The Southwest Companion Card allows you to bring a designated companion on all of your Southwest flights, including paid and award tickets. The only out-of-pocket costs are any taxes and fees (starting at just $5.60 each way).
For frequent Southwest flyers, this can easily add up to thousands of dollars in value each year.
And now, with the best sign up bonuses ever on both The flagship Southwest® Rapid Rewards® business credit card and Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit CardYou can earn the Companion Pass through the end of 2025 by meeting spending requirements on one of these cards.
Earn Companion Cards with a card reward
There are two ways to qualify for the Companion Pass: earn 135,000 qualifying points or take 100 qualifying one-way flights. You must meet either of these requirements within a calendar year.
Fortunately, Southwest co-branded credit card welcome bonus counts toward Companion Pass eligibility requirements.
For a limited time, both of these cards offer up to 120,000 points to new applicants:
These are Best deals we’ve seen on these cardsand each worth up to $1,560 per TPG in June 2024 valuation. This is a great value for cards with reasonable annual fees ($99 for the Premier card and $199 for the Performance card). Despite the high expenditure required, the returns can be staggering.
If you own one of these cards now and meet the $15,000 spending requirement by the end of the year, you’ll enjoy the Companion Pass throughout 2024 (after qualifying) and into 2025.
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That’s because you’ll get a total of 120,000 points from the tiered sign-up bonus. Plus, by spending $15,000, you’ll also earn at least 15,000 points through the regular earning rate (or more points if your spending category earns more than 1 point per dollar).
Please note that all Southwest credit cardholders will also receive 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each year.
In other words, you’ll have at least 135,000 redeemable Rapid Rewards points plus at least 145,000 qualifying points — thus earning you a Companion Pass for the rest of this year and all of 2025.
The timing of this is important, though. Since Companion Pass eligibility starts again on January 1, you’ll want to make sure you hit the spending requirement—and earn all your points—before the new year. That means you Right hit the $15,000 spending threshold before the end of your December statement, but to be safe, you should aim to do that before October or November.
Related: How to quickly earn a Southwest Companion Pass
Other notable card perks
As a Southwest Premier Business cardholder, you will also receive the following benefits:
- Two Check in early departures each year
- 1,500 A-List qualifying points for every $5,000 you spend with the card
- Up to $500 in fee credits each year when transferring your points to another Rapid Rewards member’s account
- 25% off in-flight purchases
- There are no foreign transaction fees
- 6,000 bonus points annually on card member anniversary
Meanwhile, the Southwest Performance Card offers the following perks:
- Four boarding upgrades per year (subject to availability)
- 1,500 qualifying points toward A-List status for every $5,000 you spend on the card
- Up to $500 per year in fee credit to transfer your points to another Rapid Rewards member’s account
- Up to 365 in-flight Wi-Fi credits per year
- Up to $100 in free credit for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or Nexus every four years
- There are no foreign transaction fees
- 9,000 bonus points each year on the occasion of card member anniversary
Here’s a comparison of the earning rates on the two cards:
| Bonus rate | Southwest Premier Business Cards | Southwest Performance business card |
|---|---|---|
| 4 points per dollar | do not apply | Buy Southwest |
| 3 points per dollar | Buy from Southwest | Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner |
| 2 points per dollar | Car rental and hotel partner Rapid Rewards; Public transport and local travel (including ride-hailing services) | Social media and search engine advertising; internet, cable and phone services; local public transportation advertising (including ride-hailing services) |
| 1 point per dollar | All other purchases | All other purchases |
As you can see, the Performance card has a slightly higher earning rate (and an expanded list) plus some notable additional benefits, but it’s up to you to decide whether those are worth the extra $100 annual fee.
Who is eligible for the Southwest Business Card Sign Up Bonus?
Knowing whether you qualify for a bonus is important before applying for the card. First, these cards must comply with Chase’s 5/24 rule. You’ll likely be declined immediately if you’ve been approved for five (or more) new credit cards across all issuers in the past 24 months.
Additionally, both cards have the same language for these offers:
“This new card member bonus offer does not apply to (i) current card members of this business credit card or (ii) previous card members of this business credit card who received receive a new cardmember bonus offer for this business credit card within the past 24 months.”
However, Premier and Performance cards are considered different products—which means you can get approved for one if you have the other.
Finally you may not need a formal business to get approved for one of the cards. If you have a side job or are just starting out as a sole proprietor, you may qualify for a business card with just your Social Security number – but be sure to read our guide on How to Complete a Chase Business Card Application For more details.
Related: 9 reasons to have a business credit card
Get more points to use with Southwest
You can transfer Chase the ultimate reward point from cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire® Reserve to Southwest Rapid Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. However, unlike the points earned from the Southwest co-branded credit card, these points do not count towards earning the Companion Pass.
That said, you can transfer those points to Southwest and have more Rapid Rewards points to “pay” for the fare, then the designated travel companion can come in just to pay taxes and fees.
Related: Your complete guide to maximizing Southwest Express Rewards
Bottom line
With the current welcome bonuses on Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier business credit card and Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit CardYou may be eligible for a Companion Pass without a flight requirement if you apply (and are approved) for one of these cards and meet the spending requirement by the end of the year.
As a reminder, you may change travel companions up to three times in a calendar year, but not until you have completed the entire trip with your current travel companion.
To learn more about the cards, read our full reviews of Leading enterprises And Business performance.
Register here: Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card And Southwest’s fast-performing business credit card
