Southwest is offering a 30% bonus on points that post to your account between August 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020 under the ‘credit card’ category. You’ll earn this bonus if you have at least 6000 credit card points post during the promotion period, and you can earn up to 25,000 bonus points. Registration required.

These points count towards a Companion Pass, which itself has reduced requirements to earn this year already.

We’ve seen American Airlines count card spend towards lifetime elite this year, and Hyatt offer bonus qualifying nights for spend. This offer is a great way to make the Southwest cards more attractive to use when people aren’t traveling much.

30% Bonus On Credit Card Earning For Three Months

You can earn the bonus on up to 83,333 points from a Chase co-brand credit card. Here’s an example of how this works:

Earlier this year my initial bonus and card spend posted together from my business card as a single transaction noted as ‘credit card’. So I expected that a card’s initial bonus would qualify for the 30% extra as well, however the terms specifically say that they will not.

Perhaps the way that they accomplish this is that you may need to be an existing cardmember to register. The terms say it’s targeted, though clearly it’s offered broadly: “[o]nly the Rapid Rewards® member who received this offer from Southwest Airlines® is eligible for this promotion. Offer is nontransferable.”

Here are the key terms:

• To be eligible for this bonus offer, you must register between 7/1/2020 and 10/31/2020 11:59 p.m. ET and have a minimum of 6,000 points earned from Rapid Rewards Credit Card post to your Rapid Rewards account during the promotion period of 8/1/2020 and 10/31/2020.

• You will qualify for and receive a 30% bonus on points earned from your Rapid Rewards credit card which are also posted to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account during the promotional period.

• Points that are earned from your Rapid Rewards credit card during the promotional period but are not posted to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account during the promotional period will not receive the 30% bonus points. The 30% bonus points will count towards Companion Pass qualification, but will not count toward A-List or A-List Preferred qualification.

• Please allow up to 8 weeks after the end of the promotional period for the 30% bonus points to post to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account.

• Maximum bonus point accumulation during the promotional period is 25,000 bonus points per Rapid Rewards account.

• Bonus points earned from Chase on a new credit card promotion will not be eligible for the 30% bonus.

• Points transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Southwest Rapid Rewards will not be eligible for the 30% bonus.

Lower Companion Pass Requirements

This year both elite status and companion pass through 2021 are easier to earn. All members were given 15,000 elite qualifying points; 10 flight segments; and 25,000 Companion Pass qualifying points and 25 Companion Pass qualifying flights into their accounts.

That way someone who had, say, already earned 100,000 out of the 125,000 points required to earn a Companion Pass will already have done all that’s needed to earn one through the end of 2021.

• A List Status which gets you priority boarding (great for picking the best seats) normally requires 25 flights or 35,000 points but this year will require just 15 flights or 20,000 points.

• A List Preferred Status which comes with a 100% earning bonus and free wifi normally requires 50 flights or 70,000 points but this year will require 40 flights or 55,000 points.

• Companion Pass normally requires earning 125,000 eligible points or 100 flights in a year but this year will require just 100,000 points or 75 flights.

Credit card spend can earn you companion pass faster with this 30% bonus, since you can get to 100,000 points from eligible sources easier. And this year credit card spend alone can be used to earn elite status (under reduced requirements!) too although the 30% bonus doesn’t help with that.