The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best deals in the world of points and miles.
If you're not familiar, the Southwest Companion Pass lets you choose one person to fly with you for free every time you purchase a flight or redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards points for a flight on Southwest. There are no blackout dates and no questions asked. If the flight is bookable, you can add your companion. The pass is good for the rest of the year in which you earn it and the entire following year.
For every flight booked with the Southwest Companion Pass, you need only pay taxes and fees ($11.20 roundtrip on domestic flights) for your companion. And that's the case regardless of whether you pay cash for your ticket or book with Southwest Rapid Rewards points. Yes, you can even add a free companion when booking an award ticket using Southwest Rapids Rewards points!
As good of a deal as it is, the pass can be difficult to earn as you need to earn 135,000 qualifying Southwest Rapid Rewards points … or fly 100 one-way revenue flights in a calendar year. Flights booked with Southwest points won't qualify.
While 135,000 points might sound like a lot, the points you earn from a Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card sign-up bonus count toward that total.
If you have a small business (and trust us, you might have one without even realizing it), Chase and Southwest are out with a new limited-time, best-ever offer on the *southwest premier business* through Aug. 28.
You'll earn 60,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months of card membership. Plus, you'll have the ability to earn another 60,000 points after you spend a total of $15,000 in the first nine months of card membership, as long as you apply on or before Aug. 28
Add it all up, and that's 120,000 Southwest points. But when you factor in the points you'll earn from spending a total of $15,000 in the first nine months of card membership, you'll have the 135,000 points you need to earn the Southwest Companion pass from just one credit card sign-up bonus.
If you hit the spending requirement before the end of the year, your pass would be good for the entirety of 2024 as well. It's an incredible deal – especially when you factor in the card's low annual fee of $99.
But remember: Credit cards are serious business. You should never apply for a credit card if you're already in debt, and never charge more to a credit card than you can afford to pay off immediately. That's especially true when looking at business credit cards as the spending required to earn a big bonus is often much higher than what you will find on the consumer card side of things.
Read on for everything you need to know about the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card and this best-ever, limited-time offer.
Learn more about the *southwest premier business*
Full Benefits of the Southwest Premier Business Card
- Welcome Offer Bonus: bonus_miles_full This limited-time offer ends on August 28!
- Anniversary Bonus: Each year on your cardmember anniversary, you will receive 6,000 Rapid Rewards points.
- Earn 3x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar spent on Southwest purchases.
- Earn 2x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar spent on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partners, and rideshare transactions
- Earn 1x Rapid Rewards Points per dollar on all other spending on the card.
- Get 10,000 bonus points toward earning the Companion Pass: Southwest will deposit 10,000 Companion Pass-qualifying points in your account at the start of each calendar year starting in 2023.
- 2 EarlyBird Check-In passes each year
- 25% back on inflight purchases on Southwest flights
- No foreign transaction fees
- Chase 5/24 Rule: The card will be subject to the Chase 5/24 rule, so you may not be approved for the card depending on how many credit cards you've opened in the last two years.
- Annual Fee: The card has an annual fee of $99, which is not waived for the first year of card membership.
Learn more about the *southwest premier business*
Are You Eligible to Apply for the Southwest Premier Business Card?
Like all Chase cards – both personal and business – the *southwest premier business* is subject to the Chase 5/24 Rule. If you're not familiar, it's a hard-and-fast restriction rolled out years ago in order to limit card applicants from opening credit cards for the sole purpose of earning bonus points. If you've heard of the phrase “churning,” that's exactly what this rule is designed to crack down on.
Here's what it boils down to:
- If you have opened five or more credit cards in the past 24 months from any bank credit card issuers (not just Chase cards), you will not be approved for Chase credit cards, regardless of your credit score or history with Chase bank.
- The rule does not count credit inquiries, but rather new cards you have applied for and been approved.
Business credit cards work a bit differently with the Chase 5/24 rule. When it comes to Chase business credit cards specifically, you'll need to be underneath the 5/24 rule to get approved and earn a points bonus … but that approval will not add to your 5/24 count.
For example, let's say you want to apply for this new limited-time offer on the Southwest Premier Bussiness Card. If you've opened five or more credit cards in the last 24 months, you'd almost certainly get denied. But let's say you've opened four credit cards over the last two years. You could get approved … and if you do, you'd remain at 4/24 under this rule.
In general, most business card approvals do not count toward your 5/24 total. That includes business cards from American Express, Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and more.
The reason? Business credit card accounts typically don't show on your personal credit report.
Outside of the 5/24 rule, there are no other restrictions around getting this card. On the application page, Chase says, “This bonus offer is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new Cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.”
That means even if you already have a Southwest personal card, or even the *southwest performance business card*, you would still be eligible for this limited-time offer.
Our Analysis
If the Southwest Companion Pass is on your radar and you have the ability to open a small business credit card, it doesn't get much better than this. Historically, if you were interested in a Southwest Companion pass earned through credit card points, it largely required opening two credit cards. And since Chase & Southwest only allow you to have one Southwest personal card, you need to pair it with a Southwest business card to earn the required 135,000 points needed to earn the Companion pass.
As long as you can spend $15,000 in the first nine months of card membership, you'll earn 120,000 bonus points with this new offer. When you factor in the points you'll earn from the actual spending, you'll easily have the 135,000 points you need to earn a pass. Plus, if you can complete that spending before the end of 2023, you'll have the pass for the entirety of 2024 as well.
It's the best offer we have ever seen on the Premier Business card, but it's only available through August 28. As long as you apply before then, you'll get in on this great offer.
Related Reading: The Best Deals We've Found to Use Your Southwest Rapid Rewards Points
Bottom Line
Chase and Southwest are out with a record-setting limited-time offer on the *southwest premier business*. As long as you apply before August 28, you'll have the ability to earn 120,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 in the first nine months of card membership.
That's enough to earn a Southwest companion pass from one credit card sign-up bonus.
Learn more about the *southwest premier business*
Say you’re approved for the business card within the promotional period and earn the first 60k bonus in 2023 but earn the remaining 60k bonus in early part of 2024. Would you then qualify for companion pass for the remainder of 2024 (earned year) and for 2025? I’ve read of applicants applying for business and personal card in latter part of 2022 then earning the final bonus in 2023 to earn companion pass for all of 2023 and 2024. Perhaps I misread. Thanks for any info.
You would have to earn a total of 135,000 points in one calendar year. So the first 60k bonus would count towards this year but not next year. You would then need to get an additional 75k points to earn companion for 2024-2025 (135,000 – 60,000). If you were to hit both bonuses this year you would have the pass for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024.
In a perfect world, you hit the bonus in Q1 of any given year to maximize the time that you have it. If you are able to do that, you will end up with the pass for 20 – 23 total months.
I think this wouldn’t work because the latest you can apply for the card is near the end of August 2023… the first spending requirement is 3 months after opening, putting you at the end of November. Unless Chase/Southwest delays over 1 month to post the points to your Rapid Rewards account, you will earn that first bonus in 2023 and then your calendar will reset with Southwest as far as earning the required number of RR points in a calendar year to earn the companion pass. They timed it just right to their advantage, to avoid giving you 2 years of Companion Pass. 😌