It's the final countdown!

For the past 2 years, I have had a Southwest Companion Pass which is one of the best values out there. It's a buy 1 get 1 free pass on Southwest airlines. You can book a ticket with miles or buy one and your companion flies free anywhere Southwest flies. I went to the east coast to look at colleges, my daughter flew for free. I went to Washington DC for a family event, my son flew for free. I even took a quick trip up north, my son flew for free. I am planning a trip to Cuba in December, my husband will fly for free.
Awesome!
Quick tip about the Southwest companion pass,  you want to earn it as close to the beginning of the year as possible as it is good for the year you earn it and the following year.
You earn the pass when you collect 110,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. 
Easy if you apply for 2 Southwest credit cards with bonuses of 50,000 points each. You can apply for two if you have a small business or spouse or child over 18.
But how do you get a companion pass for another 2 years when you cannot qualify for a Southwest credit card because you already had these cards and can't qualify for them again.
Not so easy.
But here's my plan. Marriott offers vacation packages that include 7 nights in a hotel and enough points for the airline tickets. They work with a variety of airlines so if you are planning a trip somewhere and have or can earn lots of Marriott points, this might work for you. The package I am focusing on costs 270,000 Marriott points. It will give me 7 nights in a category 1-5 Marriott, but more importantly it will give me 110,000 Southwest points. BAM!
So today I got an email update letting me know that I now have 180,177 Marriott points in my account. That is from 2 Marriott cards (one personal, one business), minimum spend on those cards and additional spend. My husband also got a Marriott card with the 80,000 bonus and he added me as an authorized user for another 7,500. He can share his Marriott points with me 50,000 this year and another 50,000 next year.
So before the end of the year, he will share 50,000 points with me bringing my total to 230,177 and then in January he can transfer the rest of bring my total to 270,000. At that point, I can buy the package and BAM, companion pass.
If we find we need more Marriott points to upgrade to a higher category hotel, we can transfer Starwood points now at 1:3. Since Marriott and Starwood merged last week. I did  a quick search and found beach resort hotels in Nevis/St. Kitts and Panama that looked inviting. We would only need 10,000 Starwood points to upgrade to category 6 and another 10,000 to category 7. If we decide to go for it and upgrade all the way to category 9, it would only cost us 40,000 Starwood points. Tempting.
Cross your fingers and I'll keep you posted!

*Remember anytime you get a credit card, immediately sign up for auto payment. You do not want to incur late fees and you want to pay off your credit card each month.