Getting Two Southwest Credit Cards to Count Towards the Companion Pass

This is post #3 of my blog series on the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.

Series includes:

1. What is a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass?
2. How to Earn a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass
3. Getting Two Southwest Credit Cards to Count Towards the Companion Pass
4. Earning Partner Points to Count Towards the Companion Pass
5. Transferring Chase Ultimate Reward Points to Southwest for Companion Pass Status
6. Getting the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass for 2014 and 2015 Calendar Year
7. Using the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass on Southwest and AirTran flights
8. Changing your Companion with the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass
9. Top 20 Questions for the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass

One of the main perks of the Southwest Airlines credit card is that the bonus points you’ll earn from applying for the card counts towards the 110,000 qualifying points needed to earn the companion pass that I described yesterday in this post.

Now there are four different Chase Southwest Airlines credit cards you can apply for. While you cannot get the bonus points twice for the exact same card, the four cards are treated as totally different cards. From my personal experience and reports I’ve read Chase will allow you to have two of the Southwest Airlines credit cards. If approved, that means you’ll get the bonus points for each card after meeting the minimum spend requirements. Since the minimum spend requirements require $2,000 in three months each, that will get you another 4,000 qualifying points towards the companion pass status. ALL spend on the credit cards count towards the companion pass status. Remember though, the annual fee of $69 or $99 (depending on which card you apply for) does not count towards the minimum spend of $2,000. From personal experience, I was also able to apply for two cards on the same day, but it did count as two credit pulls.

The most important thing to remember is to meet your minimum spend requirements in the SAME calendar year for your point to hit and count together. So let’s say you apply for one card now and one card in November. If you meet the minimum spend on card A in 2013, but do not hit the minimum spend on card B until January 2014, the bonus points from each card will count towards different qualifying years. The 110,000 needs to be earned in the SAME calendar year and on January 1 the qualifying points will reset to zero. This does not mean you will lose the bonus points to use towards a free flight, just the points needed to earn the companion pass will reset.

Also remember that if you hit the minimum spend in December, for example, the points will not hit your account until a few days AFTER your statement closes that includes the last spend required. So if you spend the last amount of the $2,000 December 20, 2013 and those purchases do not show up on a statement until January 5, 2014 (for example), those bonus points will count towards 2014, NOT 2013. Also, if your statement closes December 31, 2013 (for example), it takes a few days to it your account and will not be posted until the first week of January (most likely) and then again will count towards 2014.

If you are going for the two cards just make sure to keep all these dates and time frames in mind!

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. While my goal for you is to travel on a deal, this is one I highly support as I’ve had the companion pass for many years!