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The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card lets you earn up to 100,000 points as an initial bonus, which in 2020 is enough to earn a Companion Pass. And along with the spending required to earn the bonus you generate enough with one card to meet the normal 125,000 point requirement, too.
- Here’s the offer: 70,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. Plus, earn an additional 30,000 points after you spend $25,000 on purchases in the first 6 months.
You earn 100,000 bonus points plus at least 25,000 from your spending. That earns a companion pass for the rest of 2020 and for all of 2021. And you have 125,000 points which – doubled via the Companion Pass – buys about $3750 worth of travel.
Well Southwest has another offer to make spending on a Southwest credit card get you to a Companion Pass faster, allowing you to bring someone on your travels (whether buying a ticket or redeeming points) for jus the cost of modest taxes.
I just received an email offer of a 30% bonus on points earned from spending on a Southwest card, and the bonus counts towards Companion Pass. Registration is required. It’s not clear whether the promotion is targeted, though the terms do say “Only the Rapid Rewards Member who received this offer from Southwest Airlines® is eligible for this promotion.”
- By January 31, 2021
- Spend at least $40,000 on the card between October 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021
- Earn 30% bonus on purchases made on your Rapid Rewards Credit Card during the Promotion Period, up to 25,000 bonus points.
- This 30% bonus counts towards Companion Pass (but not elite status)
- Bonus may take 8 weeks from the end of the promotion to post
- Cash equivalent transactions and annual fee don’t count as spending, and neither do Ultimate Rewards transfers or a new card initial bonus
Earning a Companion Pass in 2020 requires just 100,000 points and a card initial bonus counts. Southwest gives everyone 25,000 points towards the 125,000 required this year.
With this promotion though it sounds like points will post in 2021, and therefore count towards earning a Companion Pass in 2021 which will be valid for the rest of 2021 and for all of 2022.
I received the same 30% bonus offer from Chase/SW about 6 weeks ago. But the details on the 30% bonus for me were to spend between 9/1 and 12/31 so that the points would apply to this year’s total. And in theory help me qualify for next year’s Companion Pass.
Would an income tax payment be a “cash equivalent transaction”
@Hepworth – it shouldn’t be
If your points post in 2020 they count toward a 2020-2021 Companion Pass. If they post in 2021 they count toward a 2021-2022 Pass. If you get a portion of your Sign On Bonus points in 2020 due to spending they will not help count toward the 125,000 points needed for a 2021-2022 pass. I found this out the hard way in 2019.
Also, my husband got the SWA Credit Credit in Jan 2020 and the Companion Pass requirement is 125,000 points n0t 120,000.
I got the same offer, but with a minimum spend of $6,000 instead of $40,000. I’m self-employed and have an extended companion pass expiring next June, so I’ll be making some Q4 estimated tax payments in January on my Southwest Priority Card to help me earn companion pass through 2022!
I’ve had a southwest promo for 30% bonus on credit card miles posting to my account several times this year. be very careful, Chase doesn’t post in the time they think they do, last quarter I missed out on 10k bonus miles because miles posted to my account about a week later than Chase said they would. And since it’s a southwest promo dependent on posting of miles neither party claimed any responsibility, Chase refused to do anything since it was a Southwest promo and Southwest said they wouldn’t do anything since it was Chase’s problem telling me the wrong posting dates. I’m doing it again this quarter and made sure things will post in time. But once i hit the companion pass (and A-list renewal) amounts this month I’ll be done spending on these cards.
Not to mention that I’ll be super annoyed that this will only extend my companion pass 6 months (my current companion pass was extended to 6/30/2021) until 12/31/2021. By offering to extend those additional 6 months it lessens the perk to spend for only 6 months more.
I received the same offer as Brian ($6,000 minimum spend), but I can not sign up for it — every time I try, I get a website error which is massively frustrating since there is no way to contact them about it. Anyone else?
“Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.”
Regarding the SW promo of 30% if my charges are completed in 2020 then this will go towards my 2020/2021 companion pass but I won’t know if I qualified for my companion pass until 8 weeks after the end of the program on 1/31/2021. Is that correct?