How to Earn the Southwest Companion Pass Before December 31, 2026

The Companion Pass lets one person fly with you on every Southwest flight you book, cash or points, for just taxes and fees. For domestic flights, that's only $5.60 per way!

You get it by earning 135,000 rapid reward points in a single calendar year. Once you hit that number, Southwest adds the pass to your account on its own, and you pick your companion. You get to keep the pass the rest of the year you earn it plus the following year. Because 2026 is going to be the last year to earn it this way, earn the points in time for all of them to post to your account by December 31st, and you can enjoy the pass all of 2027.

The qualifying math

Qualifying points come from booking flight's, from Southwest credit card spend, and from credit card welcome offers, and credit card referrals. They do not come from transferred partner points. That means the fastest realistic path is a card welcome offer plus ordinary everyday spend.

If you have a Southwest card, Southwest also gives you a 10,000 points boost each year towards earning the companion pass. Although these points count toward the 135,000 points needed, you can't spend them on flights. With this boost, a cardholder would only need to earn 125k more points.

My own strategy is to earn the pass through opening two Southwest credit cards and earning both welcome offers. I open a personal Southwest card and a Southwest business card, hit both minimum spends with the spending I am already doing (gas, groceries, etc) and between the two bonuses and the spending it took to earn them, that can land you at around 135,000 or more depending on whether any card offers are elevated. When I earned mine, there were elevated offers available and I ended up well over that amount across the two cards' welcome bonuses and through the spending. My husband does the same, so we each earn a pass — he designates one of our kids, I designate the other, and our family of four flies for two for price of one.

The Southwest Rapid Reward Premier Business card is now elevated through November 1st with my referral link, but do not wait on this! You want as much time as you need to hit the spend, and have a little space before you open the personal card.

Another away around opening two cards is referring friends and family! Each referral gives you 20,000 RR points that will count towards the companion pass. If you grab the business card, and refer 2 - 3 friends you will hit above the required 135,000 points. If you are only referring 2 people, you need to make sure you spend enough on the card. The Premier Business card earns you 3xs the points per dollar on Southwest purchases, 2x points on every dollar at restaurants and gas stations, and 1x points on all other purchases. realistically, if you spend 5000 dollars on it and only get 1x points per dollar, then you would hit 135,000 points between the cc welcome bonus, two referrals, the 10k boost from having the SW cc, and the spend.

Who can get the cards

You need good or excellent credit. You also need to be under Chase's 5/24 rule. That means fewer than 5 new personal cards from any bank in the last 24 months. My 5/24 guide explains how to check.

You can only have one personal Southwest card open at a time. You can have a personal card and a business card together. You can also have both business cards together.

People are reporting a stricter rule for business cards when you apply as a sole proprietor, using your own name and Social Security number. They say Chase may turn you down if you have opened 3 or more personal cards in the last 24 months. This isn't official, but I'd plan for it. If you are close to that number, apply for the business card first.

The cards

These are the usual offers. Bonuses go up and down often, so check the current offer before you apply.

• Rapid Rewards Plus: usually 50,000 points after $1,000 in 3 months. $99 annual fee.
• Rapid Rewards Premier: usually 55,000 points after $1,500 in 3 months. $149 annual fee.
• Rapid Rewards Priority: usually 60,000 points after $2,000 in 3 months. $229 annual fee, with a $75 Southwest credit each year.
• Premier Business: usually 60,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months. $149 annual fee.
• Performance Business: usually 80,000 points after $5,000 in 3 months. $299 annual fee.

Here is how it adds up at these usual offers with the Performance Business card (80,000 points after $5,000):

• Plus + Performance Business: 130,000 points in bonuses. Add the 10,000 boost and at least 6,000 points from the spending, and you are at 146,000 or more.
• Premier + Performance Business: 135,000 points in bonuses. Add the 10,000 boost and at least 6,500 points from the spending, and you are at 151,500 or more.
• Priority + Performance Business: 140,000 points in bonuses. Add the 10,000 boost and at least 7,000 points from the spending, and you are at 157,000 or more.

A personal card plus the Premier Business card (unless it has an elevated offer) 110,000 to 120,000 in bonuses. With the boost and the spending, you'd be close. One referral or a few flights can cover the rest.

These scenarios are if there are no elevated offers, so check the offers before you apply, and that will help you decide which cards to open, just make sure your strategy gets you close to 135,000 points in the end.

Timing is everything here. Both bonuses have to post in the same calendar year- and you want them both to post before December 31st.

If opening two cards is not for you, as I mentioned above, referrals are another way to get there. When a friend applies through your referral link and is approved, you currently earn 20,000 Rapid Rewards points, and those count toward the 135,000 — so a single card plus a few referrals can close the gap.

This also works with a spouse or partner. One of you opens a business card. Then that person refers the other one for both of their cards. The referral points plus the first bonus and the 10,000 boost can get the first person to 135,000. The catch is that the referrals have to post in the same year.

And do not overlook the obvious part: earning the pass hands you a huge points balance on the way there. Those 135,000-plus points book real flights, and every one of those tickets brings your companion along for taxes and fees. So the points you earned qualifying essentially book two seats instead of one.

A fall plan, step by step

• Open your first card.
• Once you finish your minimum spend, you can open your next card, but try to wait 30 days between your cards so your credit has time to bounce back a bit. If this isnt possible based with the limited time till the year ends, you can consider opening before that, just know that your credit might not have bounced back yet.
• Remember that your annual fee for the card doesn't count toward the minimum spend.
• You dont want to spend more than you have, but if its not a burden, I would personally buy gift cards to the grocery store I go to, and prepay for my groceries to hit the minimum spend if I were to run out of time and need the points to post soon.- I am not a financial advisor, but I am scrappy and its something I would do, but do what feels right for your budget.

My husband and I will use the same cards to hit spends quickly, we don't add each other as authorized users, but we both put the cards on our apple pay so we both work towards one card at a time. We also alternate between who opens the next card, this spaces out how often one of us is applying for a card.

Is it right for you?

The pass isn't for everyone. Southwest has a lot of connecting flights, so it's harder if you hate layovers. It also won't help much if you mostly fly internationally. But for us, it makes a quick trip to California or Hawaii easy to say yes to, because one of us flies for almost nothing.