Time To Get The 120K Southwest Business Card Offer

You have been sitting on your hands, biding your time, and it is finally time to get the 120K Southwest Business card offer. That is if you value Southwest Rapid Rewards and the Southwest Companion Pass. If you can't use the miles then this offer is pretty much useless to you after all. I am speaking to the other people though, the people that like jet setting around the country at half the cost. The ones that want an unlimited BOGO pass for almost two years! This offer allows you to get your cake and get to eat it too. Let's dive into it all, including a plan that I think is best skipped over.

RELATED: If you are struggling deciding between this route and the traditional route then here is an article that goes into that in more detail.

This Offer Accelerates The Companion Pass Timing

This big hurdle we need to attack is that this is not the ideal time to earn a Companion Pass. The goal is to earn it as early in the year as possible. That is because you get it for the year you earn it plus the following year. If you time your application right that means you could get it for 22 or 23 months. August is normally way too early for go time thought. Having said that, this offer is special because of the way the offer is broken up into two parts.

Welcome Offer Details For The Southwest Business Premier

Here are the details of this increased Southwest Business Premier offer:

• Earn 60,000 points after you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months
• Earn an additional 60,000 points after you spend $15,000 within the first 9 months
• The $99 annual fee is NOT waived the first year.

Why Does This Offer Create Opportunity?

The fact that the Southwest Business Premier offer is broken into two parts, and that it allows you 9 months to complete the second part, opens up a door of possibilities.

Let's say you sign up for the card now, you then have until roughly until November 23rd (give or take a few days) to complete the $3,000 in spend to earn 60,000 points. Those points would post on this year, and would not help you earn the Companion Pass next year. We will just bank those to use as we see fit in the future. The second part of the offer is a different story though.

The remaining $12,000 in spend required doesn't need to be completed until towards the end of May 2024. As long as you don't complete that $12,000 in spend until after January 1st those 60,000 points would count towards next year's Companion Pass.

You actually would earn those 60K in points from the offer, PLUS whatever you earn from the spend. That amount alone could be be up to 12K+ in additional points. The actual number will all depend on how much of the $12K in spend you complete this calendar year and how much you push into next year. Just be sure not to go over the $15K in total spend on the card UNTIL the calendar flips to 2024. You could spend right up close to that $15K amount (leave yourself a few hundred dollars in spend to be safe) but don't go over until January 1st.

What About The Other 60,000+ Points Needed For The Companion Pass?

To earn the Companion Pass you need to earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year. You get a 10,000 point head start as a cardholder, so we are really looking at 125,000 points needed. You will be sitting on anywhere from 60,000 – 72,000 points in 2024 when completing the second part of this offer. That leaves you up to 65,000 points short.

How do we bridge that gap? With a personal card (or the other business card) offer at the end of the year, the same plan as every other year. It should be noted that this requires you to stay under Chase 5/24 until you grab the personal card too. The personal card offers are normally increased around October or November and when it pops to 60,000 points or above you jump on it. The plan is the same as above, don't complete the required spend for the offer until January 1st. You can spend up to a few hundred dollars short, but DO NOT go over.

What About Earning The Companion Pass With Just The Business Card?

Update: only the personal referrals show the September 4th date. The public offer is still slated to end on 8/28/23 so this is only option if you have a family member's referral link etc.

Since the Southwest Business Premier offer shows an end date of 9/4 on referral links there is a chance to earn the Companion Pass with just this one card. I'll explain how this is possible and then discuss why I wouldn't do it myself.

If you signed up for the Business Premier on September 3rd or 4th that would give you until December 3rd or 4th to complete that first $3,000 in spend. Chase normally settles the points based on whenever the statement cuts and not based on the charge dates. So if you have a statement cut on December 1st, anything spent on the card thereafter would settle on your January 1st statement and count towards the next year's Companion Pass earning.

This means you could change your statement closing date to the first of the month to take advantage of the timeline. Then you would complete the $3,000 in spend for the first 60K of the offer before the 3rd or 4th of December when your 3 month timeline ran out. That means the 60K bonus points would settle on your January statement and count towards your 2024 Companion Pass earning.

You could complete all but a few hundred dollars of spend up until your December statement cuts and then finish the rest of it the next day. You would still have until early June to complete the other $12,000 in spend required for the second part of the offer. Those 60K in points, plus the points from the spend, would push you over 125,000 points in 2024, earning the Companion Pass with one card.

Why I Wouldn't Do This

This all sounds great in theory but too many things need to go right for it to work and that is why I wouldn't do it. Here are some concerns I have with this plan:

• It is unlikely, but Chase could pull the offer early
• The statement may not settle properly on the first, even if you changed it to that, and you are unable to finish the $3,000 in spend in time because of it.
  • Even if you went ahead and earned the points in 2023 to be safe you would have waited to pull this off. That means the increased personal card offers would now be gone so you would be stuck waiting months for them to come back.
• Your charge on December 2nd or 3rd may not properly settle and it would register as you missing the 3 month cut off.
• Chase could apply the points to 2023 anyway (it has happened in some instances).
  • You would once again need to wait on an increased personal offer to come back now, costing yourself valuable Companion Pass time.

The Proper Timeline For This Offer

Here is the timeline on how I would take advantage of the Southwest Business Premier offer:

• Sign up for the Business Premier card between now and September 4th.
• Complete the required $3,000 in spend before the 3 month period is up in late November or early December (depending on when you apply).
  • Continue spending on the card past the $3,000, but not to exceed $15,000 in total
    • Stay at least $500 below that until January 1st
• Grab an increased Southwest personal card offer (or the other Southwest business card) when they launch in October or November
  • Complete some of the $3,000 – $5,000 in minimum spend required on the card.
    • Stay at least $500 below the amount until January 1st
• Once January 1st, 2024 hits, finish the required spend on the Southwest personal card and the Southwest Business Premier card.
  • Focus on the personal card first since the timeframe on that one will be shorter (some time in January or February dependent on when you applied for it)
• Enjoy your Companion Pass, and a metric butt ton of Rapid Rewards points, for close to 2 years

120K Southwest Business Card Offer: ToP Thoughts

You now have the keys to the Southwest Companion Pass PLUS close to 200,000 Rapid Rewards points when it is all said and done. Those points are worth around $2,800 in Southwest flights, or $5,500 if you take all the flights with a companion attached. Pretty nuts value right there!

If you would like to support Travel on Point(s) with your Southwest Business Premier application you can use our link in our card review. Thanks in advance if you choose to support us!

PSA: Make sure you sign up for the Southwest Business Premier offer – there are two Southwest business cards!