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Disclosure<\/em><\/strong>: This content is <\/em>not <\/em><\/strong>sponsored or endorsed by any of the card brands described here and is accurate as of the posting date, but some of the offers mentioned may have expired. Money with Katie is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on my site, and this site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers.<\/em><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever lusted after Companion Pass (the perk that lets a friend fly free with you for an entire year or more, depending on when you earn it), the credit cards are a no-brainer. You can take the extreme shortcut and apply for a consumer card and a business card (an admirable feat of commitment), or you can get the Priority card and throw literally all of your spend on it for the year.<\/p>\n For the uninitiated, the Southwest Companion Pass is arguably the best benefit in all of travel rewards: it\u2019s unlimited BOGO for flights. Any time you book a flight, you can add your Companion your free (you just have to pay taxes, which are $5.60 one-way for domestic flights and vary for international travel). As such, it takes a bit of strategy: You have to earn 125,000 Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year (January through December). <\/p>\n Book a $900 one-way from Punta Cana to Denver, as we did recently? You\u2019ll pay the 34,000 points for yourself \u2014 but then you can add your Companion and get their ticket free. It basically cuts the cost of your air travel in half, and it\u2019s incredible if you fly Southwest.<\/p>\n The bad news? It\u2019s really difficult to earn that many points by flying a lot.<\/p>\n The good news? It\u2019s relatively easy to do by a little credit card creativity. <\/p>\n Before I go about explaining how *I specifically* earned Companion Pass, it\u2019s worth mentioning that \u2014 usually once per year \u2014 the Southwest credit card will offer a Companion Pass welcome offer where, if you get approved for the card and meet the minimum spend threshold, you\u2019ll get Companion Pass through the end of the year. That\u2019s probably the easiest way to get Companion Pass if you don\u2019t have the card yet, but it obviously requires waiting for the offer.<\/p>\n The second-easiest way to all but guarantee getting the Companion Pass quickly is simply applying for the personal card (the regular Rapid Rewards credit card) and then applying for the Rapid Rewards business credit card 90 days later. Combining the welcome bonuses should almost always get you Companion Pass.<\/p>\n I earned Companion Pass in likely the strangest year possible: 2020. <\/p>\n It ironically worked in my favor that Southwest was super generous with their rewards last year; at one point halfway through the year, they gave every Rapid Rewards member 25,000 tier-qualifying points as a, \u201cSorry you can\u2019t fly because of this worldwide pandemic thing,\u201d gift. <\/p>\n I had JUST gotten the Southwest credit card during an 80,000 points welcome bonus period, the highest offer I had seen in a long time. Between my welcome bonus, the points from meeting the spend threshold (I had to spend around $6,000 in 6 months to get all 80,000 points), and the 25,000-point gift, I had:<\/p>\n 80,000 points from the welcome bonus<\/p>\n<\/li>\n 6,000 points from spending<\/em> to earn the bonus<\/p>\n<\/li>\n 25,000 points for surviving a pandemic<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n = 111,000 points<\/p>\n Now, I know what you\u2019re thinking: \u201cBitch, that sounds too easy. How am I supposed to recreate those conditions?\u201d<\/p>\n But I think the point is almost exactly that: It\u2019s easier than you think. You don\u2019t have to recreate these exact conditions to get the card, but it\u2019s worth timing your application appropriately (more on that below).<\/p>\n From there, I used the Rapid Rewards Shopping Chrome extension to earn points on online shopping. I\u2019m not a crazy online shopper, but every time I\u2019d get the pop-up window with \u201c2x points per dollar\u201d or \u201c3x points per dollar,\u201d I\u2019d use it. <\/p>\n (And it may go without saying, but keep in mind that for the entire time I was trying to earn Companion Pass, I put all my spending on the Rapid Rewards credit card. Even if I were just purchasing regular stuff that earned 1x point per dollar, it still meant adding a few thousand points to my balance every month. <\/p>\n The only notable exception here is rent. <\/em>Most apartment complexes charge a fee of 3% or $50 to pay rent with a credit card; while this can be worth it to get the initial sign-up bonus, I wouldn\u2019t recommend putting ongoing spend<\/em> on a credit card. The 1,000 or so points you\u2019ll earn won\u2019t be valuable enough to offset a $50 fee. <\/p>\n I should also<\/em> mention that I haven\u2019t yet gotten the Companion Pass for 2022 yet. I\u2019m working on it, but this is more of a, \u201cHere\u2019s how you FIRST get Companion Pass,\u201d strategy. Once I get it a second time, I\u2019ll share those specific tips.<\/p>\n 115,000 points later<\/strong><\/p>\n After several months of attempting to earn Companion Pass (welcome bonus + points earned from spending to get the bonus + the 25,000 bonus gesture of goodwill from Southwest for all Rapid Rewards members), I had about 115,000 points. Only 10,000 to go.<\/p>\n By this time, it was October, so I was getting desperate, as I knew I had to earn the rest of my points before my December statement closed.<\/p>\n I did what any good person who uses social media would do \u2014 I took to the internet and posted about the card to get the remaining 10,000 points in a referral bonus. <\/p>\n If I hadn\u2019t had any success doing that, I would\u2019ve simply referred Thomas (my husband, and eventual Companion Pass beneficiary) and blackmailed him with the carrot of Companion Pass to get him to apply.<\/p>\n The cool thing about Rapid Rewards is that you can transfer your points to another member, so theoretically I could\u2019ve referred him (to get the remaining 10,000 points I needed), then had him transfer his<\/em> welcome bonus of 65,000 or 80,000 points to me to double the value (as we could buy two-for-one flights with those points). <\/p>\nHow I got Companion Pass in 2020, when I wasn\u2019t flying<\/h2>\n
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