Would you like to take a friend with you on all your next flights? Would you like to discover the World with someone? And would you like to save a lot of money in the process? Today’s trick will only work if you’re based in the US, but it can be a real saving for if you travel regularly with a friend or a partner.

Southwest airlines is the world’s largest Low Cost Carrier. They fly to more than 99 destinations in the US, and Latin America.

Discover the Southwest Companion Pass

Even though Southwest is a Low Cost Carrier, they have an interesting frequent flyer program called Rapid Rewards. The way it works is quite straightforward:

Earning points

When flying with Southwest, you get a minimum of 6 points per dollar spent. When spending money with a Southwest branded credit card, you get a minimum of 1 point per dollar spent (more on that later). There are a few other options to get points through a few of the airline partners.
Redeeming points
There’s no blackout date with Southwest. It means that if a seat can be bought with cash, it can be paid with points.

Status

The most interesting part of the Rapid Rewards program is the tier status. If you earn 35,000 miles in a calendar year (Jan 1st – Dec 31st), you get the A-List status. It comes with priority boarding and extra points when you fly. If you earn 70,000 points in a calendar year, you’re upgraded to A-List Preferred. Even more points and free WiFi. But the most interesting tier is the last one. It’s called the “Companion Pass”:

Companion Pass is the benefit that allows you to choose one person to fly with you, free of airline charges (does not include taxes and fees from $5.60 one-way) every time you purchase or redeem points for a flight. To qualify, simply fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 110,000 qualifying points in a calendar year, and you’ll earn Companion Pass for the following full calendar year, plus the remainder of the year in which you earned it.

100 one-way flights. That is a lot of flying. You could do it… or you could look at getting 110,000 points by flying. It means you need to spend more than $10,000 in a calendar year on flight tickets with Southwest. As you’d probably expect from now, there are a few ways to get it way cheaper and it’s actually quite simple. And now is the best way to preparing for it.

How to get 110,000 points quickly

As you saw above, you need to earn 110,000 points in a calendar year to get the Companion pass for the following full calendar year, plus remainder of the year in which you earned it.

It means that if you find a way to earn 110,000 points in January 2019, you’d get the companion pass until December 2020. Almost two years of taking a friend on your next adventures with you.

And guess what? It’s feasible. It’s actually quite easy if you’re a business owner (can be a side hustle).

Enter the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card and the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card.

Let’s start with the personal card, the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card. This card costs $99 a year. Chase currently has a special sign-up bonus when you get this card. If you spend $1,000 in the first 3 months of getting the card, you’ll receive 40,000 points. Can you spend a thousand bucks within the next 3 months? I bet you can. As you get 1 point per dollar spent, you should have roughly 41,000 points. Only 69,000 points to go.

Let’s now look at the business card, the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card. This card also costs $99 a year and it’s aimed at business owners. If you’re selling stuff on ebay, you could technically be considered a business owner. Just enter your social security number on the application form. The current sign-up bonus is a bit higher. If you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months of getting the card, you’ll receive 60,000 points. Can you spend three thousands on your business within the next 3 months? If you can’t, I might advise you to work on your business plan. As you also get 1 point per dollar spent, you should have roughty 63,000 points with that card.

It seems you’re now only 6,000 points short of getting the Companion pass. From that point, the easiest might be to spend $6,000 on any of the cards. Or to spend $3,000 on your next Southwest flights. The points for the amount will post immediately. The points for flying will post after you fly. There are more ways that I’ll cover in another article.

How to maximize the duration of your Companion Pass

As you probably understood, the goal now is to have 110,000 points to your account as early as possible in January. The way to optimize this is by taking opportunity of the fact that points earned on your credit card won’t post to your account until the statement period closes.

Therefore you should apply for the card as soon as possible. When the card is approved, you could change the “Bill Due Date” to the end of the month. By doing this, the statement period would closes a few days later, i.e around 4-5 days later.

Then in December, spend the money with the cards to get the bonuses. Sign-up bonuses will then post in early 2019.

Then it’ll be time to fly around… a lot…