There’s a new Southwest credit card limited-time offer out right now that allows you to earn the Companion Pass immediately, along with 30,000 Rapid Rewards. The Companion Pass with this offer is an immediate draw for many and it’s receiving a lot of buzz but you want to consider a couple of things before jumping on it.
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The offer
- Earn 30,000 Rapid Rewards and the Companion Pass after spending $4,000 in purchases in the first 3 months
- Southwest Plus offer
- Southwest Premier offer
- Southwest Priority offer
- Offer ends 2/11/19
Is this an offer worth taking?
There are a couple of things to think through first.
First, the Companion Pass with this offer is only good through 2019. Normally, when you earn the Companion Pass you can get it for up to two full calendar years so this cuts that in half (for some people).
Second, it’s still possible for some to earn the two year Companion Pass by getting 110,000 Rapid Rewards through Southwest credit cards.
The Southwest business card
The business Southwest card still offers a 60,000 point bonus after spending $3,000 in the first three months. So you could combine this offer with one of the offers below to earn 110K Rapid Rewards.
Referral offers
There are still referral offers you can take advantage of that allow you to earn up to 60,000 points with $12,000 worth of spend (you earn 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening and earn 20,000 points after you spend $12,000 on purchases within your first year).
In-flight offer
There’s also the in-flight offer where you can earn 50,000 Rapid Rewards for only $2,000 worth of spend.
So it’s still possible to get the Southwest Companion Pass good for close to two years along with many more Rapid Rewards, so I would consider that route first.
So is the 30K offer worth it?
I believe in the following scenarios it could make sense to jump on this new 30K offer:
- You can’t get the business card (no business)
- You can’t get the “real” in-flight 50K offer and don’t want to risk using the public link
- You can’t meet the spend requirements to earn the needed points for the Companion Pass with the referral offers
- You plan to do heavy traveling for 2019 (and not necessarily in 2020)
If any of those apply to you then you might want to go for this new 30K offer.
Keep in mind that all Southwest cards are subject to the 5/24 rule.
Final word
Overall, it’s very interesting to see this offer pop-up but I’d first look for other Southwest offers that net you more Rapid Rewards and a longer duration for the Companion Pass is possible. But if you can’t get those and/or have a need for the Companion Pass for only one year, then this is not a bad offer at all.
H/T: Churning
Cover photo by Tom Hart via Flickr.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
Daniel, What is your opinion of the Barclay Red Aviator card, and what is the difference between the Red and Blue ones?
Personally, I love the Aviator Red, with its easy to obtain sign-up bonus. I’d try to wait for it to come with a 60K offer but even at 50K I’d still take it. I believe the Blue is only available as a downgrade/product change unless something has changed.