Southwest Companion Pass: Now May Be The Best Time To Qualify

Southwest Airlines offers a unique feature called the Companion Pass, which lets you pick one person to fly free with you on both paid and award flights. If you either fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 110,000 Qualifying Points in a calendar year, and you’ll earn the Companion Pass for the remainder of that year plus the following full calendar year. For example, if you earned it in March 2017, you would have the benefit for the rest of 2017 and all of 2018. You can change your designated companion up to three times each calendar year.

There are many different ways to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points, so you can “mix and match” to get that magic 110,000 number. You can even get it without flying at all. A good way to qualify used to be that you could save up your hotel points over time, and then convert them to Southwest points when you wanted to qualify. However, Southwest recently announced that the hotel points option will expire as of March 31st, 2017. That means right now might be the best time to try and qualify by pooling together all your hotel and other points.

Here are various ways to get lots of points at once:

Chase Southwest Plus personal credit card is offering 50,000 points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. $69 annual fee applies. You must have less than 5 new credit cards in the last 24 months shown on your credit report to get approved.
Chase Southwest Premier Business credit card offers 60,000 points
when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. $99 annual fee applies. You must have less than 5 new credit cards in the last 24 months shown on your credit report to get approved.
Marriott points convert to Southwest. *This only counts until March 31st, 2017.* The transfer ratio is variable, but 30,000 Marriott points = 10,000 Southwest points and the best ratio is 70,000 Marriott points = 25,000 Southwest points. There are also Hotel + Air packages for higher amounts.
Hyatt points convert to Southwest. *This only counts until March 31st, 2017.* The standard ratio is 2.5 Hyatt: 1 Southwest point. However, if you transfer 50,000 Hyatt points you’ll get 30,000 Southwest points.
Starwood Preferred Guest points convert to Marriott, which convert to Southwest. *This only counts until March 31st, 2017.* For example, 90,000 Starwood points = 270,000 Marriott points = 120,000 Southwest points and 7 nights in a Marriott category 1-5 hotel.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Marriott, which transfer to Southwest. *This only counts until March 31st, 2017.* For example, 270,000 Ultimate Rewards points = 270,000 Marriott points = 120,000 Southwest points and 7 nights in a Marriott category 1-5 hotel. (Don’t transfer directly from Chase, you must go through Marriott.)
Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt, which transfer to Southwest. *This only counts until March 31st, 2017.* For example, 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points = 50,000 Hyatt points = 30,000 Southwest points.
American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Starwood, which transfers to Marriott. *This only counts until March 31st, 2017.* For example, 270,000 Membership Rewards points = 90,000 Starwood points = 270,000 Marriott points = 120,000 Southwest points and 7 nights in a Marriott category 1-5 hotel.
The two credit card offers listed above are the best, but you could also apply for Chase Hyatt, Chase Marriott, or American Express Starwood/Membership Rewards credit cards and then convert the points you get over to Southwest. You’ll want to make sure you get the points in time as they are hotel points.

Keep in mind, once you earn those 110,000 Rapid Rewards points, you can still use them for free flights alongside your new Companion Pass. 110,000 Rapid Rewards points transfers roughly to $1,700 in Wanna Get Away airfare (you are still liable for taxes and fees from $5.60 one-way). If $1,700 would have theoretically covered 16 free one-way flights, then with the Companion Pass you’d be getting 16 free one-way flights for two people. Explore the country!

<!–

–>