How to Get the Southwest Companion Pass – When You Already Have a Southwest Card

Yesterday, I wrote about the new Southwest card bonuses that are out. These are great – for anyone that does not have one or has not had a new bonus on one in the last 24 months (not to mention those that are precluded from getting this card because of Chase 5/24). So, here is a much easier way to get the Southwest Companion Pass if you already have a Southwest card.

How to Get the Southwest Companion Pass When You Have a Card Already

Link: Southwest Credit Cards (this is my personal referral link – thanks for the support!)

Referral Points Are the Answer!

Without any ado, we will jump right to it – referral points are the way to help you get to the Southwest Companion Pass! The Southwest Companion Pass requires earning 125,000 Rapid Reward points in one calendar year.

The good thing is that points earned via the Southwest credit cards from Chase count towards the total. This includes the sign-up bonuses, regular spending, and the referral points that come from successfully referring someone for a new Chase Southwest card.

This last one is where we want to look. Normally, you earn 5,000 points per successful referral. That has gone up to 10,000 points in the past but currently sits at a whopping 20,000 points per successful referral.

Our current earning toward the Companion Pass – we, like everyone, started with 25,000 points and the rest are from the card.

And, unlike previous years, you are not limited to earning just 50,000 points in a calendar year but is at 100,000 points in a calendar year for now! That is huge because it leaves you just 25,000 points shy of the Southwest Companion Pass if you can get 5 friends/family/co-workers to sign up for one of these monster bonus cards.

So, you will be 20,000 points closer to the Southwest Companion pass with every successful referral you make. Remember that you will receive a 1099 from Chase for points earned so keep that in mind – these are not “free” points in that regard!

Using Strategy to Get 2 Years of the Southwest Companion Pass – Maybe!!

Now, that is great if you can get all 125,000 points this year but what if you could get them all next year and get close to 2 full years out of the Southwest Companion Pass (assuming you are able to spend your way to the other $25,000 points – more on this in a moment)?

Getting it for 2021 and 2022 – Easy Path

First of all, for this year (and next year since that is the year you would actually earn if you obtain the pass this year), everyone only needs 100,000 Rapid Reward points this year (if you had your account opened prior to December 31, 2020) since Southwest bumped everyone up 25,000 points toward the Companion Pass for this year. That means you can lock in the Southwest Companion Pass for the rest of this year and all of 2022 if you can successfully refer the cards to 5 people.

We still need 80,000 points (or 4 referrals) to max out this year.

Here is activity on the card that counts toward the Southwest Companion Pass:

• Anniversary points
• Referral points
• Spending points

So, if you earn it with the card, it counts toward the Companion Pass!

Getting it for 2022 and 2023 – Very Difficult!

But, if you want to focus on earning the Southwest Companion Pass for 2022 and all of 2023, here is the strategy you need to employ. There are a couple of things you need to take into account before we attack this strategy:

• The 100,000 points offers on the personal Southwest cards must be applied for by December 1, 2021
• The referrals must be done by January 4, 2022.
• The points toward the Companion Pass matter based on when they are posted to your Rapid Rewards account

So, let’s say your Southwest statement closing date is December 22, 2021. If you refer 5 friends/family members/humans who are able to successfully get one of the cards between November 23 and December 1, you would get the points posting to your account around December 25 – which means they would not count for 2022.

So, that means you would need a statement closing date at the very end of the month. You can ask Chase – even right in the app – to move your statement closing date. You would likely need it to be the 30th or 31st to have the points post in January.

This is a very, very tight window for this! My guess is that Chase knew this. 🙂 You would need people to apply and be approved around November 30/December 1 (which is the last day of the current offers) to have them post to your Southwest account after December 31.

So, that may end up being too much wiggle space to really worry about. My guess is that there will be great offers again next year so you may want to just lock the pass up this year the easy way, have it next year, and then try again next year to get it with referrals.

Feel free to leave your Southwest referral links in the comments of this post and I will cycle them through the link above in the coming months!