I know Lacey and I are relatively new travelers, but I still can’t believe that we just recently found out about what I am now calling the Golden Ticket for couple’s travel. A ticket so magical that not only will you have 110k miles to use yourself for free travel, but you will also be able to book a free flight for your travel companion at no extra cost EACH TIME you book a flight for yourself…drum roll…for up to 2 YEARS!!! Yeah, you need to check this out.
The Golden Ticket is actually the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. Earning this reward is a bit tricky but it IS doable and it will be worth every bit of effort you put into it. You will be eligible for this perk after completing 100 Southwest flights in a single year (which no one will do), OR by earning 110k Southwest Airlines miles in a single calendar year (which I’ll tell ya how to do). Once you qualify for the companion pass, you will be able to book a free flight for your wife, husband, buddy, or whoever you deem as your “companion” for the rest of the year in which you earn the pass AND the entire next year. Pretty huge right?
So here’s how you can earn the pass…
Assuming you won’t take 100 Southwest flights in a year to earn the pass, you’ll need to sign up for at least 2 of Southwest Airline’s credit cards at a 50k points offer for each card. By going this route, you’ll be on your way to 104k points in no time (50k for each card + the points earned from the spending requirements).
As you can see here, Southwest’s public offer is only 25k points for both of the personal cards right now. Don’t worry, there are still ways you can get 50k points for each of these cards.
For the Southwest Premier (personal) card, send us your email address and I’ll personally send you a referral that will allow you to sign up for the 50k card. Send your email address to [email protected] and we’ll send it your way! Sometimes it takes a couple of days, but nonetheless, you’ll get it!
For the Southwest Plus card 50k offer, UPDATED: we now have a referral link to this card! Here is our referral link to the 50k Southwest Plus card. it’ll be a little trickier. Since we don’t have the offer to email you for this one, you’ll have to find someone that does. However, people are stoked to give out referrals to this as they will receive some bonus miles when you sign up. Here is a site where people seem to be constantly posting referrals for this card. Just scroll down to the comments on that site and make sure to look for people that have the 50k offer for the “Plus” card. …this is actually how we received the 50k offer for this card.
So there ya go, you’re like 98% of the way there. But wait, what about the other 6k points you need? While you can sign up for the Marriott card or Hyatt’s card, receive their bonus points and transfer them into your Southwest account, I don’t think this is the best way to go about it. What Lacey and I did was utilize Southwest’s online shopping portal. You can quickly earn tons of extra points just by linking through their portal and shopping for stuff you were going to buy anyways. We got an extra 5,500 points in 2 weeks by linking through the shopping portal to do our taxes and then to purchase a couple of other things for our bedroom at a 6 points per $1 spent offer.
Wrapping up, this is by far the best rewards offer that I am aware of at this point. Depending on how much you utilize the Companion Pass once earned, it could be worth thousands of dollars in free flights. Just think, all of your flights will be taken care of for up to 2 years! You can switch your reward travel focus to only hotel points for a bit.
Some initial questions you might have…
Do I get to keep and use the 110k points I earned once I receive the Companion Pass? – YES!
Can I book my companion’s free flight even when I am booking my own flight with my points? – YES!
Can I use my companion pass with more than 1 companion? – YES! You can change your companion’s name up to 3 times.
Can I sign up for both credit cards at the same time? – from what I’ve researched, more often than not, it won’t work. I would recommend waiting at least 30 days in between applications. Keep in mind that Chase bank will no longer approve you if you have received 5 new credit cards in the past 24 months.
Southwest flies to some international spots now!
Best of luck everyone! Hit us up with any questions and if you’d like to receive the 50k Southwest Premier card referral!
We’re going to use our companion pass to get back to Cabo this fall!
