Mission Accomplished! I Got My Southwest Companion Pass

 

The best news of the week! Earned my Southwest Companion Pass and it's valid through December 31, 2024. Woohoo!

The Southwest Companion Pass is a BOGO pass valid for up to two years that you can use to take a companion on any flight anytime and as many times as you want. All you pay is the $5.60 in taxes. Compare that with other passes where you can only use them once or they cost $99. 

You earn the pass by collecting 135,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year. Once you earn the pass it is valid for the rest of that year and the next year. 

Riding in a classic car in Havana, Cuba

I have had this pass for the past 8 years minus last year 😢and it has saved me thousands of dollars. When I took my daughter to visit colleges, yep, she flew for FREE as my companion. When we went back east for a family event, yep, took my son as my companion for FREE. When I went to Cuba, took my husband for FREE. Amazing! 

Mission Accomplished! I Got My Southwest Companion Pass

If you have been following my blog, you can see how I planned to earn the pass, but let me share the exact stats and how it went. 

• I started planning this back in October 2022. 
• I cancelled my Southwest Priority credit card because you can only hold one personal Southwest credit card at a time. 
• I also confirmed that it had been at least 24 months since I received the bonus. 
• After 30 days, I applied for the new Southwest Priority credit card which had a 75,000 bonus offer for a $3,000 minimum spend. I like the Priority card because it comes with a $75 Southwest credit. Even though it has a higher annual fee of $149 once you subtract the credit, it's actually less than the others. You also get FREE upgraded boardings which are helpful when you forget to check in LOL. 
• Next, I applied for the Southwest Performance Business credit card which was offering 80,000 bonus points for a $5,000 minimum spend. I chose this one because I need to renew my Global Entry this year and it comes with a $100 Global Entry credit. 
• Now I directed all my spending to these two cards. Holiday gifts, holiday travel, medical bills, groceries, dining everything. I don't bother changing monthly automated bills especially since I pay those with credit cards that earn extra points on streaming, phone, internet etc. 
• I was very careful to reach the minimum spend after Jan. 1st because you have to accumulate the points in the same calendar year to earn the 135,000 points needed. And you want to earn the points as close to the beginning of the year as you can so the pass is valid for almost two years. 

And bam, mission accomplished! Now if you compare this plan with the new Southwest companion offer of 30,000 bonus points and a companion pass valid through February 2024 by opening one card, you can see that I end with a pass good for an additional 10 months and 120,000 more Southwest points. 

More work, yes. More payoff, yes! 

What do I plan to do with the pass this year? I have already booked two East Coast trips and now I'm looking at going to the countries that Southwest flies to that I haven't been to before. Woohoo! 

Now this plan isn't right for everyone, in my next blog post, I'll share with you who SHOULD definitely take advantage of the new Southwest bonus offer.