A reader recently commented on my “When to Apply for the Southwest Companion Pass” post asking:
“If I spend $1,999 in 2013 won’t those 1,999 points reset in 2014?”
This is in regards to meeting the minimum spend requirements to earn the bonus points after being approved for one of the four Southwest Airlines credit cards. In the post I mentioned that if you want the companion pass for 2014, then you must ensure that the bonus points earned from the credit card sign up DO NOT hit your account until 2014. Points earned towards the companion pass in 2013 WILL NOT carry over to 2014. All credit card spend (including minimum spend required) counts towards the companion pass.
So if you get the Southwest credit cards and meet the minimum spend requirement per card in 2014 those points will count towards the 110,000 points needed for the companion pass to be valid in 2014 and 2015. If you were to spend $1,999 in 2013, and $1 in 2014, those 1,999 points earned in 2013 will not count towards the 110,000 points needed for the companion pass for 2014 and 2015.
Remember, the annual fee of the credit cards DO NOT count towards meeting your minimum spend requirements. The personal and business plus card have a $69/year fee and the personal and business premier card have a $99/year fee (neither are waived the first year). When you look at your total amount spent after the three month time period and you are at exactly $2,000, do not think you are done meeting the spend requirements. You must be at $2,069 or $2,099 depending on which card you apply for. Make sure to keep track of this as you do not want to miss out on those sign up offer bonus points
Credit card to help earn the companion pass: As mentioned previously, there are three different Southwest cards – ALL of them have the same bonus offer after meeting the minimum spend requirements, but different annual fees and annual bonuses. You can view all three cards and the differences in this prior blog post. You can learn more about all Airline credit card offers here.
Disclosure: These post contains affiliate links – this is a card I personally have and advocate as it is a great offer and I LOVE the companion pass!
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After you get CP, can you cancel the SW cards and 18 months – 24 months later do it all again for another CP?
Without thinking the timing through, I applied for the SW biz and personal. Would it be possible to adjust the billing date to ensure I meet the spend requirement in 3 months, but the points don’t post to my SW acct until 2014? Would that work?
@max – when did you apply?
Applied as soon as this newest offer came out (Sept 19th I think). My thought is that I could change the statement closing date to the 1st or 15th. That way I could spend within the 3 months, but points wouldn’t post until the next closing date, which would be into 2014.
Assuming you apply sometime in October, any spending on your card after the second billing cycle closes (sometime in December 2013) would count towards the CP. If you apply early enough in October, your second billing cycle would probably close early-to-mid December. Any spending put on the card after that would generate points when the 3rd billing cycle closes in early-to-mid January and thus count towards the CP.
Regarding the AF, paying $99 for 6k pts is a better deal (1.65cpm) than paying $69 for 3k pts (2.3cpm). If you’re planning on keeping either card past the first year, the $99 AF card would be the one to apply for.
i think ben is right what you think deals…
@donate – yup!