

Rent cars from companies including Hertz, Dollar, Alamo.Shop though Southwest’s online portal-and you don’t need the credit card to do so.There are other ways to earn those qualifying points: I did it several years ago when I stayed at the JW Marriottin Cannes during the annual film festival, which was one of my best redemptions ever. The Southwest packages start at just 270,000 Marriott points for a week at a category 1-5 hotel and 120,000 Southwest points, which is more than enough for Companion Pass status! Once you complete this redemption by calling Marriott and the points hit your Southwest account, you’ll get Companion Pass status. With Marriott’s Hotel + Air packages, you can redeem hotel points for seven nights at a hotel, bundled with airline miles from carriers that include Southwest. You usually don’t get a great exchange rate when transferring hotel points to airlines, but in this case there is an amazing option. You can also reach companion pass status by transferring hotel points to Southwest. Earn Southwest Qualifying Points with Hotel Rewards You need to charge $6,000 more to get the Companion Pass, since every dollar spent on the credit card earns 1 qualifying point. And if you have a small business, you can also get the business version of the card after you spend $2,000 on each card to get your bonus, you end up at 104,000 points. The sign-up bonus (which is currently 50,000 points) counts towards pass status. You Can Get It Without Even FlyingĪmazingly, you don’t need to set foot on a plane to earn those 110,000 Companion Pass Qualifying Points: you can do it by signing up for a Southwest credit card from Chase. For example, if you qualify on February 15, 2016, it will be valid until December 31, 2017. So the earlier you get your Companion Pass in a calendar year, the more time you have to maximize it. And get this-the status is good for the whole year that you qualify and the following year. That means you can take a designated companion with you whenever you buy or use points for a Southwest ticket, paying only nominal government fees. You don’t have to trade in the miles for status-you get it in addition to those points. When you fly 100 flights OR accrue 110,000 Companion Pass Qualifying Points (more on that in a minute) in a calendar year, you achieve Companion Pass Status. Southwest’s Companion Pass is a semi-elite status. This isn’t your typical companion pass, which can be redeemed once for a “free” ticket (usually with additional fees and scant seat availability).
