It Just Got Easier To Earn the Southwest Companion Pass [New Quarterly Bonus]

Updated: January 6, 2025, 2:53pm CST

Edited by:

Jump to Section

Earn Double Companion Pass Qualifying Points in 2025
How To Register
Final Thoughts

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

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

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. To start off the year, you can earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points on insurance purchases.

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 has a new promotion that will help some lucky flyers earn a Companion Pass faster than usual.

After registration, you can earn 2x points Companion Pass qualifying points per dollar spent (up to 10,000 bonus points) on insurance purchases using your Southwest credit card between January 1 and March 31, 2025.

Southwest Companion Pass 2x quarterly bonus — There’s a new 2x quarterly bonus from Southwest. Image Credit: Southwest

If you spent $10,000 on insurance purchases using your Southwest card, 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 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.

Southwest Companion Pass and credit cards — The easiest way to earn the Southwest Companion Pass is through Southwest credit cards. Image Credit: Katie Seemann

Promotion details:

Register between January 1 and March 31, 2025.
Earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points on insurance purchases using your Southwest credit card between January 1, 2025, and March 31, 2025.
Qualifying insurance purchases include health, automobile, homeowners, renters, medical, and life insurance. Travel insurance isn’t included.
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 to 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.

Bottom Line:

Southwest credit card holders have a new opportunity to earn 2x Companion Pass qualifying points each quarter. From January 1 through March 31, 2025, you can earn double points on insurance purchases using your Southwest card (up to 10,000 bonus points).

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 a combination of the 2.

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:

Hot Tip:

The best time to earn the Southwest Companion Pass is in January. Once you earn it, it’s valid for the rest of the calendar year you earned it and the entire following calendar year. So, if you earned a Southwest Companion Pass in March 2025, it would be valid through December 2026.

How To Register

To take advantage of this new promotion, you must register first. To do that, just log into 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.

Southwest Companion Pass promotion — Registration is required for this promotion. Image Credit: Southwest

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 insurance purchases using your Southwest credit card between January 1, 2025, and March 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, makes having a Southwest card integral to earning a Southwest Companion Pass quickly.