Many of our readers want to know if they can earn the Southwest® Companion Pass with the card_name offer that’s currently available. Yes, you can! Let’s outline the details!

 

Learn How to Apply
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Despite the annual_fees annual fee, there are several reasons to love this card apart from the huge welcome offer!

• It won’t count towards 5/24.
• It comes with complimentary Preferred seat selection at booking, and complimentary upgrades to Extra Legroom seats 48 hours prior to departure (when available).
• The cardholder and up to 8 additional passengers on the same reservation can check their first bag at no additional cost.
• The cardholder and up to 8 additional passengers on the same reservation will board with Group 5, giving them earlier access to overhead bins.
• Receive 9,000 points every year on your cardmember anniversary.
• Receive a statement credit of up to $120 every 4 years as reimbursement for the application fee for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck^® or NEXUS.
   

 

How to Earn the Southwest® Companion Pass with this offer

1. Open the card_name in mid-October or later. If your Player 2 can refer you—great! If not, we’d love you for to use our link!
2. If you open the card in mid-October, that would give you until mid-January 2026 to meet the $10,000 minimum spend. 
3. Between receiving the card and the close of your December 2025 statement, spend no more than about $5,000 on your card. 
4. After the close of your December 2025 statement, complete the minimum spend you have left by the end of your minimum spend period (three months from when you were approved for the card).

 

Finishing Up

Remember that to earn the Companion Pass, you need all the required 135,000 Southwest® Rapid Rewards® points to post to your account in a single calendar year. As a Southwest® credit card holder, you earn a 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points boost each year. If you opened the card before January 1st, 2026, then those 10,000 points will be deposited into your account by January 31st.  

If you hit the minimum spend on or after January 1, 2026, you would earn 120,000 Rapid Rewards® points from the welcome offer and the 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points boost that you earn each year as a cardholder. That means you have 5,000 more points to earn.  That’s why we suggest spending no more than $5,000 of the minimum spend before your December statement closes (as those points from spend before the December statement closes will be awarded in 2025). After your December 2025 statement closes, finish the rest of your spend (which should be at least $5,000 so that a minimum of 5,000 points post in 2026 to complete the 135,000-point requirement). 

 

The Key Thing

The key thing is to finish all the minimum spend within three months of when you’re approved for the card, but to not finish the spend before January 1, 2026. Be very vigilant about completing your spending correctly, as we often hear of people just missing out on the pass because they hit the minimum too early. To have the pass for most of 2026 and all of 2027 you NEED those 120,000 points to post in 2026!  (Alex puts a sticker on her card that says “DO NOT USE UNTIL JANUARY.” That’s how serious you need to be about this timing.)

 

Bottom Line

The ability to earn the Southwest® Companion Pass with this 120,000-point offer is an easier option in terms of card applications—one card vs. a couple of cards. But the timing of the spend is a little trickier, since only the points you earn after January 1st will count toward the 135,000 points needed to earn the Companion Pass. As long as you can complete the spending requirement to earn the welcome offer after January 1st, it is a viable option for many.

 

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