Getting Two Years Southwest Companion Pass With The New 100k Card Signup Bonus (2026-2027)

Timing Your Spend

We wrote earlier about the 100,000 points signup bonus on all three personal Chase Southwest credit cards. There is a $4,000 spend requirement. Notably, this time they are giving five months to meet the spend requirement. Also notable, the offer is slated to be around through September 17, 2025.

To get the Southwest Companion Pass requires 135,000 points. Cardholders get a boost of 10,000  Companion Pass qualifying points which are deposited into your account by January 31st of each calendar year. And so effectively you need to earn 125,000 points in order to get the pass.

After meeting the $4,000 spend on the card, you’ll have at least 104,000 points, or possibly a bit more, depending where you did the spend. You’ll have to make up the 21,000 points shortfall with some other points earning method. More on that below.

Someone who hits the 135,000 points threshold in 2025 will end up getting the Companion Pass for the last few months of 2025 and the entire 2026.

And if you have some points earned on your 2025 credit card statements and some on your 2026 card statements, those points won’t combine at all to help you get the pass since you need to earn 135,000 in a single calendar year. That means on your 12 credit card statements from January through December 2026 is where the points all have to show. 

The key here is timing the signup bonus points and any other points earned so that they only arrive in your account on the January 2026 card statement or beyond.

Getting The Pass In 2026-2027

The good news is that this card signup bonus is slated to be around through September 17th, and we’re given five months to meet the spend requirement. You can delay signing up for the card until September, and then your spend requirement will have to be met by February.

For example, suppose you sign up for the card on September 5th. And let’s suppose your statement closes on the 10th of each (this is a made-up number). Starting on December 6, 2025, you’ll want to start meeting the spend requirement, and you’ll want to complete it before February 5th.

On your statement-close of January 10th and February 10th, the points earned from the spend and the signup bonus will officially post to your Southwest account. If you hit the 125k/135k required number, you’ll then have the Companion Pass from February 10, 2026 through the rest of 2026, and then also for the entire 2027. Almost two full years.

We wrote more about how to time your statement-close in this post. It’s not necessary this time, but can help get the pass a bit earlier in the year to squeeze in an extra few weeks. Regardless, you’ll have two months time to meet the spend, from your December statement close until your February statement close.

Readers suggest that changing the Due Date to the 26th of the month should result in the statement closing on the first of each month. Others recommend changing to the 2nd or 5th to avoid cutting it so close. Note that you might not be able to change your due date more than once-per-180-days, so we have to get it right the first time.

You can read this article we wrote two years and this one from last year, along with the comments, for more discussion on the timing.

Getting 21,000 Points

You’ll still need 21,000 points after getting the 100,000 bonus + 4,000 from the regular spend. Here are a few ideas, please share your own in the comments.

1. Signup for a Southwest business credit card as well. Maybe we’ll see an increased offer come at some point.
2. Use the Southwest Rapid Rewards shopping portal. Note, only regular portal earnings count (including increased portal rates), but not the seasonal spend offers. E.g. spend $500 and get 1,000 points – those 1,000 points won’t count while the regular portal earn rate will count.
3. Spend multiplier on the credit card. Try doing your initial $4k spend at categories which earn a card multiplier. They recently added some 2x earnings rates on gas, grocery, or restaurant categories on the various cards (see precise details in this post), and you can do Southwest spend for a multiplier as well.
4. Regular spend on the credit. Spend $25,000 on the card instead of just $4,000, and that will give you the 25,000 points you need.
5. Refer friends to the Southwest credit card. Note, again, you’ll have to time this so that the referral points only credit to you (the referrer) on your January 2026 card statement or beyond. If it posts in 2025 it won’t combine with your 2026 earnings toward Companion Pass.