Southwest Companion Pass Strategy November ’25
Use the Southwest Companion Pass Strategy will let your Companion fly free for up to two years!
It takes 135,000 points to earn Companion Pass and credit card sign-up bonuses count. Getting those points early in 2026 earns Companion Pass all the way through 2027. The strategy for achieving Southwest Companion Pass changes with available credit card bonus offers, so here’s the latest for November 2025.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® credit cards have been updated with some added benefits, some eliminated benefits, and, of course, new higher fees. These changes also have IMPORTANT implications for the Southwest Companion Pass. Travel Award Search has new Companion Pass (CP) recommendations for November ’25. Use these into early next year as long as the credit card sign-up bonuses make it worthwhile. Read on for the details.
Most of the new card benefits are related to future seat selection, as you would expect. The biggest take-aways are eliminating the $75 Southwest credit on the personal Priority card. Everyone gets free wi-fi now. so that eliminates the free wi-fi benefit on the Performance Business card. Naturally, this is in addition to new higher fees.
The good news is Southwest Credit Card sign-up bonuses (SUBs) for personal cards remain strong at 85,000 points. And yes, this does apply to all of them! This is lower than 100,000 point bonus recently seen, but it only requires $3000 of spend. The business card SUBs remain at 60,000 and 80,000 points.
If you’re working on the 100,000 point SUB, you can get the strategy refresher here.
What does this mean for my Southwest Companion Pass Strategy?
We open a business card and a personal card to hit at or close to the required points for Companion Pass. There are new factors to consider in your card selection.
What Business Card and When?
Apply for a Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card as soon as you can. The decision on which one is pretty clear-cut. The Performance Business Card is more expensive, at $299 vs. $149 for the Premier Business Card. However, the Performance card has a 20,000 point higher bonus plus many additional benefits, including the most beneficial seating. At a redemption value of 1.3 cents/point, just those extra points are worth $260. Paying the extra $150 fee is a no-brainer!
If you want to feel even better about the Performance Business Card, in addition to the higher SUB, it has:
- Every Southwest Airlines seating benefit available from a card, including preferred seats at booking and access to extra legroom seats 48 hours before departure
- 9000 anniversary points, worth $117 (at 1.3 cents per point)
- 4x points on Southwest purchases
- $120 Global entry, NEXUS, or TSA Pre-check credit
- 365 free wi-fi credits through the end of 2025
- + others
You will need to spend $5000 on the Performance Business card within 3 months, versus $3000 on the Premier Business card.
Need some guidance on applying for a business card with a side business? The free 10x Travel course has a great chapter on business cards.
What About the Personal Cards?
Grab the current 85,000 point sign-up bonus, applying at least 30 days after your business card approval. Just spend $3000 on the card within 3 months of approval to get those points. Be sure the final spend is in January, so the points apply to 2026-27 Companion Pass.
Getting the Priority card used to be a no-brainer too, with its $75 Southwest credit. With that credit being eliminated, the steep $229 annual fee, and 85,000 point SUB on ALL personal cards, the Priority card is not the best choice.
Assuming you get the Rapid Rewards Performance Business Card, you will already have all the seating perks Southwest credit cards offer. Getting another card with those same perks, doesn’t have any value on that front. So no need to spend $229 for the highest level personal card.
The other personal cards are a toss-up in the Travel Award Search view. The key value differences are the Cardmember anniversary points and the discount code. We valued the anniversary points at 1.3 cents each. We assumed the flight discount is applied to a $300 roundtrip. These benefits bring the net cost of the cards to $30 and $26, almost the same, details below.
We didn’t put any value on other benefits like 2x points in certain categories, since you can get 2x points on bank cards with higher value points. The seating benefits are already available with the Performance Business card, so no additional value there. The anniversary points and discount code won’t be available for a year, but even if the card is cancelled at that point the benefits will accrue.
Pick between these two personal cards depending on how you value the discount code and your preference for saving money now or getting it back later.
What If I Don’t Get a Business Card?
If you don’t get a Southwest Business Card, you can still earn Companion Pass, just with a little more effort. Before giving up, be sure to do a recon call on your business card application. Again, our friends at 10x Travel have some great guidance on that.
Get the Southwest Priority personal card if you want the highest level seating benefits. The 85,000 point SUB won’t get you to Companion Pass, but there are several ways to top it off in 2026:
- Earn 20,000 points for each friend or family member who gets the card from your referral (huge!)
- Fly Southwest
- Book Southwest hotels
- Use the Southwest Shopping portal
What If Southwest Companion Pass Changes?
Some worry the Southwest Companion Pass program may be eliminated, require many more points, or discontinue applying credit card bonuses. Travel Award Search doesn’t believe Southwest would make such a change, particularly so late in the year. The credit cards are advertised with Companion Pass benefits so the program seems pretty safe for now.
Action Item Summary
- Apply for the Southwest Performance Business Card ASAP
- Apply for a Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus or Premier personal card at least 30 days after being approved for the business card
- Make the final sign-up bonus spend on both cards in January (or later)
- If you don’t get the Performance Business Card, consider the Priority personal card for the seating benefits. Add referrals, flights, hotels, and/or the shopping portal to get Companion Pass
- Enjoy your companion flying free through 2027!
If you’re new to Companion Pass and want to know more, we’re happy to answer your questions. We also recommend the Companion Pass info provided by our friends at 10x Travel and Frequent Miler. (We don’t want to recreate content others do a good job of providing)
Best of luck with all the changes and let us know how it goes.
As always, Travel Wisely, Travel Well!
