Southwest's famous Companion Pass — which lets a chosen companion fly with you on the airline for nothing but taxes and fees, from $5.60 each way, unlimited times while it's valid — is about to get much harder to earn. Under loyalty programme changes rolling out in 2027, credit card welcome bonuses will no longer count toward qualification the way they do now. That makes the next few weeks a genuine last-call moment.
Here's the deal: normally you need 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points in a calendar year. Under a special transition exception, if you're approved for an eligible Southwest credit card by Dec. 2, 2026, that card's welcome bonus still counts toward the 2026 requirement — even if the points post in early 2027. Miss the approval deadline and the bonus won't help.
The timing is helped by freshly boosted welcome offers across Southwest's card lineup. The top card is currently offering 90,000 bonus points after $3,000 of spend in the first three months (with a $229 annual fee) — two-thirds of the full requirement from one bonus. Other cards offer 80,000 points after $1,000 in spend, 80,000 after $5,000, and 60,000 after $3,000, with annual fees from $99 to $299. These are limited-time increases and no end date has been announced.
How the maths works in practice: if you've earned around 45,000 qualifying points in 2026 through flights or partners — hotels, car rentals, the Rapid Rewards shopping portal — a 90,000-point welcome bonus tops you up to the threshold, giving you a pass valid through Dec. 31, 2027.
If you're starting from zero, one card may not be enough, but combining a personal and a business card bonus can work. For instance, an 80,000-point personal bonus plus a 60,000-point business bonus totals 140,000 — over the line before you count any everyday spending. The caveats: Chase restricts repeat Southwest personal card bonuses to once every 24 months, you generally can't hold two personal Southwest cards at once, business cards require you not to currently hold that specific card or have earned its bonus in the past 24 months, and the 5/24 rule can still trip up applications. Approval isn't guaranteed, so apply well before the deadline rather than on Dec. 2 itself.
Worth knowing where Southwest is heading: lounges, a premium credit card and a more conventional elite status structure are coming in 2027, with the top status tier carrying a Companion Pass. In other words, this is the end of the cheap shortcut era — and possibly the best value play in US airline loyalty for a couple. If you fly Southwest even a handful of times a year with a partner, a pass covering all of 2027 could save hundreds of dollars in airfare for the price of meeting one credit card spend requirement.
Story first reported by The Points Guy.
