It's Time To Plan For Your Southwest Companion Pass

 

The Southwest Companion pass is by far the best travel perk around. It's a BOGO plane ticket on any Southwest flight for up to two years. Did you hear me? BOGO on any Southwest flight anywhere Southwest flies. Costa Rica, yep. Belize, yep. No blackout dates. No blackout flights. All you do is pay the $5.60 for taxes. Amazing! 

I have had the Southwest Companion Pass for the past 6 years and it has saved me thousands of dollars. I have traveled to Cuba, Washington DC, Boston, New York City, Florida and a number of college visits, trips, family events and more and taken my companion with me for FREE.

You can even change your companion three times in a calendar year and your companion can be your spouse, child, sibling, cousin, friend, neighbor or whoever you want.  

It's Time To Earn The Southwest Companion Pass

The way to earn the Southwest Companion Pass is to rack up 125,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. Once you do that, you earn the pass for the remainder of that year PLUS the following year. 

If you time it right, you could have the pass for almost two years. 

But that's a lot of points! How do you earn so many points? You could fly, but that would be very time consuming and expensive. You could shop through portals and that would help, but again, very expensive. 

The way to max out the two years is by opening Southwest credit cards. If you open a personal credit card and the bonus is 50,000 points and you open a business credit card and the bonus is 80,000 points then your total is 130,000 points and bam, you earn a companion pass. Follow me?

We are going to map out the strategy here and I hope you will come along with me on this journey. 

Let's look at what you need to do month by month:

October 

• Cancel your personal credit card 

*You can only hold one personal Southwest credit card at a time and you have to wait at least 30 days to apply for a new personal Southwest credit card. So in order to plan it right, you will need to cancel your Southwest personal credit card this month. I know it can be tough, but it has to be done. 

Also you want to confirm that it's been at least 24 months since you earned a bonus on a Southwest personal credit card because you can only earn this bonus once every two years. 

November 

• Apply for your new personal credit card (you have 3 months to reach the minimum spend, but you can do it faster)
• Apply for your new business credit card (you have 3 months to reach the minimum spend, but you can do it faster)
• You can start using the cards immediately, but DO NOT reach the minimum spend before the statement closes in December or to be extra safe Jan. 1. 
• This is the biggest mistake people make and it could cost you a whole year of the companion pass because you earn the pass for the current year and the following year. If your bonus posts before your December statement closes or Jan. 1st then it counts for this year instead of next year. Ouch! 

December 

• Find out your statement close date on both cards
• DO NOT reach the minimum spend before the statement closes otherwise your points will count towards the current calendar year and not next year
• To be extra safe, hit the minimum spend after Jan. 1st 

January

• The goal is to meet your minimum spend as close to Jan 1st as possible, but AFTER your December statement closes. 
• Once you reach the minimum spend, your bonus points will deposit into your account 
• The deposit will trigger the earning of the Southwest Companion Pass 

And bam, BOGO travel for the next two years! Woohoo! 

If you decide to come along with me on this journey or if this post helps you, please consider using my referral links to apply for your Southwest credit cards. Same bonus for you, but I also get a few points for referring you. 

Here is a breakdown of the three personal credit cards offered by Southwest right now, but remember, we are NOT going to apply for these until November: 

Southwest Priority - 50,000 bonus offer with $1,000 minimum spend 

• $149 annual fee for the first year
• $75 Southwest credit 
• 7,500 anniversary points annually
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else
• 4 upgraded boardings 

Southwest Premier - 50,000 bonus offer with $1,000 minimum spend 

• $99 annual fee
• 6,000 anniversary points annually
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else
• 2 Early Bird check ins 

Southwest Plus - 50,000 bonus offer with $1,000 minimum spend 

• $69 annual fee
• 3,000 anniversary points annually 
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else
• 2 Early Bird check ins 

The Priority credit card is my favorite! Even though it has a higher minimum spend at $149, it comes with a $75 Southwest credit. The credit can be used to offset the $5.60 fee charged on every ticket and it is applied automatically by the credit card as a statement credit. 

The Priority also includes 4 upgraded boardings which help if you forget to check in and get in that dreaded C boarding group. 

Please let me know if you are joining me on this journey to earn the companion pass. I would love to chat with you. 

Got the Southwest Credit Card with the 75,000 point bonus? Great job. Now you need to work on earning the companion pass and you are almost there! 

Got The Southwest Credit Card, Now Get The Companion Pass 

What's the Southwest Companion Pass? It's the best travel perk in the business. You get to take a friend on all your trips for FREE for two years. Do you need to read that again?

Yep, it's the best travel deal out there! 

And I'm going to help you earn it. Right now is the best time to earn it since Southwest just announced a 75,000 bonus offer on all of their personal credit cards. 

How You Can Earn A BOGO Pass On Southwest Airlines....Fast! 

I have had the Southwest Companion Pass for the past 8 years. I have used it to take family members to the East Coast many, many times for college trips, family events, vacation and more. 

Plus my husband and I went to Cuba with Southwest. 

You can go to the Caribbean, Belize and Costa Rica too. 

Anywhere Southwest flies, you can bring a friend for FREE. 

Amazing, right?

And with sky high airline prices right now, this is a huge deal! 

Okay, so what do you need to do to get the pass? All you need to do is collect 125,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year and bam!

But you are probably saying, wow, that's a lot of travel. 

But here's the rub, you don't need to travel to collect points. There are lots of ways to collect points without ever stepping on a plane. 

The easiest way is to apply for the Southwest personal credit card and earn that 75,000 bonus offer. To earn the offer, you need to spend $5,000 on the credit card within 3 months. If you have any big purchases coming up, property taxes, tuition payments etc., put them on that card. You MUST pay off your credit card though otherwise this doesn't make any sense. We do NOT build up debt here! 

You are eligible to apply for this card IF you do not currently hold a Southwest personal card and have not earned a bonus in the past 24 months. If you do currently have a card, then there is a work around. Cancel your personal card, I know it's tough, wait, 30 days and apply for a new card. Easy!

Not sure which Southwest personal card to apply for, I review all the cards here and give you my choice!

Once you reach the minimum on the personal card, there are lots of ways to earn the rest of the points. FYI, you cannot buy points to earn the companion pass. 

Here are the ways:

1. The easiest and quickest way is to open a Southwest Business card. You must spend $4,000 in the first 3 months to earn the bonus 60,000 or 80,000 points. 

2. Fly on Southwest

3. Use the Southwest Shopping Portal - Look for bonus offers at the stores you shop at anyway. Read more to find out how I navigate these portals! 

4. Refer a friend to the Southwest Credit Card 75,000 Bonus Offer = 20,000 points 

5. Answer a survey

6. Use Southwest hotels or Rocketmiles to earn bonus points on hotel stays 

7. Book a rental car through Southwest 

With all of these ways though, be sure you are not overspending just to earn points. Keep in mind with any travel bonus points, the points won't post to your account until you take the trip. 

There you go, FREE BOGO on Southwest for the rest of this year and next year! 

You must start with the 75,000 bonus offer though and that offer ends July 11th so don't wait. 

Please use my referral link to apply for your card so I can earn the companion pass and bring you amazing travel tips! 

Want The Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25? Do This Right Now

 

The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best perks in travel! It's BOGO travel for up to two years for you and a companion. Did you hear me? BOGO on any Southwest flight anywhere Southwest flies. Costa Rica, yep. Belize, yep. No blackout dates. No blackout flights. All you do is pay the $5.60 for taxes. Amazing! 

I have had the Southwest Companion Pass for the past 6 years and it has saved me thousands of dollars. I have traveled to Cuba, Washington DC, Boston, New York City, Florida and a number of college visits, trips, family events and more and taken my companion with me for FREE.

You can even change your companion three times in a calendar year and your companion can be your spouse, child, sibling, cousin, friend, neighbor or whoever you want.  

It's Time To Earn The Southwest Companion Pass

The way to earn the Southwest Companion Pass is to rack up 135,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. Once you do that, you earn the pass for the remainder of that year PLUS the following year. 

If you time it right, you could have the pass for almost two years. But that's a lot of points! How do you earn so many points? You could fly, but that would be very time consuming and expensive. You could shop through portals and that would help, but again, very expensive. 

The way to max out the two years is by opening Southwest credit cards. If you open a personal credit card and the bonus is 50,000 points and you open a business credit card and the bonus is 80,000 points then your total is 130,000 points plus 6,000 for the minimum spend and bam, you earn a companion pass. Follow me?

You can click here to see how we do this. And we are going to map out the strategy here and I hope you will come along with me on this journey. 

Want The Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25? Do This Right Now 

Let's look at what you need to do month by month:

October 

• Cancel your personal Southwest credit card* 
• If you have both business Southwest credit cards, you will need to cancel at least one of them. 

*You can only hold one personal Southwest credit card at a time and you have to wait at least 30 days to apply for a new personal Southwest credit card. So in order to plan it right, you will need to cancel your Southwest personal credit card this month. I know it can be tough, but it has to be done. 

Also you want to confirm that it's been at least 24 months since you earned a bonus on a Southwest personal credit card because you can only earn this bonus once every two years. 

You are allowed to hold both business cards at the same time so if you only have one, you are good to go, but if you have both, you need to cancel at least one of them. 

I recommend waiting 30 days before you apply for the Southwest credit card again. 

November 

• Apply for your new personal credit card (you have 3 months to reach the minimum spend, but you can do it faster)
• Apply for your new business credit card (you have 3 months to reach the minimum spend, but you can do it faster)
• You can start using the cards immediately, but DO NOT reach the minimum spend before the statement closes in December or to be extra safe Jan. 1. 
• This is the biggest mistake people make and it could cost you a whole year of the companion pass because you earn the pass for the current year and the following year. If your bonus posts before your December statement closes or Jan. 1st then it counts for this year instead of next year. Ouch! 

December 

• Find out your statement close date on both cards
• DO NOT reach the minimum spend before the statement closes otherwise your points will count towards the current calendar year and not next year
• To be extra safe, hit the minimum spend after Jan. 1st 

January

• The goal is to meet your minimum spend as close to Jan 1st as possible, but AFTER your December statement closes. 
• Once you reach the minimum spend, your bonus points will deposit into your account 
• The deposit will trigger the earning of the Southwest Companion Pass 

And bam, BOGO travel for the next two years! Woohoo! 

Want The Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25? Do This Right Now 

If you decide to come along with me on this journey or if this post helps you, please consider using my referral links to apply for your Southwest credit cards. Same bonus for you, but I also get a few points for referring you. 

The Priority credit card is my favorite! Even though it has a higher minimum spend at $149, it comes with a $75 Southwest credit. The credit can be used to offset the $5.60 fee charged on every ticket and it is applied automatically by the credit card as a statement credit. 

The Priority also includes 4 upgraded boardings which help if you forget to check in and get in that dreaded C boarding group. 

Now if this sounds great to you, but you would like me to personally walk you through earning the pass step by step, join the second cohort of my new Travel Coaching Program. It just opened and there are only 10 spots available. Don't wait, enroll now. 

Step #1 Towards Earning Your Southwest Companion Pass For 2025-26

 

It's the countdown towards earning the Southwest Companion Pass for 2025-26, yep, almost two full years. And I have challenged myself to help 25 people earn the pass. If you are ready, sign up here!  There is no cost to you, my coaching is totally FREE. 

Just in case you don't know what the pass is all about, here's a quick summary: 

• The Southwest Companion Pass is a BOGO flight pass for any flight, anywhere, anytime for you and one companion. No blackout dates, no restrictions. 

For comparison, Alaska Airlines offers its famous $99 companion pass which is good for one flight per year. 

American Airlines, British Airways, Aer Lingus and Delta Airlines offer a slightly different variation on the companion pass, but again it's just valid for one flight per year and costs up to $99. 

• Southwest is the ONLY airline that offers a companion pass for unlimited flights for up to two full years, it's an incredible deal. 

I have had the pass for 8 years and I estimate it has saved me thousands of dollars. I have used it to fly to Cuba, Costa Rica, Washington DC, New York, Puerto Rico, Florida, North Carolina, Washington State, Nashville, Chicago and so much more. 

• Southwest allows you to change your companion three times per calendar year. And your companion can be a partner, child, friend, family member or anyone else you would like to bring with you. 

So whether you have had the pass before or you are planning to earn it for the first time, let's talk about what we need to do now to get ready. You can also sign up to be one of the 25 people I am going to help for FREE to earn the pass. 

Step #1 Towards Earning Your Southwest Companion Pass For 2025-26

In very simple terms, in order to get the pass, we need to earn 135,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year. Once you earn the points, the companion pass will show up in your Southwest account and you can start using it immediately. The pass is good for the calendar year you earn it and the following year. Which means that if you earn the pass in January 2025, it is good for the rest of 2025 and 2026. 

That's the reason why we try to earn the pass as early in the year as possible. 

But if you are earning the pass for a second or third time or if you have received a Southwest credit card bonus before, you need to check a few things before you get started. 

1. IMPORTANT - Check the date that you last earned a Southwest point bonus. You can do that by logging into your Southwest account and checking your reward activity. You can see when I check my account, I earned a business card bonus in January 2023 and a personal card bonus in February 2023.  You can't apply for a new card until after those dates. So in my case, I cannot apply for another a Southwest Performance Business credit card until January 12th 2025 and I can't apply for another Southwest personal credit card until February 9th 2025.    

2. You earn 10,000 points on January 1st if you hold a Southwest Credit Card. These points are not valid for flights, but do count towards the companion pass. 

3. You can only hold ONE personal Southwest credit card at a time and you need to allow 30 days between closing the card you have and applying for another one. So now would be the right time to close your personal Southwest credit card if you plan to apply for another one in November. You can hold more than one Southwest Business credit card at a time so that's not an issue. 

4. Check your 5/24 status. Chase will only approve you for 5 credit cards every 24 months so confirm that you will eligible for a Southwest personal credit card. The business cards do not count towards 5/24. 

Step #1 Towards Earning Your Southwest Companion Pass For 2025-26

Make sure you do these steps so you are ready to hit the ground running in November to earn that pass. If you would like FREE coaching help, sign up to be one of the 25 people I am going to help earn the companion pass. 

How You Can Earn A BOGO Pass On Southwest Airlines....Fast!

 

Is Yosemite National Park on your bucket travel list? Beautiful, right? You might want to take a friend, right? With the Southwest Companion Pass, you get to take a friend on all your trips for FREE for two years. Do you need to read that again?

Yep, it's the best travel deal out there! 

And I'm going to help you earn it. Right now is the best time to earn it since Southwest just announced a 75,000 bonus offer on all of their personal credit cards. 

How You Can Earn A BOGO Pass On Southwest Airlines....Fast! 

I have had the Southwest Companion Pass for the past 8 years. I have used it to take family members to the East Coast many, many times for college trips, family events, vacation and more. 

Plus my husband and I went to Cuba with Southwest. 

You can go to the Caribbean, Belize and Costa Rica too. 

Anywhere Southwest flies, you can bring a friend for FREE. 

Amazing, right?

And with sky high airline prices right now, this is a huge deal! 

Okay, so what do you need to do to get the pass? All you need to do is collect 125,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year and bam!

But you are probably saying, wow, that's a lot of travel. 

But here's the rub, you don't need to travel to collect points. There are lots of ways to collect points without ever stepping on a plane. 

The easiest way is to apply for the Southwest personal credit card and earn that 75,000 bonus offer. To earn the offer, you need to spend $5,000 on the credit card within 3 months. If you have any big purchases coming up, property taxes, tuition payments etc., put them on that card. You MUST pay off your credit card though otherwise this doesn't make any sense. We do NOT build up debt here! 

You are eligible to apply for this card IF you do not currently hold a Southwest personal card and have not earned a bonus in the past 24 months. If you do currently have a card, then there is a work around. Cancel your personal card, I know it's tough, wait, 30 days and apply for a new card. Easy!

Not sure which Southwest personal card to apply for, I review all the cards here and give you my choice!

Once you reach the minimum on the personal card, there are lots of ways to earn the rest of the points. FYI, you cannot buy points to earn the companion pass. 

Here are the ways:

1. The easiest and quickest way is to open a Southwest Business card. You must spend $4,000 in the first 3 months to earn the bonus 60,000 or 80,000 points. 

2. Fly on Southwest

3. Use the Southwest Shopping Portal - Look for bonus offers at the stores you shop at anyway. Read more to find out how I navigate these portals! 

4. Refer a friend to the Southwest Credit Card 75,000 Bonus Offer = 20,000 points 

5. Answer a survey

6. Use Southwest hotels or Rocketmiles to earn bonus points on hotel stays 

7. Book a rental car through Southwest 

With all of these ways though, be sure you are not overspending just to earn points. Keep in mind with any travel bonus points, the points won't post to your account until you take the trip. 

There you go, FREE BOGO on Southwest for the rest of this year and next year! 

You must start with the 75,000 bonus offer though and that offer ends July 11th so don't wait. 

Please use my referral link to apply for your card so I can earn the companion pass and bring you amazing travel tips! 

Why This Couple Should Take Advantage Of The New Southwest Companion Pass Offer

 

I flew Southwest Airlines this past weekend to Washington DC and met the nicest couple on board (I hope Bonnie is reading this 😀). We got to talking about points and miles and their future travel plans. 

I want to share their situation with you because it is the model scenario for when it makes sense to jump ON the new Southwest Companion Pass promotional offer that ends on March 19th. This offer is a Southwest Companion pass valid through February 28, 2024 and 30,000 Southwest points for opening one personal Southwest credit card and spending $4,000. 

The Southwest Companion Pass is the best travel perk out there. It is a BOGO on any Southwest flight as many times as you want for as long as the pass is valid. 

Usually, you need to earn 135,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year to get the pass. You can earn those points by opening credit cards, flights, shopping and more. 

Why This Couple Should Take Advantage Of The New Southwest Companion Pass Offer 

Bonnie's boyfriend earned the promotional Southwest Companion Pass last February through a similar offer and it expired Feb. 28th 2023. You are eligible to earn a bonus from a Southwest personal credit card just once every 24 months and you can only hold one personal card at a time. So in this case, Bonnie's boyfriend is NOT eligible to earn another bonus until February 2024 so our regular two credit card method to earn the pass won't work for him. 

But Bonnie's boyfriend shared with me that he travels for work and actually has more than 100,000 Southwest points in his account. 

So in this case, Bonnie could apply for the Southwest personal credit card promotion offer and get the Southwest Companion Pass and 30,000 points. She does not have a business and would not qualify for a business credit card. 

But when they go to book their flights, here's the go around. 

The boyfriend should book Bonnie's flight using his points and include her Rapid Rewards number in the reservation. Once the reservation shows up in Bonnie's Southwest account, she can actually add her boyfriend as her companion and he will fly for FREE using the companion pass. Make sense?

Once the promotional companion pass expires in February 2024, the boyfriend should be eligible to earn the bonus again. At that point, he can follow our plan, open two credit cards and get the regular companion pass valid for two years and lots more points OR if Southwest offers the promotional pass again, he could hop on that and they can keep trading off. 

For this couple, the promotional offer is a good one! If it is good for you too, please consider using my referral link. 

 

Southwest Early Bird Check In Or Upgrade? What's The Difference?

 

Southwest early bird check in. Southwest Upgrade. Heck, what's the difference and how can you get them for FREE? I'll let you in on the secret, but first some background.

I recently flew from San Diego to Baltimore, it was President’s weekend and the pandemic is ending so the flights are getting really crowded. 

I checked in for my Southwest flight exactly 24 hours before takeoff. You know the drill. I got everything ready a few minutes before, myself on the app on my phone and my daughter's companion pass reservation on the computer. Yes, your companion has to check in separately. I even clicked check in once just to see if there was a glitch and the system would let me check in early, but no.

I got the message you can only check in 24 hours before your flight, darn. 

Southwest Early Bird Check In Or Upgrade? What's The Difference?

As soon as the clock turned, I pushed the button, yes I agree to not bring any explosives on the plane. Yes, you are checked in….your place in line B57.

What? 

B57 you mean I sat here at 6am and waited and I got B57. You mean to tell me that all the A1-60 and almost all the B1-56, clicked the button before me. Really, Southwest? Really?

When I got to the airport, I watched all the A’s and B’s line up next to their numbers to board our plane. I went to the gate agent and asked to upgrade since my Southwest Priority credit card comes with 4 FREE upgrades, but they were all sold out. So some people had used their upgrades. Okay, but that only explained 15 people at most. 

How did the other 100 people press the button faster than me? Honestly, they didn’t look particularly tech savvy. One woman traveling with her preteen looked very nervous when she ordered coffee in line. How could she possibly have gotten a better line number than me? Ah, she didn’t. I noticed she waited for the C group. 

I decided to start asking people. How did you get a higher number? What was your strategy?

There were a few A listers, a few A listers preferred, a few paid for early check in, a few used the FREE early upgrades from their credit card, more details on that later and a few just shook their heads knowing inside that they were faster than me pressing the button. 

Southwest Early Bird Check In Or Upgrade? What's The Difference?

So let's look at some of the ways these passengers got better numbers and how you can do it for FREE.

There are a few different ways: 

• Early Bird Check In - pay $25 per ticket or pay for one family member and save seats on the plane for the others in your party. The Southwest Plus, the Southwest Premier credit card and the Southwest Business Premier each come with two Early Bird check ins. 
• Upgrades - When you arrive at the airport, you can ask the gate agent if there are upgrades available. The price varies depending on the flight. If there is any availability in the numbers A1-15, you can buy that boarding number. Pay with your Southwest Priority or your Southwest Business Performance card and you will see a statement credit applied almost immediately for that amount. The 4 FREE boardings are awarded every year after you pay the annual fee. 

The other ways to get a better boarding number is to earn A list or A list preferred. So what are those and how do you earn them?

• What is A list - From Southwest website: A Member who flies 25 qualifying one-way flight segments booked through Southwest or earns 35,000 tier qualifying points per calendar year will qualify for A-List status. 
• What is A list preferred - From Southwest website: A Member who flies 50 qualifying one-way flights booked through Southwest or earns 70,000 tier qualifying points per calendar year will qualify for A-List Preferred status.

Once you reach A list or A list preferred, Southwest will automatically assign you a boarding number  36 hours prior to your flight departure. You still need to check in for your flight. 

So as travel returns and the planes get full, regard this as your reminder to use those perks that come with the credit cards. Yes, we use the cards to earn the companion pass mainly, but don’t let those other perks go to waste. 

If you decide to apply for any of these Southwest Credit Cards, please use my referral link and support this blog. Bonus offers on these credit cards range from 40,000 - 80,000. 

If you want your entire trip to be FREE and/or you want to earn the companion pass, let us help you. We have teamed up with my friend and national travel blogger Lyn at Families Fly FREE. She has created a simple system to help families fly free forever. 

If you would like to check it out, click here and let Lyn know I sent you. :) I'll be sharing testimonials from some happy members and I'll let you know when I'll be offering webinars. 

Why You Shouldn't Apply For A Southwest Credit Card Right Now

The Southwest personal credit cards just increased their bonus offer to 60,000 points, but I don't think you should pull the trigger just yet. 

The new offer for all personal Southwest credit cards is:

•  40,000 points for spending just $1,000 in the first 3 months 
• 20,000 bonus points when you spend $12,000 in the first year

You can only hold one personal Southwest credit card at a time. The cards are the:

Southwest Priority 

• $149 annual fee for the first year
• $75 Southwest credit 
• 7,500 anniversary points annually
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else

Southwest Premier

• $99 annual fee
• 6,000 anniversary points annually
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else

Southwest Plus

• $69 annual fee
• 3,000 anniversary points annually 
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else

 Southwest also offers two business cards, the Performance and the Premier with 80,000 and 60,000 bonus offers respectively. 

Here's why you should hold off on applying for any of these cards until late October or early November, one word, the companion pass. Okay, that's three words. The companion pass is one of the best perks in the miles and points game. 

The Southwest companion pass allows you to bring a guest along on any flight for FREE for the year you earn the pass and the following year. You earn it by collecting 110,000 Southwest points. 

So if you earn the pass in January, you will get to use it for the rest of the year PLUS the following year. That's almost two years of buy one, get one FREE travel. 

If you earn the pass in November, you get to use it in November and December PLUS the following year. You lose about 10 months of travel! That's a lot. You can check out my blog post to see how I earned the pass this year. I have had the companion pass for the past five years and it has saved me well over $10,000. 

If you hold off applying for one of these personal Southwest cards until November, then you can plan for the bonus to occur in January. If you apply for a business card at the same time and that bonus hits in January too, you will have earned enough for a companion pass good for two years. 

Make sense?

When you are ready, please use my referral link and support my blog.