that's the active offering on the table. If you lot want Companion Pass, I'd take avantage of this offering right now. They don't offer it oft.

Exercise you run a business concern? If so, the new Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business organisation credit carte du jour will give y'all 80,000 points after yous spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. There's a $199 annual fee simply you also get 9,000 bonus points after your Cardmember anniversary.

Here are the best offers on those cards (currently the bonus is all the same):

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card – Become 40,000 bonus points after you spend $ane,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card – Get 40,000 bonus points after yous spend $one,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Bill of fare – Get 40,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

How I Got My Southwest Companion Pass (2014 – 2022)

It's very unproblematic — the credit cards.

On the personal and business organisation cards, they will ofttimes run 50,000 Rapid Advantage point promotions. I waited for one of those times.

For years, the standard promotion is closer to 25,000 miles for spending $1,000 in the get-go 3 months. That's non very good. And then they upped information technology.

Sometimes they offer 60,000 points only that'southward rarer.

When it's not lx,000 – you can await for it but I'd rather get the points sooner and fly more. That'southward a personal choice.

You lot want the 50,000 points (or more) version (or the forty,000 if you're in a bustle). Anyone with an existing Southwest credit card can refer you to this offering, plus they go ten,000 points too (and those points count towards Companion Pass!).

How to go the Companion Pass for Southwest Airlines (updated with current promotional amounts):

1. Get the personal consumer credit card, like the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card and you spend the $2,000 for the first tier of bonus — that'southward 82,000 points.
2. Spend $x,000 more to get the xxx,000 additional RR points — that'southward 122,000 points – y'all're almost in that location.
3. If you want, stack on a Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Concern Credit Carte du jour too, it runs smilar promotions, which right now is 60,000 points after you spend $three,000 on purchases in the first iii months your account. That also has a $99 annual fee. Don't have a business organisation, read our applying for a Concern Card section below because you can have a business organisation.

1. Otherwise just spend another $3,000 and yous're in.
2. With 125,000 points, you'll get SW Companion Laissez passer for rest of the current twelvemonth AND the next year!

Recollect the Chase 5/24 dominion! Chase has a dominion that if you've been canonical for v cards in the last 24 months, you will be declined for new cards. You probably can remember when y'all applied for a bill of fare but if yous've forgotten, the best mode to check is to cheque your credit reports.

If you don't see the fifty,000 or better promotion, be patient and wait. The standard 25,000 indicate version only isn't as adept and the 50,000 comes back all the time. Southwest also offers a Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card (instead of Premier) which has a lower annual fee ($69) and a few other smaller bonuses (3,000-anniversary points instead of 6,000 for instance). There are often 40,000 Rapid Rewards point bonuses too – you lot can take those if yous want only 50k is platonic.

In total, this will price yous the annual fees of the cards yous get, which don't count towards the required bonus spending on either card.

Want other ways to earn RR points without the credit card OR flying? My list of Southwest Airlines money-saving hacks explains how their various signal-earning programs work, from the Dining program to electricity supplier reward programs.

Common Questions about Companion Pass

If you have questions about Southwest Airline's Companion Pass or the strategy, you're not alone.

Here are the most common ones I've been asked, hopefully, information technology answers your questions!

What Is Southwest Companion Pass?

Companion Pass lets yous name one person who can fly with yous for free (yous just pay the September 11th fee) anywhere you fly on Southwest. No blackout dates. You wing, they fly gratuitous (yous still pay fees like the September 11th security fee)

It'south an astonishing perk and nosotros've saved thousands each year because of it. It's probably i of the all-time frequent flyer perks out there, and you don't even need to exist a frequent flyer. 🙂

To earn a Southwest Companion Laissez passer, y'all need to earn 125,000 Rapid Reward points in a single calendar yr. When you do, yous get the Southwest Companion Pass for the rest of the twelvemonth in which you earned it plus the following year.

If you lot get information technology January 1st 2022, you'll take Companion Pass until December 31st, 2023. Nearly 2 years.

If yous get information technology Dec 31st, 2021 then you'll merely have it until December 31st, 2022! A year and a day.

At that place's a huge difference. When earning your miles, you want to become it as early in the twelvemonth every bit possible to maximize your free flights.

The fastest way to earn miles is by getting the bonuses on their credit carte du jour. They often run promotions where you can get 50,000 miles for spending $2,000 in the starting time iii months. More on that shortly.

Best Time to Earn Southwest Companion Pass

You want to get your SW Companion Laissez passer every bit early in the year as possible since you'll get it for the residue of the year… plus the next twelvemonth.

The best time to utilise for the cards is near the end of the calendar twelvemonth. That way you get the cards at the start of the yr, hit your spending goals, and earn Companion Pass. If you employ roughly in mid-November, get the cards soon thereafter, yous have iii months (December to Feb) to spend the $2,000 on each carte du jour to get the bonus 100,000 miles.

Y'all know your spending habits. Suit your application date to when you will be able to reach the tiers.

Personally, I practical in December, got the cards in January, and reached the spending limits onetime in Feb. My Companion Laissez passer congratulations email arrived on March 6th, one time all the points posted.

Can I Spend My Points Before I Go Companion Pass?

Yes. You lot don't need 125,000 Southwest Rapid Reward points in your business relationship, you just need to earn 125,000 Rapid Advantage points in a calendar year.

So if y'all earned 5,000 points in January, that'due south 5,000 towards that twelvemonth'due south Companion Pass eligibility.

You can spend those points on flights, your meter volition still take the v,000 points that yous earned. If yous log into your account and at the top, it'll show your progress towards A-List and Companion Pass:

I've already earned it for 2018 and 2019, so mine is completely blue.

As you accumulate points, it'll fill up to the 125,000 points you demand. (A-List is always a tease though!)

Can I get points for both the Southwest Plus and Premier Cards?

No!

Why can't I get both the Plus and Premier cards? On April 5th, 2018, Hunt added new linguistic communication to the terms of the landing folio of the promotions:

This product is non bachelor to either (i) current Cardmembers of this credit card, or (two) previous Cardmembers of this credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this credit card inside the final 24 months. To qualify for your bonus points, you must brand Purchases totaling $1,000 or more during the offset 3 months from account opening. Delight permit upwards to viii weeks for bonus points to mail service to your Rapid Rewards® account. ("Purchases" do not include balance transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers or like cash-like transactions, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race runway wagers or similar betting transactions, any checks that access your account, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, and fees of whatever kind, including an annual fee, if applicable.) To be eligible for this bonus offer, account must be open up and non in default at the time of fulfillment.

Booo. 🙁

Can an Authorized User Get the Bonus Later?

When we got our first Southwest credit carte du jour, I was worried about putting my wife on as an authorized user because I wanted her to be able to apply for the menu and get the bonus in the time to come. It turns out my concerns were not warranted!

I asked Southwest and Chase on Twitter and they told me that…

Proficient morning! That is a bang-up question. As long as that individual has not received the new account bonus on their own within the concluding ii years, they tin can apply and get it. ^SC

— Chase Support (@ChaseSupport) June 22, 2018

If the authorized user hasn't gotten bonus points so they are eligible to get it as the main cardholder!

What if I cancel my menu and re-apply, tin can I go the bonus?

The basic rule governing this is that you cannot get the same bonus on the aforementioned card in whatever 24 month flow. If yous opened a Hunt Southwest card final yr, earned the bonus last year, then you lot won't be eligible until 24 months later you lot earned that bonus. If the bonus was awarded in January 2017, you accept to wait until at to the lowest degree January 2019 before you are eligible to get that same sign up bonus.

Let'due south say yous're across the 24 month period merely you're still using the card. Can you abolish today and get the card and bonus once more?

Yes… but you have to wait sixty days before y'all apply for the card. It takes that long for their systems to be updated. If you apply before than 60 days, you risk being denied because their systems think yous still have an activated business relationship.

Other Things to Remember

Before we become into the business concern card section, some last few thoughts:

• Yous only need to spend purchase requirements in the first three months to become the bonus point promotions on each card. That's the just time limit. The remaining amount you can spread out over the residuum of the year, but it'due south better to spend it earlier then you lot'll accept Companion Pass for longer.
• The goal is to earn 125,000 Southwest Rapid Advantage points in a yr, so all the other means of earning them (similar flying, renting cars, hotels, etc.) are all in play. We focused on the credit cards and putting the points in terms of spending because it was easiest to explicate. You don't take to spend $6,000 to get the other 6,000 points, you lot can earn them in more traditional means.
• You tin alter your flight Companion upwardly to iii times in the validity period.
• Check out these other Southwest Airline hacks to earn miles easily, similar Rapid Rewards Dining and joining Rocketmiles if you stay in a lot of hotels.
• The best part is the Southwest credit cards are as well Visa Signature cards and so you go all the promotions and protections associated with Visa Signature.

Big Alter to Southwest Companion Pass qualification RR Points

There was a large change on January 1st, 2017 – the only way to earn Southwest Companion Pass eligible Rapid Reward points:

• paid acquirement flights on Southwest Airlines,
• points earned through spending on a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credit carte du jour (including the bonuses),
• points earned through transaction with Southwest Rapid Rewards partners.

That means e-Rewards, e-Miles, converted points from hotel and car loyalty partners, Valued Opinions and Diners Club will no longer count towards qualification for Companion Laissez passer. You still get the points, they just don't count towards the 125k yous demand each yr.

Years ago, a popular strategy was to convert Hunt Ultimate Rewards points and this change airtight that method.

🙁

"Spending" without Spending?

Where do you live?

If it has four walls and a roof, chances are you're paying rent or a mortgage. Near landlords and all banks will not let you pay rent or a mortgage with a credit card. Credit cards charge the merchant fees and landlords aren't a fan of those. 🙂

Just if y'all are getting close to a bonus, or Companion Pass, and only need a petty more to become there… using a service like Plastiq to pay your mortgage is an pick.

They charge fees, because they pay the merchant fee to the credit card, just if y'all need a few hundred or a few yard points to get to the bonus and time is running out, it might be worth information technology.

Applying for the Business concern Credit Bill of fare

If you take a business concern, awesome! (if yous don't, your best option is the Personal Plus card)

Utilize all the information you lot accept from that.

What if you don't accept a concern? Yous're in luck, you lot might have a concern and not even know it. In the Usa, if you lot earn income outside of a chore reporting your income on a West-2, and then you are operating a sole proprietorship. You lot don't need to be incorporated, you lot don't need to have any employees, and yous don't even need to make that much money.

In fact, if you've made a profit 3 out of the final five years, the IRS considers that a business concern and non a hobby.

Get an Employer Identification Number. Information technology's free, nearly instant, and you lot never need to use it.

Getting an EIN won't guarantee you'll be approved only it'south a step upwardly from using your Social Security Number on the application.

If you want to actually improve things, get yourself a website.

Otherwise, fill in the application truthfully.

Here are some more tips on getting a business credit card.

Pending Review???
Once you lot utilise, your application will be canonical or "pending review." Pending review is not always bad merely information technology means they couldn't verify your business or need more data.

Wait a day or two, then call the reconsideration line and ask them that y'all'd similar to check on the condition of your application. Be prepared to respond these types of questions about your business:

• What is your business and what do you exercise?
• How long take you been in business and what were your annual revenues and profits?
• How much do you await to make this twelvemonth, revenue and profit?

Whether they approve you will be up to the representative but here are a few tips for a reconsideration call.

When I got the carte, I had to call the reconsideration line even though I've had a revenue-generating business for years. They can't verify annihilation on the awarding through a third party so the approval procedure is effectively the same every bit for the personal bill of fare. And remember, when I practical, I told them I was a blogger.

How much have we used it?

ALL THE Time. (before the pandemic, that is)

I tin can't even recollect the final time we flew an airline other than Southwest. We've since gotten a few flights to New York to visit my parents, Boston to visit my sister and her family unit, plus vacations to San Juan, PR and presently a flight to Aruba.

The most expensive flight we've gotten for "gratis" (you lot pay taxes and fees) will be the i to Aruba. That baby cost me $727.50 and will toll my lovely married woman only $70.60. That comes out to exist just nether $400 per person.

$400 for a directly flying to Aruba? I'll take it.

The 125,000 points we become via promotions are valuable too. They're worth most 1.77 cents on the best Wanna Become Away fares ($108 o/w from BWI to Internet access provider), so that's worth nearly $1900+ in and of itself.

All in all, this experience has been a very positive ane.

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Jim Wang is a xl-something father of iv who is a frequent correspondent to Forbes and Vanguard'south Blog. He has besides been fortunate to have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Market place Money.

Jim has a B.South. in Information science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Information Technology - Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins Academy. His approach to personal finance is that of an engineer, breaking downward complex subjects into bite-sized easily understood concepts that y'all can use in your daily life.

I of his favorite tools (here'due south my treasure chest of tools,, everything I use) is Personal Uppercase, which enables him to manage his finances in merely xv-minutes each month. They also offering financial planning, such as a Retirement Planning Tool that can tell yous if you're on rail to retire when you want. It's free.

He is also diversifying his investment portfolio past adding a little bit of existent estate. But not rental homes, considering he doesn't want a 2nd job, it's diversified pocket-sized investments in a few commercial properties and farms in Illinois, Louisiana, and California through AcreTrader.

Recently, he's invested in a few pieces of art on Masterworks too.

>> Read more than manufactures past Jim

Opinions expressed here are the author's lonely, non those of any bank or financial establishment. This content has not been reviewed, canonical or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Source: https://wallethacks.com/how-to-earn-a-southwest-companion-pass-without-spending-110000/

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