Southwest Airlines is rewriting its Rapid Rewards programme from scratch, with the new rules kicking in on January 1, 2027. The headline change: the familiar A-List and A-List Preferred tiers are being replaced by three levels — Silver, Gold and Platinum — and the famously easy Companion Pass is getting a lot harder to earn.
Under the new structure, current A-List members will become Silver and A-List Preferred members will become Gold. Points earning bonuses shift too: Silver members get a 40% bonus (up from the 25% that A-List offers today), but Gold members drop to a 60% bonus from the current 100%. The new Platinum tier tops out at 120% and comes with unlimited Companion Pass trips built in.
That's the catch. The Companion Pass — which lets a companion fly with you for just taxes and fees — used to require 135,000 Tier Qualifying Points, and credit card welcome bonuses, referrals, anniversary points and everyday bonus categories all counted. Under the new system, none of those do. Platinum needs 140,000 TQPs, and the realistic fast track is credit card spending: every dollar on a co-branded card earns one TQP from 2027, so $140K in annual spend gets you Platinum. That's roughly $35K for Silver and $65K for Gold. Earning rates on fares are being trimmed as well — Choice Preferred drops from 10x to 8x points per dollar, and Choice Extra from 14x to 10x.
There are some silver linings. Two Milestone Rewards tiers break up the grind: 20,000 TQPs or 15 segments gets you a choice of 2,000 bonus points or two preferred seat coupons, while 95,000 TQPs or 75 segments earns three Companion Pass trips. More interestingly, from spring 2027 Southwest plans its first-ever partner airline reciprocity, letting members earn and redeem points with select partners — Icelandair, China Airlines and Etihad Airways are the names mentioned. Points will also become redeemable for seat selection (including extra legroom) later in 2027, and from November 2026 for rental cars through Southwest's site.
Why it matters: for years the Companion Pass was arguably the best value in US travel, achievable largely through card sign-up bonuses rather than actual flying. That era ends in 2027. Anyone who has been chasing the pass with credit cards should know that bonuses earned before the change still work — current holders keep their benefit for the full term — but from January 2027 the only realistic route is heavy card spend or genuinely frequent flying. The flip side is a more conventional, three-tier programme with partner redemptions, which frequent flyers on other alliances will recognise. If you fly Southwest occasionally, it's worth checking where you land under the new tiers before deciding whether to renew that co-branded card.
