Southwest’s Companion Pass lets one person fly with you for taxes and fees. From 2027 it takes 140,000 tier qualifying points from paid flights and card spending, or 100 one-way flights, and card sign-up bonuses won’t count. Apply for a Southwest card by Dec. 2, 2026, and once approved, its bonus can still count toward a pass good through 2027.
That’s true even if you finish the bonus’s required spending in early 2027, Southwest’s FAQ says. Everything else must post by Dec. 31 to count toward the 2026 requirement of 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or 100 one-way flights.
From 2027, three companion trips, each one-way or round trip, take 95,000 tier qualifying points or 75 one-way flights in a year. Unlimited trips come with Platinum, Southwest’s top elite tier, at 140,000 points or 100 one-way flights. Card spending earns 1 of those points per $1, but sign-up bonuses, referral points, anniversary points, extra points on categories like gas, and spending with hotel and car partners don’t count.
Card spending alone would take $95,000 a year for three trips, or $130,000 for unlimited ones, counting the one-time 10,000-point boost cardholders get on reaching 130,000 in 2027. Southwest says it will keep running limited-time Companion Pass promotions, too.
So the Dec. 2 window is the last time sign-up bonuses can cover most of the 135,000 points. Chase, Southwest’s card issuer, lets you hold a personal and a business card at once, each with its own bonus. As of October 2026, the personal cards offer 50,000 to 60,000 points for $1,000 to $2,000 of spending in three months, and the business cards 80,000 for $3,000 to $5,000, so a pair comes to 130,000 to 140,000.
Your other 2026 points, including the 10,000-point boost Southwest deposits within 30 days of opening a card, count only if they post by Dec. 31, so apply soon. Chase won’t give you a personal Southwest card if you hold one or earned a personal-card bonus in the past 24 months, but a business card doesn’t count against you.
Before you apply, price the companion seats you’d book in 2027, less taxes and fees. If they’d cost less than a pair’s annual fees of $248 to $528, skip the window, or weigh the companion certificate some other airlines’ cards include. Otherwise, time each sign-up bonus to spending you already have coming.
Choose your pair by Dec. 2 among the best Southwest credit cards.
Editorial & Advertiser Disclosure: The editorial content on this page is not provided, commissioned, reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. Opinions expressed here are ours alone, not those of any advertiser. The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. That compensation may influence which products we cover and where and how they appear on a page – including the order in which they appear – but it does not influence our evaluations, ratings, or opinions. We do not include every company or offer available in the marketplace.
Related:
