How to Earn the Companion Pass on Southwest Air

(some details of this article have been updated as of 2025)

Ok so people ask me all the time how I've earned the Companion Pass on Southwest Airlines SO many times... Here's an overview. 

What it is: Southwest Airlines Companion Pass allows you to designate one person to fly for free with you EVERY SINGLE TIME you fly (yes, you heard it right, there's no limit, no cap, no "one time per year"... if you take 30 flights that year, your companion can come along for free* with you on ALL flights)

*you are still responsible for taxes and fees. Domestic flights = $11.60 roundtrip in taxes and fees. This (INCLUDES HAWAII & PUERTO RICO!) International flights = varies... Puerto Vallarta might be $112.37 for taxes/fees. Belize might be $83.77 for taxes/fees. Etc.

You are also allowed to change your companion up to 3x in a calendar year. You are also allowed to book YOUR flight on points (and just pay taxes & fees) and then add on your companion for "free" (again just paying taxes & fees), essentially allowing both of you to fly for VERY little $$. Ex: if my husband and I both want to fly from ATL to Denver, my flight might cost me 13,000 points + $11.60 for roundtrip taxes & fees, and my husband's flight will be added on and only cost $11.60 for roundtrip taxes & fees. We've both been able to fly using only $23.30 of actual money to do it.

How to earn it: (as of the date of this article, December 17, 2021) To qualify for a Companion Pass, you'll need to fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 125,000 qualifying points* in a calendar year. (Edit for 2025: you now need to earn 135,000 qualifying points)

*Companion Pass qualifying points are earned from revenue flights booked through Southwest®, points earned on Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Cards, and base points earned from Rapid Rewards® partners.

Ok so now that we know what's involved, here's how to get it. I'll preface with: It's very difficult to earn by trying to fly 100 one-way flights. I've never done it this way. I earn on points, and that's how I'll be discussing it in this post. 

------- Ready? -------

Step 1: Start Jan 1. So when you're on a mission to start earning points, you need to do so at the beginning of the calendar year. Why? Because once you qualify, you get the Companion Pass for the REMAINDER of that calendar year and ALL the next calendar year. So if you've earned enough points to qualify by, say, May 2022... then you get the CP for the rest of the year (May-Dec 2022) AND Jan-Dec 2023. 

I started my earning journey by applying for a Southwest credit card. There's now 5 different ones as of 2025. The only differences between each are how many points per dollar you get when you spend $$ on a SWA flight, how many annual anniversary points you get, and a few boarding upgrades/travel credits. Here's a basic breakdown of main differences:

• Plus: $69 annual fee (now $99 as of 2025), 3000 points each anniversary + 10k Companion Pass points boost, 2x points for SWA flights, 2x points for gas & grocery, 1x points for everything else. 1st checked bag free 

• Premier: $99 annual fee (now $149 as of 2025), 6000 points each anniversary + 10k Companion Pass points boost, 3x points for SWA flights, 2x points for gas & grocery, 1x points for everything else (+1500 bonus points for every $5k spend)1st checked bag free 

• Priority: $149 annual fee (now $229 as of 2025), 7500 points each anniversary + 10k Companion Pass points boost, 3x points for SWA flights (now 4x points as of 2025), 2x points for gas & grocery, 1x points for everything else (+2500 bonus points for every $5k spend) 1st checked bag free 
  
  
• Performance Business: $199 annual fee (now $299 as of 2025), 9000 points each anniversary + 10k Companion Pass points boost, 4x points for SWA flights, 3x points for hotel and car rental partners, 2x points for advertising, internet/cable/phone, gas & grocery + local transit and rideshare, 1x points for everything else (+2500 bonus points for every $5k spend). Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit up to $120 every 4 years. 1st checked bag free 
  
  
• Premier Business (new): $149 annual fee, 6000 points each anniversary, 3x points for SWA flights, 2x points for gas & grocery, hotel and car rental partners, local transit and rideshare, 1x points for everything else (+2000 bonus points for every $5k spend). 

Now, I have the Premier (Priority didn't exist when I applied) but the Performance Business is a REALLY good option if you have a business... the Global Entry/TSA Pre-check and additional points earning are particularly good perks. Speaking of point earning, all these cards will get you 50,000-120,000 points with minimum card spend. Now, I put ALL my daily purchases on this card (Just be sure to pay off the balance each month so you don't incur interest!) When I started trying to earn points, I actually put a $5,000 down payment for the car I was buying at the time on my card & paid it off immediately with cash I had on hand from an insurance payout (RIP to my old car). I earned the 40,000 bonus points immediately as well as 1 point per dollar spent, so I was at 45,000 points by like, Jan 1. I travel maybe once a month for work (pre-Covid), so I was able to expense work trips that I'd put on my card and that helped a LOT. I'd get 3x points for every dollar spent on my paid work flights. So on average, I'd expect maybe +600 points per flight when using my credit card to pay for it. 

Step 2: Now... listen closely because here's where the REAL earning comes in: hotels. I book ALL my work hotels on the Southwest website & get reimbursed for them. Now, I look for hotels that give extra bonus points per stay. Most of the time, hotels listed on the SW website will look like this and offer the standard 1 point per dollar:

What you want to look for are hotels that have bonus point offerings... See where I've got it circled:

Now, sometimes (honestly, often times) the prices for these hotels will be a little inflated, so I always check the hotel's main site and make sure things aren't totally outta control price-wise. I also do the math to see which hotel will get me the most points per dollar spent. The example with the Holiday Inn hotel pictured above will get me roughly 21-22 points per dollar spent (pre-taxes), which is a good range I prefer to shoot for. Something like the deal pictured below might only get me around 6-7 points per dollar spent (pre-taxes), so this isn't a rate I'd likely book. 

You just gotta be willing to realize that you might spend a little bit extra on a hotel room (which is fine, since in my case I get reimbursed through work and still stay within my work's travel budget) or that you might not get the most "ideal" hotel if you're planning your stays based exclusively on points earning and less-so on how "nice" the hotel is. (Flashback to that Wyndham I stayed at in Dallas once... I literally had to keep reminding myself "it's just for one night... it's JUST for one night!") 

But like, WHAT.IS.HAPPENING.HERE?! That gold pleather couch... omg.

So anyway... Let's get to:

Step 3: Other lesser ways of earning but still add up... Rapid Rewards Dining & Shopping. Keep an eye on the Rapid Rewards Shopping site, as often times there are bonus points per dollar for certain stores. Like, right now Sunglass Hut is offering 4 points per dollar. If you had an eye on a $200 pair of sunglasses that you finally decided to pull the trigger on, that's 800 points. There's also subscription point bonuses: Hello Fresh gets you 1400 points. But more often than not, you'll see stuff like: Tarte Cosmetics: 4 points/dollar, Nike: 3 points/dollar, etc. One tip: ALWAYS use it when buying/sending flowers. You'll earn 1,000 points per order over $29.99 at 1-800-Flowers.com! 

Dining probably earns you the least amount of points, but they DO have a promotion going on right now of 1000 bonus points when you sign up for Rapid Rewards Dining and spend at least $25 within 30 days of enrollment and complete a restaurant review within 30 days after your first dine. You also get 3 points per $1 spent (instead of 1point/$1) if you opt in for email communication (so do that!) (this promotion varies, and was available as of the original writing of this article in 2021)

There's only a limited number of Rapid Rewards Dining spots available, so really when points show up on my account from dining, I usually won't even realize I've dined at a Rapid Rewards Restaurant and it'll just be a "oh cool" reaction that I have when I see it come up. But I don't typically go out of my way to dine at them. You might get like, 30 points here, or 20 points there... the occasional 100 points if you go to an expensive restaurant, but sometimes points are only available for earning during certain days of the week... so don't automatically expect a ton of points every time. 

Another tip: check under your promotions on the SWA website... often times you'll find bonus points earning opportunities, but you have to go REGISTER for them. So don't let them pass you by. 

This one in particular going on right now gives a 3,000 point bonus with a $12,000 spend over a 3 month period (which I'll hit in January😊): 

Step 4: Ok this one might be the easiest (or hardest) way to earn. Getting your friends to sign up for a Southwest Credit Card will earn you MAD points. 

That's right, for every person you invite using your invitation URL to sign up for a Southwest Credit Card, you'll earn 20,000 points. You can invite up to 5 people and max out at 100,000 points. 

Shameless plug (here's my referral URL, haha):

                          Southwest Credit Card Referral                      

Ok, so that should be all the ways (at least that I'm aware of, and utilize) to get points on Southwest to work towards that Companion Pass. I was even able to earn it this year (though at the VERY end of the year, so I'll only have it Jan-Dec 2022) but SWA gave out lots of bonus points due to the pandemic and earning opportunities which made it all possible, even without almost ANY work trips to earn with... and literally spent $0 of my own money on flights this year. It was pretty much all from credit card points and hotel points earning. 

Now go get that Companion Pass!