Why now is the best time to apply for Southwest credit cards

One of the best deals in travel is the Southwest Companion Pass. No other travel perk allows you to create your own buy-one-get-one airfare voucher that can last for nearly two years.

This pass allows you to bring a partner, child, parent or friend with you on all of your Southwest flights — for just the cost of taxes and fees on their ticket. Plus, even if you book your Southwest flight with Southwest Rapid Rewards points, your designated companion can still come along for the ride using the Southwest Companion Pass.

That’s an amazing benefit no matter how you slice it — but you can get the most out of this deal if you time things carefully (more on that in a minute).

The qualifying benchmark is 135,000 points (or 100 qualifying one-way flights) to get the Companion Pass. Luckily, I’ll show you how to secure a Southwest Companion Pass for nearly two years — if you hurry.

How to perfectly time a Southwest Companion Pass

Earning the Southwest Companion Pass requires earning 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year.

Once you obtain the Companion Pass, it’s valid for the rest of the year in which you earn it plus the entire next calendar year. Thus, if you earned the Companion Pass in November or December 2024, it was valid through the rest of 2024 and will continue to be valid throughout the rest of 2025.

However, if you earn the Companion Pass in February 2025, then it will be valid until the end of 2026 — nearly two years of validity. That means the optimal time to try and earn the Companion Pass is at the very beginning of a calendar year.

Since the alternative for earning the Companion Pass requires taking 100 flights with Southwest, earning via points is the simplest path for most people. Here’s how Southwest defines what types of points activity will count toward earning the Companion Pass:

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The following do not count as qualifying activity:

Purchases of points
Points transferred between members
Points converted from hotel and car rental loyalty programs, e-Rewards, Valued Opinions surveys or Diners Club
New member bonuses for joining Rapid Rewards
Tier bonus points
Flight bonus points
Partner bonus points other than those earned with Southwest Airlines credit cards

Southwest also mentions that the Companion Pass is earned from points that are posted to your account within the same calendar year, so you must start again from zero on Jan. 1 of each year. What does all of this mean? That bonus points from welcome bonuses on Southwest Airlines credit cards count toward earning the Companion Pass, and (ideally) you want them to hit your account in January or February to earn a Companion pass that’s valid for nearly two years.

In short, opening a Southwest Airlines credit card early in the year and then completing the minimum spending requirement as soon as possible can be your simplest path to a buy-one-get-one pass with Southwest Airlines.

Earning the points you need to achieve the Companion Pass

This makes these first few months of the year the perfect time to start plotting your Southwest Companion Pass acquisition. With bonus offers on Southwest credit cards, you should apply for one — or even two — Southwest cards to earn the pass in 2025 and 2026.

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card ($69 annual fee), Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card ($99 annual fee) and Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card ($149 annual fee) all offer the same bonus right now: New applicants can earn 30,000 bonus points and Southwest’s Companion Pass (valid through Feb. 28, 2026) after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening. The offer ends March 31.

The current welcome offer includes a Companion Pass that’s valid through February 2026. However, if you hit the points-earning threshold of 135,000 points in this calendar year, you’ll get to keep the Companion Pass through the end of 2026 — extending the Companion Pass for 10 more months.

There are many ways to earn the remaining points, such as additional credit card spending, actually flying on eligible Southwest fares and partner activity. You could even consider opening a Southwest business credit card in tandem with your Southwest personal card.

Southwest’s two small-business cards are currently offering enticing bonuses of their own:

The information for the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Strategy for earning the Southwest Companion Pass in 2025-2026

Unfortunately, Chase doesn’t allow you to have more than one Southwest personal credit card open at a time. But those restrictions don’t apply to the business versions.

This makes the easiest way to achieve a Companion Pass through the entirety of 2026 simple: Earn both a small-business card bonus and a personal card bonus. Then, minimal activity is required.

For example, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card offers several Southwest perks. If you were to open this card along with any Southwest personal card, you could earn the Companion Pass by first:

Spending $5,000 on the Southwest Performance Business (80,000 points)
Spending $4,000 on a Southwest personal card (30,000 points)

That $9,000 in spending would net you 110,000 points (worth $1,485, according to TPG’s February 2025 valuations). You would then need just 25,000 points more to reach 135,000 points to qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass. Plus, you don’t have to “cash in” your points to earn the Companion Pass. You still keep the points in your account and can use those for award flights — and bring your companion as well.

Again, transferring points earned on cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account does not count toward the Companion Pass. However, once you have the Companion Pass, you can transfer points to Rapid Rewards from Chase Ultimate Rewards to book your Southwest award tickets and have your designated companion fly with you basically free of cost.

Who is eligible for a new Southwest credit card?

The personal Southwest cards are offering solid bonuses. If you’re curious about your eligibility, here’s what Chase has to say:

“The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card products.”

This means that you can only get the new cardmember bonus on one Southwest personal credit card within a 24-month cycle, so be sure you are getting the best bonus possible. Also note that, if you currently have any open Southwest personal credit cards, you won’t be eligible for these offers.

The same restriction does not apply to the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card or the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card. The business card restrictions state:

“This new Cardmember bonus offer is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of this business credit card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of this business credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this business credit card within the last 24 months.”

This means you can earn a bonus from a small-business credit card and a personal credit card from Southwest in the same calendar year to get closer to obtaining a Companion Pass.

Alternatively, you could get two small-business card bonuses; you just can’t get two personal cards.

And don’t forget about Chase’s 5/24 rule. If you’ve opened five or more new personal credit cards across any card issuers in the last 24 months, you’ll likely be denied if you apply for a Southwest card.

Bottom line

Now is a great time to solidify your plans for earning the Southwest Companion Pass.

If you can open a personal card and small-business card, you can time the welcome bonuses so that they post to your account this year. That’ll give you nearly two full years of the Companion Pass.

Apply here: Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card

Learn more: Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card

Apply here: Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card

Apply here: Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card

Apply here: Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card