One of the most popular promotions offered by Southwest Airlines is back for a limited time. You can earn ‘buy one, get one free’ flights via the Southwest Companion Pass and up to 40,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points right now. This post covers details of this special offer, the timeframe to take advantage, pros & cons, and everything you need to know.
Let’s cut to the chase with specifics. Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus, Premier, and Priority Consumer Credit Cards from Chase are currently giving new credit cardholders the opportunity to earn the coveted Companion Pass from Southwest, plus Rapid Rewards points—after meeting minimum spends within the first 3 months from account opening. Here are the bonuses:
- Southwest Priority Card: 40,000 points after $5,000 in spend within three months
- Southwest Premier Card: 30,000 points after $4,000 in spend within three months
- Southwest Plus Card: 20,000 points after $3,000 in spend within three months
With this promotional Southwest Companion Pass, new credit cardmembers can bring a travel partner along for free on unlimited flights as they’d like through February 28, 2027. This is only available by referral from an existing cardholder: here’s our referral link for the special Southwest Companion Pass deal. Before clicking that, we strongly recommend reading on for the downsides to this deal and superior alternatives.
Normally, you can obtain the Southwest Companion Pass by flying 100 one-way qualifying flights or earning 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year. The full, non-promotional version of the SWA Companion Pass is then valid through the end of the next calendar year. You can read our full Guide to Southwest Companion Pass for 2026 & 2027 for all of the nuts and bolts.
Even as a frequently-flying blogger, I’ve never hit the requirements by notching 100 flights. I probably haven’t even flown half that number in our busiest year. Since SWA is not aimed at business travelers, I’m guessing credit card signup bonuses are how more than 90% of travelers qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass.
It’s worth emphasizing that the promotional Southwest Companion Pass through the limited-time welcome offer is only valid through February 28, 2027. I don’t love this promo given that, but it may work out well for some tourists depending upon travel timing and other factors.
It’s definitely the simplest way to earn a year-long Southwest Companion Pass, and we heard from many readers last year who disagreed with us and preferred this method as opposed to the one discussed below. So, here’s your “heads up” that it’s being offered again.
It’s important to note that the non-promotional Southwest Companion Pass is good for the full calendar year after the year you earn it.
This means that a Companion Pass earned in February or March 2026 expires on December 31, 2027 because you earned it this year. One earned in December 2026 would also still expire on December 31, 2027.
That’s almost a full year of extra use simply by timing the spending requirements “correctly.” You want to earn it as close to the start of the calendar year as possible. We’ve earned the full version of the Southwest Companion Pass a few times, and with savvy spending, hit our goal by the first week in January and kept it until December 31 of the following year. That’s almost two full years of the Companion Pass, as opposed to one under this promo.
This is now our second Southwest Companion Pass post in as many weeks, so I don’t really want to belabor the point about our preferred way of earning the perk.
Suffice to say, we’ve always opened two Southwest Chase credit cards, one personal card and one business card. Chase Bank offers the Southwest Performance Business credit card with a sign-up bonus of 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
About once per year, there’s a promo on the business card to earn 120,000 bonus points after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. If you can take advantage of that, it alone gets you to the Southwest Companion Pass (bonus points + points from spend + annual boost). Of course, that deal has yet to be offered in 2026, and may not be.
Right now, you can earn the full Southwest Companion Pass by applying for the normal business card plus any of the three personal SWA credit cards but NOT via the promotional Companion Pass.
Do not use our referral link above if that’s the route you want to go. The promotional February 2027 Companion Pass is only available via referral, whereas the regular offers are still available if you navigate directly to the Southwest credit card application page.
If you’re going this route, we recommend the bottom tier of personal cards. It has the lowest annual fee and this card is going to be largely redundant to the Southwest Performance Business card. With any of those, you earn 50,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
In tandem, you’ll earn over 135,000 Rapid Rewards points once you meet the minimum spend. (Bonus points of 130,000 plus spending of at least $6,000.) It should be pretty easy to hit that $6k spending requirement…just take a trip to Walt Disney World!
Honestly, my hope is that the 120k Business Card offer returns later this year. From my perspective, that is the best SWA credit card offer of the year, so long as you’re able to time your spend such that it posts in early January–and $10k isn’t too big of a barrier to entry.
My gut is that offer will be back in the fall. I’ve seen nothing but complaints in my travel circles about the changes Southwest rolled out recently with seat selection and assigned seating. It’s possible that’s selection bias or early growing pains, it’s hard to say. But I suspect Southwest is losing market share among frequent travelers without brand loyalty (and even plenty of those who previously had brand loyalty).
If bookings decrease, Southwest might have greater incentive to release more aggressive offers. It might make sense to hold out for that, and time the spending to hit in early 2027 in order to have the Southwest Companion Pass for 2027-2028. That’s almost a full year into the future, though, and I’m aware of the reality that most people aren’t playing that much of a long game with travel plans.
In the here and now, there are several reasons why the promotional Southwest Companion Pass might be the more attractive offer. Perhaps you have a Walt Disney World Annual Pass this year that you want to get mileage out of, but will take next year off. Maybe the $3k minimum spend is attainable at the Plus tier, but not the $6k.
You might be comfortable applying for 1 credit card, but not 2 from the perspective of how it’ll impact your credit score. As you’re likely aware, how you manage your open lines of credit (including credit cards) can affect multiple factors that determine credit scores, including your payment history, credit utilization rate, average age of accounts, and credit mix.
It’s nevertheless worth correcting the misconception that opening a line of credit hurts your credit score. That’s not necessarily true in the long term. After the initial hit from the inquiry, ours usually rebounds (and then some) by virtue of decreasing utilization. But your mileage may vary. Just like lotto tickets aren’t the best retirement plan, it’s probably not a good idea to get financial advice from a dude who blogs about Disney–even one with an “excellent” credit score.
From our perspective, going the 2 credit card route is much better, but that’s for us. Only you know your circumstances and which approach is the right fit for you. There’s a reason the promotional Companion Pass is so popular whenever it’s offered, and we’ve heard from readers in the past who felt like the business card approach was too daunting.
If you’re a couple or family primarily traveling to Walt Disney World or Disneyland, the Southwest Companion Pass is pretty much a no-brainer. The ‘value ceiling’ on the Southwest Companion Pass is higher than most credit card sign-up bonuses, especially for domestic travel.
When paired with Walt Disney World or Disneyland Annual Passes (or both!) and room-only discounts (or better yet, Disney Vacation Club), the Companion Pass is a fantastic tool for inexpensive trips. It’s also a dangerous one, as it provides you an excuse for regular long weekend getaways to Walt Disney World.
Getting the Southwest Companion Pass in our newlywed years was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. It resulted in us taking many more trips to Walt Disney World and Disneyland than we would’ve without the Companion Pass. In a roundabout way, it also unleashed all of my rambling thoughts on the internet! (So “sorry” or “you’re welcome” for that, depending on your perspective.)
It also helped us see America the Beautiful…because we literally purchased the America the Beautiful Annual Pass to the U.S. National Parks and Federal Lands, which is currently $80 for U.S. citizens and residents.
That’s the best AP deal anywhere on the planet, and our first one of those enabled us to visit Acadia, Yosemite, Rocky Mountains, Great Smoky Mountains, Cuyahoga Valley, and other U.S. National Parks I’m probably forgetting. That was just the first one–we’ve done many since!
We’re firm believers in the value of travel to expand horizons, learn about the world and yourself. The Southwest Companion Pass is a great conduit for all of that. It also allowed us to see the United States and have many memorable experiences together that shaped our relationship and who we are.
To be clear, this blog is not actually funded by a generous grant from Chase Bank, Visa, The Walt Disney Company, or Southwest Airlines (…yet?). We’re just really passionate about travel and see the value it has had in our lives. We know many people are averse to credit cards, but you can really leverage signup bonuses like this (and plenty of others) to fund travel that otherwise might be out of reach. All without paying a single cent in interest, so long as you’re responsible.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on this promotional, limited-time Southwest Companion Pass vs. the ~2 year regular version? Have you ever had the Southwest Companion Pass? Did you take advantage of credit card hacking to obtain it? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!