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Companion pass

Mikedg111
Explorer C

Southwest says you need 125k points for a companion pass. How much does that translate to spending on the southwest card? 

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Companion pass

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Different cards have different earning rates for various categories of spending. You can view them all here:

https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/southwest/AEP50kPlus323

 

The sign up bonuses are the best ways to earn points from credit cards. There are also plenty of ways to earn points other than credit cards such as hotels, dining, shopping, and flying.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Companion pass

parpitt1
Frequent Flyer A

A good rule of thumb is to keep an eye on both your Rapid rewards acct. and your SW Chase  acct. Throughout the year there are often promotions that allow for extra points to be earned that you just need to register for. They all add up

Safe Travels

 

 

Re: Companion pass

dfwskier
Aviator A

and for 2023 you need 135k points... 

Re: Companion pass

DancingDavidE
Aviator A
Solution

The absolute least you could spend, forgoing any bonuses for now, would be if you bought $9,643 worth of business select fares. Then you get 1 point per dollar, extra 1 point per dollar on Southwest.com, and 12x points for business select.

 

If you only buy WGA fares then that 12x turns into 6x, the total will be $16,875.

 

Now obviously you probably will be using the card on other expenses besides just airfare, so you can balance that out for each $1 spend on other things you would reduce the airfare spend. 

 

If you didn't fly at all (why would you want companion pass then?) then it would literally be $135,000, so out of reach for many of us unless there are business expenses involved. 

 

A reasonable split is probably going to be somewhere around 1/3 airfare and 2/3 spending up to 2/3 airfare and 1/3 spending - somewhere in that range.

 

However there are some bonuses available, maybe you are even on a sign-up bonus that might be tens of thousands of the points.

 

And keep an eye out for promotional offers - last year I caught a 2x offer on airfare that really added up. 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.