Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

So far 2018 is shaping up to be a year of disappointment on the travel-hacking front. Between IHG killing maiming the annual free night certificate (and bungling the roll-out),  to Southwest just announcing a minor devaluation to their award prices, the first part of the year hasn’t started out all that well.

Now we can add some restrictions Chase just implemented on their personal Southwest Visa cards to the list. Southwest and Chase have just decided that the two Rapid Rewards credit cards will now be part of the same family of cards and bonus restrictions will apply accordingly. As of now, each Southwest person card product is not available to:

  • Current cardmembers of any Southwest Rapids Rewards® Credit Card, OR
  • Previous cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card products.

This is along the same lines as the restrictions implemented by CitiBank where you can only get a bonus within a given product family if you haven’t opened of closed one of that family’s card in the pasty 24 months. Remember that you can only get the bonus on a Chase card every 24 months.

How can you still get the Southwest Companion Pass easily?

The one plus (at the point) is that it is still possible to open a Southwest Rapid Rewards small business credit card along with a personal card to obtain enough points for the companion pass. If you can pick up one of these cards (say, the personal Premier) with a 60,000 points bonus and a small business version with a 50,000 points bonus, you can still easily hit the required 110,000 for the pass.

If you’re one of those without a small business, however, you’re out of luck (but make sure you really don’t have a small business). Getting one bonus could be helpful, especially if it is 60,000 points. But you’ll still need to spend a hefty amount to earn your pass.

If you do plan to apply for a new credit card, you can find some of these offers at the top credit card offers page in the top navigation of the site

Remember to factor in the 5/24 rule if you plan to apply for any Chase cards (SEE: Chase 5/24 is real and here’s the proof)!


This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them

User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.

BoardingArea