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Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card (See rates and fees)
Southwest is dangling its Performance Business card with a massive 120,000 Rapid Rewards points after $10,000 spend in the first 3 months. At $299 annual fee, this is an unusually rich welcome bonus that — if you play the timing right — can deliver almost two full years of Companion Pass.
Note also the accelerator categories of 4x on Southwest, 3x on Rapid Rewards partners hotel and car partners through end of 2025, plus 2x on gas, dining, rideshare
Keys to the Companion Pass:
- Earn 135,000 qualifying Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year, and you get Companion Pass for the rest of that year plus the following year. That lets someone fly with you for just taxes whether you’re paying cash for a ticket or redeeming points.
This is the single best deal in domestic air travel if you fly Southwest with a partner even a few times a year.
- Holding a Southwest credit card gives you a 10,000-point head start each year, so effectively you need 125,000 more.
- Apply while the offer in October, while the offer is still available. You’ll need $10,000 spend, making sure it doesn’t hit until a statement that closes in 2026.
- That way you it Companion Pass at the start of 2026, so it lasts for the rest of that year and the full next year (so, through December 31, 2027).
I’m a former Companion Pass holder myself and need to find my way back in. Southwest is still about 40% of the seats out of my home airport in Austin.
You can’t have had this card’s bonus in the past 24 months. Chase also applies its 5/24 rule, so you need to have fewer than 5 new cards in the past 24 months that appear on your credit report.
Anyone who will fly Southwest at least a few times a year with a companion should jump on this, if they’re in a position to handle the required spend. Even modest use can justify the $299 fee once you factor in free checked bags as well. This is the easiest path in years to a full Companion Pass.
The one important fact you failed to mention, It’s almost guaranteed that SW will be changing it’s requirements to obtain the companion pass by January 2026. They’ve pretty much changed everything else when it comes to the rapid rewards program, and none of those changes have been beneficial to the consumer. My wife and I have had the pass for 8 consecutive years, and would love to extend it a couple more. Not counting on it seeing all the other negative changes.