1. Day 1 – What’s Travel Hacking all about?
2. Day 2 – Getting Organized
3. Day 3 – Types of Miles and Points
4. Day 4 – Credit Card Strategy

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Before you start applying for any credit cards, I wanted to share with you an amazing perk that some call the best deal in travel hacking – the Southwest Companion Pass. This may change your application strategy.

What is it?

The Southwest Companion pass allows anyone you designate as your companion to fly for free (taxes are extra) on any Southwest flights that you travel on.  To obtain it, you need to earn 125,000 Southwest Rapid Reward miles in a calendar year.

Once you hit 125,000 miles, you will earn the Companion Pass for the rest of the current year along with the entire following year.  For example,  let’s say you earn your 125,000 SW Rapid Reward point on March 26, 2021.  Your companion pass will be good for the rest of 2021 (March 27th to December 31st) and all of 2022 up to the last day of the year.

Earning Rapid Reward Points

You can earn Rapid Reward points many different ways.  The most obvious is through flying.  Earn a certain amount of points per dollar spent depending on the ticket type you buy:

You can also earn points with Southwest partners – including a shopping portal, car rentals, and the easiest – credit cards.

Points transferred to Southwest from Chase Ultimate Rewards or hotel partners do NOT qualify towards the Southwest Companion Pass.

Easy Way to Companion Pass

As you might have guessed, the easiest way to earn the Southwest Companion pass is to open two Chase Southwest credit cards.  Chase frequently offers 50,000 (and even 75,000) bonus points as a sign-up bonus on their credit cards.  The sign-up bonus points along with any spending you do on the card all count towards the Companion Pass.

Unfortunately in April 2018, Chase tightened up the rules on getting both personal cards at the same time.  Specifically you won’t be allowed to get one of the personal cards (Priority, Premier or Plus) if you already have the other one or if you have earned the sign-up bonus on either card within the last 24 months.

But it is still possible to get one of the personal cards and the business card at the same time in order to earn the companion pass.

There are five different versions of the credit card (Learn More About Current Offers):

1. Priority ($149 annual fee)
2. Premier ($99 annual fee)
3. Plus ($69 annual fee)
4. Premier Business ($99 annual fee)
5. Performance Business ($199 annual fee)

Timing

I want to let you know about this amazing travel pass before you apply for your first credit card. If you frequently travel with someone and live near a Southwest hub – this is a great deal. Some travel bloggers call this the greatest perk of any airline. And since you need to 125,000 points, if you don’t travel a lot on Southwest already or have really high monthly spending you will most likely want to sign-up for the Southwest Business card first followed by one of the personal cards.

And ideally you will want to earn the pass as early in the year as possible so you can maximize its value since it will be good for the rest of the current year that you accumulate the 125,000 miles and the entire following year.  But you also need to balance this with Chase’s 5/24 limit we learned about in an earlier lesson.

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Need to Knows

• If you live near a hub or frequently travel on Southwest and usually travel with someone (spouse, friend, etc) – the Companion Pass is one of the best deals for air travel
• The Companion Pass allows someone to travel with you on any flight for just the cost of taxes
• You need to earn 125,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year to obtain the Companion Pass
• Signing up for one of the personal Southwest cards along with the business version is the easiest way to earn the 125,000 miles
• The earlier in the year you obtain the Companion Pass the better – as it will be good for the rest of the current year along with the following year
• If you are enjoying this FREE COURSE – consider signing up for a Southwest credit card through my referral link to help keep this course free and updated!

Before you dismiss the idea of trying to get the Southwest Companion Pass because you don’t have a business to apply for a business credit card, please read through the next lesson.