The following cards have had their sign up bonuses increased from 25,000 points to 50,000 points:
- Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Premier Card
- Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Plus Card
- Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Card
- Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Plus Business Card
All of these cards require card holders to spend a minimum of $2,000 to receive the 50,000 bonus points and have an annual fee which is not waived for the first year ($99 for the premier cards and $69 for the plus cards).
[Read: How to reach minimum spend requirements]
The reason these cards are so popular is because a companion pass (which entitles a companion to fly for free on any flight you fly on for up to two years, excluding a $2.5 security fee) can be earned when you earn 110,000 southwest points within one year. Sign up bonuses count towards the 110,000 points and your companion will fly for free, regardless of whether you pay for the flight in cash or points.
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How To Earn A Southwest Companion Card
By applying for two southwest cards (one personal and one business) you’ll receive 100,000 points, plus an additional 4,000 points for the credit card spend which is necessary to meet the minimum spending requirements. Giving you a total of 104,000 points, which is 6,000 shy of the necessary 110,000 points.
How To Earn The Extra 6,000 Points For The Southwest Companion Pass
It’s important to make sure you know what points do and don’t count towards the companion pass.
1. Transfer Chase UR Points > Hyatt > Southwest
If you have Chase UR points (these can be earned from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (40k point sign up bonus currently) or the Chase Ink Bold® Business Charge Card (50k point sign up bonus currently).
If you transfer your UR points directly to southwest, they unfortunately won’t count towards your companion pass. Instead you need to transfer to Hyatt first (1 chase UR point = 1 Hyatt point) and then transfer from Hyatt to Southwest (2.5 Hyatt points = 1 Southwest point).
This means you’ll need a minimum of 15,000 Chase UR points to get the additional 6,000 southwest miles you need.
15,000 Chase UR points > 15,000 Hyatt points > 6,000 Southwest miles
It’s also possible to go from chase UR points > Marriott > Southwest, but the redemption rate is much worse. You’ll need almost double the amount of Chase UR points.
2. Purchase Choice Hotel Points > Southwest
To get 6,000 southwest points, you’ll need to purchase 18,000 choice points. This will cost $198 ($11 per 1,000 points) and you need to break this up into two separate transactions as the maximum transaction is 10,000 points. Click here to purchase points.
Once you have 18,000 points you’ll need to transfer them to Southwest.Choice points can only be transferred in blocks of 6,000. Each 6,000 choice points are worth 1,800 south west points, this’ll leave you with an extra 7,200 Southwest points.
F.A.Q’s
How Much Are Southwest Points Worth?
At the moment southwest points are valued at 60 points = $1 (1.67¢ per point) on the 31st of March, 2014 these points will be devalued and 70 points = $1 (1.43¢ per point) when redeeming them for Wanna Get Away® flights. These numbers need to be doubled when you remember that flights booked with points are eligible for the companion pass to be used.
If you don’t want to redeem these points for flights, you can also redeem them for gift cards (e.g amazon, visa gas, best buy, etc).
- 3,000 points = $25 gift card (0.83¢ per point)
- 5,000 points = $50 gift card (1¢ per point)
- 10,000 points = $100 gift card (1¢ per point)
You can browse the rapid rewards store without an account by clicking here. They also have the option to purchase electronics, hotel stays, car rentals and a host of other rewards on offer.
How Long Is The Companion Pass Valid For?
Once you hit the 110,000 points necessary to earn the companion pass you’ll have the rest of the remaining year AND the next year in full to use the companion pass. Let’s look at an example:
You reach the 110,000 points on the 1st of February, 2014. You’ll have a companion pass from then until the 31st of December, 2015.
And another example:
You reach the 110,000 points on the 14th of December, 2014. You’ll have the companion pass from then until the 31st of December, 2015.
As you can see, it’s best to earn the 110,000 points as early in the year as possible to get the most out of your companion card.
Bonus 500 points: Southwest offers a bonus 500 points if you sign up to their “the report” (250 points) and “e-mail update” (250 points) products. These points do not count towards the companion pass. Click here to enroll.
