Southwest Companion Pass With One Credit Card

It is not unusual for Southwest to offer their valuable Companion Pass with just one credit card sign up offer. They seem to do this once or twice a year. The catch is you usually don't earn a ton of Rapid Rewards with the offer (like 35,000), and you only get the Companion Pass for one year. That is why we had always told people to skip it and come back at the end of the year instead. That is what makes this Southwest Companion Pass with one credit card from the Southwest Performance Business card so unique. It is giving us an opportunity to get our cake, and get to eat it too. That is true, at least if we play our cards right. This is similar to what we saw with the personal cards last month, but even better. Update 10/11/25: It is now the beginning of Go Time!

Offer Details

Here are the Southwest Performance Business card offer details. This offer has offers you the opportunity to earn a metric butt ton of miles AND a Companion Pass for two years. That is if you play your card(s) right.

• Earn 120,000 points after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• The card has a $299 annual fee which is NOT waived.
• Our full card review

This is the best offer I can ever remember seeing on any Southwest credit card. When you put it all together it should be enough to give you thousands of dollars in flights and a BOGO pass for your bestie.

How To Earn A Companion Pass

The Southwest Companion Pass allows you to bring a companion for free on as many flights as you want. You can earn the Companion Pass in one of two ways.

• Earn 135,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points or
• Fly 100 qualifying one-way flights
  • Both things need to be done in the same calendar year

Once you earn the Companion Pass, it's valid until December 31 of the following year. So if you earn the Companion Pass at any time in 2026, it's valid until December 31, 2027! That timeline is the key with what we are going to discuss here. We are also focusing on the Rapid Rewards angle of earning a Companion Pass. Almost no one has time to put their butt in 100 one-way flights after all.

The Credit Card Is An Ace In The Hole

The first thing I need to point out is that having a Southwest credit card knocks 10,000 points off of the Southwest Companion Pass requirement. Yes, just by signing up for the Southwest Performance Business card you now only need to earn 125,000 Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year to qualify.

Notice that the welcome offer for the Performance Business is for 120,000 points, getting you almost all the way there. If you include the Rapid Rewards points you would earn from the required minimum spend, then you should have at least 130,000 Rapid Rewards points in total. Timing matters though, so you don't want to sign up for the Performance Business card just yet.

Why The Timeline Is Important

We need the welcome offer bonus points to post in January of 2026 to ensure you earn the Companion Pass for two full years. If you fall victim of FOMO, and grab the card too early, then you will miss out on almost 12 months of extra BOGO flights.

Unlike the personal Southwest cards, which gave you 5 months to complete the spend, the business cards are only giving you 3 months. Because of that we need to wait a few weeks into October before we snatch up this offer. That would ensure that your minimum spend timeline would dip into 2026 and not end in late 2025. Remember that we need these points to post in 2026 and not in 2025!

Hopefully this offer sticks around for a bit and we can make this work. While we don't want to finish the spend in 2025, I am guessing most people can't knock out $10,000 in spend in just a couple of weeks. That is what you would be looking at in the beginning of January 2026 if you waited. That is why we need to follow a tight timeline that I'll share next.

The Optimum Timeline To Earn A Companion Pass With Just One Card

Assuming this offer sticks around into mid October, which I would guess that it will, you would want to follow this timeline:

• Step 1: October 10th – 20th
  • Sign up for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business card
• Step 2: From mid October until your statement close date in December
  • Spend up to $5,000 of the required $10,000 in minimum spend.
    • You don't want to go over $5,000 until the next step because we will need 5,000 points from the spend to trigger the Companion Pass.
    • Pay attention to when your first statement cuts – which day of the month it falls on. Hopefully it is somewhere in the middle of the month. By knowing the date you will know when to get things rolling in December for the next step.
• Step 3: After your statement posts in December
  • Spend another $3,000 – $4,000, leaving you at least $1,000 short of the required $10,000 (when including the $5,000 spent in step 2)
    • Once the December statement posts you should be in the clear and these points should post in 2026 with the closure of your January statement.
      • The spending will help you towards that extra 5,000 Rapid Rewards you will need to close the Companion Pass gap.
    • I would still rather be safe than sorry, so that is why I say come up around $1,000 short of the $10,000 required in this stage. If you go over, and something changes on Chase's back end for reporting, then you just cost yourself 12 months of the pass.
• Step 4: January 1st, 2026
  • Spend the remaining $1,000 or so required as quickly as possible.
    • You will only have 10-14 days to pull this off, so have something lined up to pay on the 1st. Think cable, internet, phone, taxes, insurance, HOA fees etc.
    • Double check all of your numbers 3-4 times to ensure you spent more than $10,000. Include any returns, or potential returns, to ensure success.

By following these guidelines you should earn enough from the welcome offer, plus the $5,000 in spend you held off on until after the December statement cut. Be sure to leave a little wiggle room to complete the minimum spend on January 1st to ensure nothing goes wrong.

Potential Downside

There is a potential downside to this plan. The potential that Southwest could end the Companion Pass at the end of this year. While I could see them taking it away at some point, or making it way harder to earn, I don't think it would happen like that. Especially after they released all of these offers aiming them at people who want the Companion Pass. It would be diabolical to pull the rug out like that, and I don't think they want that kind of press after everything that has happened.

Even if they did choose to end the Companion Pass this year we could pivot and complete the spend in 2025. That would secure the Companion Pass for 2026 at least, and you would still have a ton of Rapid Rewards points to play with.

Southwest Companion Pass With One Credit Card: ToP Thoughts

I think that this is the best offer we have ever seen on a Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card. It should also be noted that more of you reading this are eligible for business cards without even realizing it too. If you play your card(s) right, then this will give you a Southwest Companion Pass with one credit card for two years. Just be sure to follow the guidelines outlined above. Make the list, and be darn sure to check it twice! Let me know what you think about the Southwest Performance Business card offer over in the ToP Facebook Group.