As has been written here and on many blogs before, the easiest path to the incredibly valuable Southwest Companion Pass is by getting the sign-up bonus from two Southwest credit cards to achieve the required 110,000 points in a calendar year. The current high of 60,000 points per card is due to end soon so this is really a great time to get your cards now – but read the note below before you start applying!
Get the Southwest Companion Pass for 2018 and 2019
Important note: Keep in mind that Chase’s 5/24 rule does apply to the Southwest credit cards. If you have opened 5 or more new credit card accounts (not business cards) in the last 24 months, you will not be eligible to apply for these cards. Likewise, if you have received the sign-up bonus on a particular Southwest card in the last 24 months, you cannot get that sign-up bonus on that same card again. Most readers know this but I want to make sure this is clear before we get started.
Strategy to Get the Southwest Companion Pass for 2018 and 2019
See this post for all the details about the Southwest Companion Pass.
The High Sign-Up Bonuses End Soon
Courtesy of Shutterstock
The 60,000 point bonus on the Southwest cards is due to end soon and it will likely go back down to 40,000 points. Reports are that the Southwest Plus version may end October 1 and the Premier may end on October 4th. This may be just for affiliate links (which mine are in the menu above) but the ones in this post are the public offers.
Another thing to take note of is that many, many data points are available to show that Chase allows you 115 days from the opening of the account to hit the minimum spending. That means your final days to achieve the required spend and receive the 60,000 point bonus per card would be into January of 2018 – this is great news as a part of getting the Southwest Companion Pass for 2018 and 2019!
Amount of Time to Hit the Minimum Spending
To ensure that the 115 days apply to you as well, send Chase a Secure Message through your Chase account to ask when the spending must be met to receive the bonus. This way, you will have written confirmation from them.
This is very important to ensure you get the Southwest Companion Pass for 2018 and 2019 – make sure you do not complete your minimum spending on the cards until after 2017. If you are required to spend $3,000 on one and $2,000 on the other (like the Southwest Plus card or Premier), spend up to around 90% on each card whenever you want to give yourself a little cushion. After the start of 2019, then you can complete your spending and the bonus points for both cards will post for 2019. So, make sure you wait until after your December statement closes to finish the spending.
The annual fees do not count towards your minimum spending!
Make sure you check when your spending needs to be completed! Courtesy of Shutterstock
If you apply for any 2 of the current Southwest cards, you will receive a total of 120,000 points after meeting the sign-up bonus – plus the points from the actual spending. This easily clears the minimum of 110,000 points in a calendar year. Since business cards do not count with Chase for your 5/24 total, it may be a good idea to apply for the Southwest Business Premier first. Then you could select either the Southwest Personal Premier ($2,000 in spending and $99 annual fee) or the Southwest Personal Plus ($2,000 in spending and $69 annual fee).
This is definitely the easiest way to get the Southwest Companion Pass for 2018 and 2019 – and you will not even need to step on an airplane!
What If You Cannot Get 2 Cards?
If for some reason you are not eligible to get 2 cards at this time, there is still a way you could get to the 110,000 points necessary. The referral points from the Southwest credit cards do count towards the Companion Pass. This means you could receive one card and the 60,000 points from the sign-up bonus and then try to get as many referrals as possible early next year (up to 50,000 – 5,000 per successful referral).
If you think you may have a hard time getting that many referrals, make sure you come back here to the blog in early 2018 as I will have a post where you can put your referral links for others to apply.
The Southwest Credit Card 60,000 Point Offers
Here are the current card offers:
Southwest Premier Personal Card
- Earn 60,000 points after spending $2,000 in 3 months
- Annual fee of $99 not waived
- Receive 6,000 bonus points each card anniversary
- Application Link
- Reportedly dropping October 4, 2018
Southwest Plus Personal Card
- Earn 60,000 points after spending $2,000 in 3 months
- Annual fee of $69 not waived
- Received 3,000 bonus points each card anniversary
- Application Link
- Reportedly dropping October 1, 2018
Southwest Premier Business Card
- Earn 60,000 points after spending $3,000 in 3 months
- Annual fee of $99 not waived
- Receive 6,000 bonus points each card anniversary
- Application Link
- Reportedly not dropping at this time
Leave Referral Links Below!
If you want the points this year, you can leave your referral links below here as well. Just make sure that the referral offer is for 60,000 points and specify which card the offer is for. I will rotate these offers through the links above.
Featured image courtesy TFoxFoto / Shutterstock.com
How do I get a referral link for the 60k offer? I went to the website to get a link and it only shows a 50k referral offer.
I’m in desperate need of 40k this year because I applied for 2 cards earlier this year and was approved for only 1. With 5/24 I will not be able to apply for another 20 months or so…
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