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Towards the end of last week, Southwest announced that it would be following a similar policy that we saw the airline adopting at the start of the pandemic by making it easier to earn elite status and the airline’s valuable companion pass. As of this morning, the credits promised by that announcement are posting to Southwest Rapid Rewards accounts.
Southwest Makes Earning Elite Status Easier
With travel still showing little sign of getting back to anything resembling normal, Southwest has reached the same conclusion as a lot of other US airlines – it’s time to make earning elite status easier again. So, in an effort to keep flyers engaged and aiming to earn (or improve on) Southwest status, the airline announced that it will be adding 15,000 tier qualifying points and 10 flight credits to all Rapid Rewards accounts.
AS of this morning, those credits have posted to my Rapid Rewards Account:
- A-List Status requires 25 one-way flights or 35,000 tier qualifying points
- A-List Preferred Status requires 50 one-way flights or 70,000 tier qualifying points
Essentially Southwest is crediting accounts with 40% – 43% of the credits need to earn A-List status and 20% – 21.5% of the credits needed to earn A-List Preferred status.
Southwest Makes Its Companion Pass Easier To Earn
It takes 125,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or 100 one-way qualifying flights to earn a Southwest companion pass but Southwest’s recent announcement made earning a 2021 Companion pass a little easier.
Southwest had said that all Rapid Rewards members would see 25,000 Companion Pass qualifying points and 25 flight credits towards a Companion Pass added to their accounts within a week (of its announcement) and, as of this morning, those credits are now sitting in my Rapid Rewards account.
These credits are being credited to all member accounts (I have almost no history of travel with Southwest and I’ve been given the credits) so anyone with a Rapid Rewards account should now be 20% closer to earning a Southwest Companion Pass than they were 24 hours ago.
Get The Southwest Companion Pass Without Flying
UPDATE: Some or All of the offer(s) mentioned below have now expired
At the time of writing, not only do all points earned from spending on Southwest co-branded credit cards count toward the Southwest Companion Pass but so do the points earned from the welcome bonuses that all the co-branded credit cards offer.
Right now, all three personal Chase Southwest credit cards are offering a welcome bonus of up to 80,000 points (click for more details), and one of the co-branded business cards is offering a bonus of up to 100,000 points…
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card (80,000 point welcome offer)
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card (80,000 point welcome offer)
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card (80,000 point welcome offer)
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card (100,000 point welcome offer)
…so anyone successfully applying for one of these cards and meeting the requirements of the welcome offer would automatically earn a Companion Pass for the year in which the pass is earned (2021) AND the following year (2022).
Essentially, you can have the great benefits of a Southwest Companion Pass available to you through December 2022 without having to step foot on a plane.
Bottom Line
Southwest is making it a lot easier to earn A-List status in 2021 and it’s making it easier to earn a Companion Pass too. As of this morning, Rapid Rewards members should find that their accounts have been credited with the flights and points that Southwest promised last week so all members should now be at least 20% of the way to a Companion Pass and 40% of the way to A-List status.
[…] co-branded credit cards are expected to end in 12 days time (8 February) so if you have an eye on the reduced Companion Pass target that was announced earlier this month, you don’t have much longer to lock in the 80,000 bonus points that are on offer and get […]
[…] impressive welcome bonuses that can help a cardholder go a long way to earning Southwest’s valuable companion pass with very little effort. If you think you’re going to be using Southwest with any kind of […]