Unacceptable delay by Chase for Companion Pass

[Bergma]

BEWARE the credit card offer!!!   I should have know it was too good to be true.  I signed up for a Chase/Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa and was told once I charged $4000, I would get a companion pass. I charged $4,000 within five weeks. Now Chase is saying they will notify Southwest in 6-8 weeks that I met the requirement. I don't know how long it will take Southwest to approve it.  Which means the tickets I have to buy in the next two months or more won't qualify for a companion pass.  And this offer ends March 1 which means instead of a year, I will get maybe 8 and a half months to use the companion pass.  There is no justifiable reason for a two-month delay.   

[dfwskier]

History indicates that Chase will notify Southwest concurrent with your credit card satement that clears the spend requirement.

[DancingDavidE]

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@Bergma wrote:

BEWARE the credit card offer!!!   I should have know it was too good to be true.  I signed up for a Chase/Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa and was told once I charged $4000, I would get a companion pass. I charged $4,000 within five weeks. Now Chase is saying they will notify Southwest in 6-8 weeks that I met the requirement. I don't know how long it will take Southwest to approve it.  Which means the tickets I have to buy in the next two months or more won't qualify for a companion pass.  And this offer ends March 1 which means instead of a year, I will get maybe 8 and a half months to use the companion pass.  There is no justifiable reason for a two-month delay.   

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This timing would have all been described in the terms and conditions when you signed up. Hopefully you can get it as early as possible to catch these earlier trips.

It's still quite a bargain compared to the full version of companion pass, "too good to be true" seems a little extreme here.

Go ahead and buy your tickets now by the way if that's your worry - you can add the companion later, anytime up until the cutoff for sales. (I've added companion tickets at the airport before, although this is stressful I don't recommend waiting that late!)

[Bergma]

Perhaps we got bad information, but Chase told us they would notify Southwest 6 to 8 weeks after we met the threshold.  I hope you are right. Thank you for responding.

[bballflyer · Accepted solution]

It is typically given a couple days after the statement end date in the period you spent the qualified $. So if it took you 5 weeks that is likely 2 periods and would get it at the closing of the 2nd period, which may be another 2-3 weeks. I don’t know if this timing has changed with the volume of people signing up.  In the mean time, if you have a flight to take after that closing date you can book it and add the companion later. 

[Bergma]

Thank you for the clarification.  

[Cancelled_Vacay]

My companion pass status was updated with Southwest within 24 hours of the monthly statement closing of the month in which I reached I reached the threshold. I was then able to add my companion immediately through the Southwest App. 6-8 weeks seems to be a boilerplate timeline Southwest states for pretty much everything related to Rapid Rewards Points, but as far as I can tell it’s more of a CYA.

[Bergma]

Thank you.  I got worried.