Earn the Southwest Companion Pass Easier With This Quarterly Bonus

If you’re interested in earning the Southwest Companion Pass and you have a Southwest Airlines credit card, head to your online account to see if you’ve been targeted for this new quarterly bonus.

If you’ve been targeted, you can earn double Companion Pass qualifying points for purchases in a specific category each quarter using your Rapid Rewards credit card. For Q4, you can earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points at wholesale clubs and department stores.

This is a great opportunity to jumpstart your Southwest Companion Pass qualification. Let’s dive into the details.

Earn Double Companion Pass Qualifying Points in 2025

Southwest Airlines introduced a new quarterly promotion this year that will help some lucky flyers earn a Companion Pass faster than usual.

After registration, you can earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points per dollar spent (up to 10,000 bonus points) at wholesale clubs and department stores using your Southwest credit card between October 1 and December 31, 2025.

If you spent $10,000 at wholesale clubs and department stores using your Southwest card during the promotional time period, you’d earn 10,000 base points (which would be redeemable as points for flights and would count toward the Companion Pass), and you’d earn an additional 10,000 bonus points toward Companion Pass qualification. Those bonus points won’t be available as redeemable Rapid Rewards points to use toward flights, however.

If you have a Southwest credit card, you’ll want to check to see if you were targeted.

Promotion details:

• Register between October 1 and December 31, 2025.
• Earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points on wholesale club and department store purchases using your Southwest credit card between October 1 and December 31, 2025.
• Qualifying purchases at wholesale clubs exclude specialty purchases such as gas, travel, insurance, cell phone, and home improvement.
• Qualifying purchases at department stores include online purchases but exclude purchases at supercenters, discount stores, specialty stores, and online marketplace websites (online stores that do not have physical locations and sell a variety of products). Online gift card purchases that are fufilled through a third-party are excluded.
• Registration is required.
• You can earn a maximum of 10,000 bonus Companion Pass qualifying points. These points aren’t redeemable for flights.
• Points will be posted to your account 6-8 weeks after the promotion ends.
• Charges that won’t earn points include balance transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, any checks that access your account, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, and fees of any kind, including an annual fee.

What Is the Southwest Companion Pass?

The Southwest Companion Pass allows you to add a companion to any Southwest ticket. All you need to do is pay the taxes and fees for the companion, which are $5.60 for a one-way flight within the U.S. ($11.20 round-trip). It applies whether you’re booking your flight with cash, points, or both.

To earn the Southwest Companion Pass, you need to earn 135,000 qualifying points or fly 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year. Southwest credit card holders automatically get a 10,000-point boost, which means they only need to earn 125,000 qualifying points.

This new promotion makes it even more important to have a Southwest credit card if you’re pursuing a Southwest Companion Pass. If you don’t already have one, now might be the right time to apply. Don’t forget that the Southwest credit card welcome offer points also count toward the Companion Pass!

There are 3 personal and 2 small business cards to choose from:

• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Plus Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Premier Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Priority Credit Card
• Southwest^® Rapid Rewards^® Performance Business Credit Card
• Southwest^® Rapid Rewards^® Premier Business Credit Card 

How To Register

To take advantage of this new promotion, you must register. To do that, just log in to your Southwest account. Click on My Account and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. If you were targeted, you’ll see information about the promotion.

Final Thoughts

There’s a new, targeted promotion for Southwest credit cardholders. If you’ve been targeted, you can earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points (up to 10,000 bonus points) on wholesale club and department store purchases using your Southwest credit card between October 1 and December 31, 2025.

This promotion will continue with a new bonus category each quarter. This new offer, combined with the fact that Rapid Reward credit cards already come with a 10,000-point Companion Pass boost each year, makes having a Southwest card integral to earning a Southwest Companion Pass quickly.