Southwest Credit Cards Giving Companion Pass as Sign-up Bonus

By Gavin | July 16, 2019

We are going to be talking about an insane deal that had just popped up where you can get a Southwest Airlines companion pass by just signing up for a Southwest credit card. But first of all, let's talk a little bit about Southwest and what the Companion Pass is, and then we'll tell you how to get it.

Southwest is a budget airline

Southwest, it is a budget airline that is based well surprise in the southwest of the United States, they have routes all over the country, though you can think of it as in a way the Ryanair of the United States, at least that's what one Southwest employee said to me.

When I checked in he heard my accent, and I asked him I think do I have an assigned seat, and he said you're from Europe, right? he's like it's Ryanair. If you don't know Ryan as a budget airline based in Ireland it flies all over Europe, actually, maybe it's based in the UK. I don't know, but the guy who runs it is Irish, anyway basically Southwest, very similarly.

You don't have assigned seats and it's all economy, there's no business class or anything. It's a budget airline, but a lot of people really like it. I would say it's a little bit classier than like Ryanair, actually a little bit nicer, and so basically what the companion pass is though is it is a pass that.

Under normal circumstances to get the companion pass

When you book one ticket with Southwest you can automatically get another seat to bring along a friend or family member. It's basically two for the price of one, now you do have to pay it the taxes on the ticket, which start at five dollars sixty and kind of go up from there, it won't be too expensive though, and it is valid on a wood booking.

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Paying with points and paying with cash or a credit card or whatever, US are paying with money. Now under normal circumstances to get the companion pass you have to accumulate a hundred and ten thousand miles or take 100 flights within a year to get it.

Get the companion pass as part of the signup bonus

But you now have this fantastic opportunity to get the companion pass as part of the signup bonus of one of the three personal Southwest Airlines credit cards from Chase.

How does it work on all three cards? It's basically the same deal, you have to spend four thousand dollars in the first three months, and you'll get a thirty thousand point signup bonus, and in addition to that, you will get the companion pass which is valid until December 31st, 2019.

You get the companion pass for the whole year or just under a year l from the time you sign up. What's ever left of 2019 by the time you sign up now this offer is only valid until February 11th, so you have to sign up before February 11th if you want this.

Three Southwest credit cards

Now the three Southwest credit cards, I'm going to just read them out for you, they are the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus, which has a $69 annual fee, the Southwest Rapid Rewards premier which has $100 annual fee, and the Southwest rapid rewards priority which has a one hundred and forty-nine dollars annual fee.

With that your gun of going from lowest to highest, in the order of how hard they are to get terms of credit score and how much the annual fee is, I'm not really going to go in huge detail about the cards, but I'll just give you a few details.

The first two as you're going up the ladder

The first two as you're going up the ladder, they just give you bonus points for spending on Southwest, and the slightly more expensive one is $99 annual fee, has no foreign transaction fees on it. They both give you some bonus points on the card anniversary.

But it's only when you get to the third card, the sort of highest option than $149 a year card, and that you start to get some real benefits. From that card I'll just go through the benefits, you get a $75 Southwest statement credit for spending on Southwest, you also get for upgraded boardings per year.

Interesting boarding method

Now Southwest they have a rather interesting boarding method, obviously, they don't have like a business class on their plane or whatever, so they can't upgrade you to business cards. So they give you upgraded boarding, and what their boarding method is they have these little signs in the airport right by the gate.

With numbers on them, it's kind of like the order in which you bought, and that corresponds to a number on your boarding pass. If you purchase speedy boarding or you get an upgraded boarding or whatever, you get to go to the front of that line, and people sort of line up to the left and right of these little signs, kind of like together, like you're sitting on a bus or something ready to board the plane.

The third benefit is you get 20% off onboard drinks and Wi-Fi

It's kind of quite amusing, I don't really like it, you feel like cattle, but anyway and you get to be at the front of that boarding block of people, and then in addition to that the third benefit of the card is you get 20% off onboard drinks and Wi-Fi, just for the statement credit.

It doesn't include upgraded boardings or onboard drink, some Wi-Fi because obviously, the other two benefits are that. So you can't double up on the on a benefits statement credit. I think it's just for tickets and stuff like that, that's kind of the lowdown on the three cards.

Some of the small print from the terms and conditions

In conclusion, I would say that this is a phenomenal deal, the points guys certainly think so too. He put this is not a drill as the headline of his article on this subject, I just want to give you some of the small print from the terms and conditions, just in case some people have tried to apply for this and then get disappointed.

I'm going to read you basically this out from the terms and conditions. I have it exactly, this is talking about the companion pass bonus. This product is not available to either current card members of any Southwest's rapid rewards credit cards or previous card members of any Southwest rapid rewards credit card who received a new card member bonus within the last 24 months.

Make sure you don't fit into any of those categories

This does not apply to card members of the Southwest rapid rewards business credit card and employee credit card products, so you just got to make sure you don't fit into any of those categories. If you want to get this bonus you can't have had a bonus in the last 24 months, and you can't be a current card member.

That's basically the rules of it, otherwise, you have until February 11th to sign up for any of these three cards, and you will be able to get that signup bonus. If you're wondering whether I'm going to do it, no, personally I am NOT going to sign up for this.

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Maintain and build my status

I think it's a great deal, but the reason why is because I'm trying to maintain and build my status with Oneworld alliance, which includes American Airlines, British Airways, etc. Whenever I fly the US domestically I'm generally flying American Airlines, because I want to build up those tier points and airline miles.

So I can maintain my bronze status and I can get up to the next level which is silver or you get access to one world airline alliance lounges and stuff. I would prefer to fly JetBlue, I think it's a better airline, and but I fly American just because I'm trying to build up that status.

I won't be getting this one and I'm also saving up getting ready to do a mortgage a complete application. I don't want any new credit applications on my report until after I have done that.