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Do you typically drive or fly to Disney parks? Our family has tried both, and there’s perks with each option: it often costs less to drive and it’s convenient to have a car at your destination. On the other hand, you’re wasting vacation days in the car, and some of us only have so much PTO. That’s why it’s often preferable–but also expensive–to fly to your Disney destination.

From most parts of the U.S., Southwest Airlines is the most economical way to fly a family to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. What makes flying SW even more economical is acquiring the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass, because it reduces your companion’s fare to almost free!

To learn more about the Southwest Companion Pass, listen to our episode on The Disney Points Podcast here:

What is the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass?

When you qualify for SW Airline’s Companion Pass, you pay less than $6 in taxes and fees to bring a companion with you every time you fly on Southwest Airlines. The advertised ways to qualify for the pass are to fly 100 one-way flights in a calendar year, or earn 125,000 points flying Southwest in one year. Both of those options are exclusive to extremely frequent flyers. That’s why today we’re going to show you how to simply open credit cards and earn the points needed for one or even two companion passes per household–all without boarding a single plane!

The Chase 5/24 Rule

Before we get started, let’s review the Chase 5/24 rule. Southwest credit cards are Chase Bank cards, and Chase will cut you off from opening credit cards with them once you’ve opened any five credit cards across any bank within a two year period. Therefore, your personal card count will have to be 4/24 or less in order to qualify for the pass and here’s why: you’re going to open a Chase business card–which doesn’t count towards your 5/24–and then open a Chase personal card. You cannot hold two personal Chase Southwest cards, but can hold two personal Chase business cards. That means you could potentially open two Southwest Business cards to earn the pass (more on that below), but because you’re opening the cards close together, we suggest alternating between one business and one personal.

Companion Pass Season

Once you earn enough points to qualify you for the Companion Pass, the pass is good for the rest of that calendar year and the following year. Accordingly, ‘Companion Pass Season’ starts in October of any calendar year, because you’re essentially working backwards from January, which is when you want 135,000 points to hit your Rapid Rewards account and qualify you for the Pass. The credit card minimum spends must be met within three months or 90 days of opening the card, so essentially you’re opening two cards sometime after October 15th-ish, and not paying the last dollar of either minimum spend until January 1st at the earliest (more timeline details below). That way, all the welcome bonus points you earn will post at the very beginning of a calendar year–which maximizes the amount of time you will have the pass to almost a full two years.

If you need to get one portion of this trick right, it’s the timeline part: all 135,000 welcome bonus points MUST post to your account January 1st or after.

How to Qualify for the Pass Opening two Credit Cards

The simplest way to qualify for the pass is to open two Chase Southwest credit cards, one business and one personal, and earn a combined 135,000 qualifying points through welcome bonuses. Now, right off the bat, you might think you’re disqualified, because you don’t own a business. But you don’t need an LLC or tax ID number to open a business card! You just need any kind of side income, no matter how small (driving Uber or Uber eats, selling goods online, renting out your house on Airbnb).

Tips on Opening Business Cards

Here’s a few pointers that may help you navigate a business credit card application–they’re a little different than personal applications!

1. If you’re a sole proprietor, use your name & SSN, not a DBA
2. When asked for business earnings, estimate it out for the year
3. When asked for gross earnings, report your entire household income

Apply for the business card and let it pend. It will probably go through. Don’t call the bank, just wait a few days.

The Cards to Open

These are the two cards we recommend opening for this basic way to earn the pass. Start with this business card:

Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Performance Business Credit Card

You’ll earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. Remember, don’t open it before mid October, and don’t spend the last dollar of the minimum spend until January 1st of the following year at the earliest!

Thank you for using our affiliate links in this post!

Second, open a personal card. The general rule of thumb is to wait 90 days between credit card applications, but spacing the business and personal card applications out at least 60 days apart works for most people. There’s three personal Southwest cards, and we recommend this one, because it has a low $69 annual fee:

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card

You’ll earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. As with the business card: do not spend the last dollar of the minimum spend on the personal card until January 1st or later!

By spending $6000 on regular purchases between these two cards–and spending the last dollars of both minimum spends sometime after January 1st–you’ll have a combined 130,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards post to your account in January, more than enough to qualify you for a companion fare for almost two full years.

Can Multiple People Open the two Cards and earn one Pass?

No, one individual has to open both cards to earn one pass–but below, we’ll talk about how two individuals in one household can both earn passes!

Annual Fee Considerations

You may be wondering if a combined $268/year in annual fees is worth one companion pass, and only you know the answer to that question. How many fares will the pass replace? How much would you pay in cash for those fares? One thing to consider is that the business card qualifies you for one $100 Global entry statement credit every four years, offsetting the annual fee a bit, and you’ll receive 9,000 rapid rewards every year on the business card anniversary. Definitely weigh the cost before beginning the process of earning the pass!

How to Qualify for two Passes Opening Three Cards

To earn two passes for one household–one pass for two different people-you’ll begin the same way. One person will open the business card mentioned above and hold off on hitting the minimum spend until January. Then in January, the second person will use the first person’s personal Chase referral links from the business card to open both the cards mentioned above (one at a time, ensuring they have time to hit the minimum spends). Conveniently, holding the Chase Southwest Business card allows you to refer others to ANY Chase Southwest card, which is what allows this trick to work!

Here’s how the points math with turn out:

Player 1 opens Southwest Business Card & earns 80,000 bonus RR
Player 2 uses Business referral link & Player 1 earns 20,000 referral points
Player 2 uses Personal referral link & Player 1 earns 20,000 referral points

This adds up to 120,000 Companion Pass points–the other $5000 they’ll earn hitting the minimum spend on the Business Card. This brings up another timing issue, because you need all the spend points to post in January to count towards the pass. So, you’ll want to time opening the card and spending so that your statement will post in January. This means you should open the card sometime in December. Worst case scenario, you’ll have to spend a little more in January until you get to 125,000.

Player two will earn their pass the traditional way: earning 130,000 points hitting the minimum spends on the two cards to which Player one referred them. Once they earn their pass, you’ll have two passes for your household for the rest of that calendar year, plus the entire year after!

How to Earn a Companion Pass if not Bonus Eligible

If you’ve earned a personal Southwest points bonus within the past 24 months, you can still earn the pass opening the two Southwest business cards! We recommend opening both Southwest Business cards during Southwest companion season–but because they are both business cards from the same bank, make sure and space them out 90 days apart. Open the 80,000 point card above in mid-to-late October, then the following card 90 days later in January:

Southwest Rapid Rewards^®Premier Business Credit Card

You’ll earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. As you can see, this is the same bonus as the personal card recommended in the first scenario above–it does have a higher annual fee of $99. But you’ll earn more than the 125,000 points needed for the pass!

Named Companion Restrictions

Once you earn the pass, you name one companion who will be flying with you for almost free–and you can change your named companion up to three times in a calendar year. If you follow our instructions, you’ll earn the pass in January of a calendar year and have the pass for the rest of that year plus the entire following year! That means you can change the name of your traveling companion a total of six times if you need to (three the first year, three the second).

Takeaways

With one or two Companion Passes per household, you’ll unleash the power of bringing multiple family members on vacation for less than ~$6 each! Maybe you’ll name your kids–or your parents–or friends! It doesn’t matter, because you have the power to rename your companion three times a year.

And one of the best parts of the Southwest Companion Pass is that Chase allows you to earn welcome bonuses again after 24 months. That means you can earn the passes more than once!

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