How to quickly earn the Southwest Companion Pass

Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with the latest information.

Did someone mention bringing a designated friend or family member for (almost) free on any Southwest flight you take?

Earning Southwest’s coveted Companion Pass isn’t easy — except when it is. The carrier has been known to run promotions where you can earn a Companion Pass for taking a single round-trip flight, and right now, you can earn it with a single Southwest credit card welcome offer. Even without one of these promotions, Southwest credit card spending can help you fast-track your way to the Companion Pass.

Keep reading to find out why the Companion Pass is so valuable and how you can earn one this year.

Related: Southwest Rapid Rewards: Complete guide to earning, redeeming and maximizing points

What is the Southwest Companion Pass?

With Southwest’s Companion Pass, you can bring a friend or family member you designate as your companion with you on any Southwest flight. You’ll only need to pay the taxes and fees on your companion’s ticket, just like you would on an award ticket. As a result, if you earn a Companion Pass, you’ll have over a year of buy one, get one (nearly) free Southwest flights.

The ability to bring along a travel companion for nearly free is not unique to Southwest. Many credit cards offer some form of a single-use companion fare, allowing you to bring a travel companion at a heavily discounted rate.

However, the magic of the Southwest Companion Pass is that you can use it as many times as you want until the pass expires. Even if you were to fly every day of the year, your companion could come with you for just the cost of taxes and fees. It even applies to award tickets, allowing you to redeem Rapid Rewards points for yourself and bring your companion without using additional points.

TPG values Southwest points at 1.35 cents each per our February 2025 estimates, and earning the Companion Pass can effectively double the value of your points (or cash) when flying with a companion on Southwest.

Remember, you’re not limited to flights within the lower 48 states. Over the last several years, Southwest has expanded to (and within) Hawaii and added short-haul international flights.

Additionally, you can change your designated Southwest companion up to three times per calendar year. In other words, you can have four different companions in the first calendar year, then three in the second year (for up to seven total across the life of your Companion Pass). It’s worth noting that even if you switch back to a previous companion, it still counts as one of your three allotted changes per calendar year.

Related: 15 lessons from 15 years of having the Southwest Companion Pass

How to earn the Southwest Companion Pass

Earning the Companion Pass requires accruing 135,000 qualifying points or taking 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year. That sounds like a lot, but considering the mountains of points available from Southwest credit card offers, it’s not as difficult as it may seem.

Plus, the Companion Pass has an impressive shelf life: It’s valid through the end of the year in which you earn it, as well as the entire year that follows. If you time it correctly, that could be nearly two years of BOGO privileges.

So what are qualifying points for earning the Companion Pass? It’s important to note that not all Rapid Rewards points count toward the 135,000-point requirement. Here’s how Southwest defines points that will count:

Companion Pass qualifying points are earned from revenue flights booked through Southwest®, points earned on Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Cards, and base points earned from Rapid Rewards® partners.

As you can see, all revenue flights booked on Southwest will count toward earning the Companion Pass, as will points earned on Southwest’s cobranded credit cards. Where things get a bit trickier is the “base points earned from Rapid Rewards partners” verbiage. Do all partners count?

This page on Southwest’s website provides some examples of partner activity that will count toward qualification:

• Rapid Rewards credit cards, including welcome bonuses
• Shopping and dining partners, such as buying flowers and eating out with Rapid Rewards Dining
• Travel partners, such as partner hotel stays and car rentals
• Home and lifestyle partners, like Reliant Energy and NRG Home

However, many things do not count toward earning the Companion Pass:

• Any points transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards or hotel or car rental loyalty programs
• Purchased or gifted points
• A-List or A-List Preferred tier bonus points
• Most promotional bonus points earned on Southwest or partners (except on Rapid Rewards credit cards and Southwest Business Refer a Company) 

With that in mind, here’s a rundown of three strategies to earn the Southwest Companion Pass.

Related: If you like the current Southwest Airlines boarding process, you’re in luck

Southwest credit cards

Points earned from Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards, including welcome bonuses, count toward the Southwest Companion Pass. Additionally, Southwest cardholders will enjoy an annual boost of 10,000 points toward Companion Pass qualification every year. This will post within 30 days of opening your account and then again by Jan. 31 of every calendar year. This effectively reduces the number of points you must earn to 125,000.

Plus, three Southwest consumer cards are currently offering elevated welcome bonuses that include a Companion Pass. The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card and Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card are offering a Companion Pass good through Feb. 28, 2026, plus 30,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.

The information for the Southwest Premier 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.

Now could be a great time to add one of the above to your wallet. And the sooner you earn the welcome bonus, the longer you’ll be able to use your promotional Companion Pass.

Southwest also has two business cards that can accelerate your progress to the Companion Pass. You can earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening with the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card, or earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening with the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card. Between these welcome bonuses and the 10,000-point anniversary boost, you’ll be more than halfway toward earning the 135,000 points needed for a Companion Pass.

Or, if you combine earnings from one of these business cards with those from a personal Southwest card, you could qualify for a Companion Pass without any additional activity.

Related: Do I need a business to get a business credit card?

Chase application restrictions

Before going on an application spree, remember that Chase has restrictions on Southwest credit cards related to welcome bonuses. The following verbiage appears on the application pages for the Priority, Premier and Plus cards:

This product is available to you if you do not have a current Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card and have not received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Business Card and Employee Credit Card products.

As a result, you can’t open a new Southwest personal card if you already have one or earned a welcome bonus on one within the last 24 months. You’ll also want to ensure you’re familiar with Chase’s general application restrictions, including the issuer’s infamous 5/24 rule and the general rule that you can open one personal and one business card every 90 days.

As of now, Southwest’s small-business credit cards do not have the same verbiage. Instead, the business cards note:

“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.”

If you already hold a Southwest credit card(s) and thus can’t use the welcome bonus to your advantage, all the points you earn from spending on these cards will also count toward earning the Companion Pass. You could theoretically earn the pass from credit card spending alone, but there are two other options that should make the task easier.

Related: How to qualify for Southwest Companion Pass with one credit card sign-up bonus

Flying with Southwest: How much do you have to spend to get 135,000 points?

Another simple way to earn points for the Companion Pass is by actually flying with Southwest. If you don’t have a cobranded credit card and plan to earn the Companion Pass through flying in 2025, you’ll need to earn the full 135,000 points or take 100 qualifying one-way flights. This translates to the following spending on base fares (not including any elite status points-earning bonus):

• $22,500 on Wanna Get Away
• $16,875 on Wanna Get Away Plus
• $13,500 on Anytime
• $11,250 on Business Select

If you have travel planned this year, consider booking with Southwest to earn points toward the Companion Pass. But remember, this strategy requires flying on many paid Southwest fares to earn enough Companion Pass qualifying points.

Related: Free bags and open seating: Why I choose Southwest every time

Use a combination of credit cards and flying

For many travelers, the best way to earn the Companion Pass will likely be some combination of flying and credit cards.

Let’s say you open the Southwest Performance Business card and earn the full welcome bonus in early 2025. Let’s also assume you spend a total of $10,000 on the card, and part of that spending is $2,000 on Wanna Get Away base fares, all of which are on flights flown in early 2025. You would earn:

• Welcome bonus (for spending $5,000 in the first three months): 80,000 points
• Flying: 12,000 points ($2,000 x 6 points per dollar spent on Wanna Get Away base fares)
• Southwest airfare purchases on the card: 8,000 points ($2,000 x 4 points per dollar spent on Southwest purchases)
• Other purchases on the card: 8,000 points ($8,000 x 1 point per dollar spent)
• Credit card anniversary points: 10,000 points

This activity would earn you 118,000 Companion Pass-qualifying points, putting you just 17,000 points away. You could easily make up that difference by leveraging other earning opportunities like Rapid Rewards Shopping or car rentals through Southwest.

Since these points will all hit your Rapid Rewards account in 2025, your Companion Pass will be valid through Dec. 31, 2026. That’s a lot of BOGO time.

Remember that your credit card points won’t appear in your account until a few days after your monthly statement closes, and points earned from flights won’t post until a few days after you complete the trip. Again, timing is crucial to ensure you earn the Companion Pass and can use it for as long as possible.

Related: Southwest unveils A-List perks for new assigned-seating setup

Bottom line

The Southwest Companion Pass can be an incredibly lucrative benefit, especially if you can earn it early in a calendar year to enjoy almost two years of (nearly) free companion travel. It’s not too late to plan your strategy to earn the pass in 2025 — and potentially for some (or all) of 2026.

For those eligible, getting a nice bonus from a Southwest credit card or two can help you earn a Companion Pass easily (and quickly). While you can earn a Companion Pass through flying or credit card spending alone, a combination is often the easiest approach.