Hotel & Other Transfers No Longer Count Towards Southwest Companion Pass

Introduction

The Southwest companion pass is one of the most sought after travel benefits as it entitles your chosen companion to fly with you for free (you just pay $5.60 in security fees per one way flight). The start of each year is the most popular time for people to try to qualify as the pass is valid for the calendar year it’s earned and then the following calendar year. To qualify you need to do either of the following within a calendar year:

  • Fly 100 qualifying one way flights or
  • Earn 110,000 Southwest points

The most popular way to earn the pass has been to sign up for two Chase Southwest cards, after meeting the minimum spend requirements you’d earn up with 104,000 points just 6,000 points shy of the 110,000 points required. This has become a lot more difficult with the introduction of the Chase 5/24 rule.

Negative Changes

Southwest has updated it’s terms and made some negative changes to what does & doesn’t count towards the companion pass. Via TPG, the following no longer count:

  • Points converted from hotel and car loyalty programs
  • e-Rewards
  • e-Miles
  • Valued Opinion
  • Diners Club

Transferring points from a hotel partner was one of the easiest ways to get the additional 6,000 points required if you signed up for two Chase Southwest cards. In addition the other popular way to earn the Chase southwest companion pass is through the Marriott hotel + air packages. For 270,000 Marriott points (or 90,000 SPG points) you can get 120,000 Southwest points and seven nights at a category 1-5 property. Both of these will no longer be available as options.

Our Verdict

It makes sense for Southwest to announce changes to the companion pass at the start of year, the lack of warning is disappointing though as a lot of people will have moved/collected points to earn a companion pass early in the year. Biggest disappointment from my perspective is the fact that the Marriott packages will no longer work.

What are some other good ways to earn qualifying Southwest points? Let us know in the comments below.

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24 Comments
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Jesse
Jesse (@guest_333799)
January 4, 2017 01:59

Best way to earn 6,000 RR to finish off a CP now? Just the shopping portal?

Chuck
Editor
Chuck(@chucksithe)
January 4, 2017 13:54

Yup, or credit card spend. I think retention offers count to, IIRC.

Raul
Raul (@guest_333177)
January 2, 2017 15:52

OK so now that the companion pass is no longer in play and I still have a huge load of amex MR points which is the better airline to pick for flight and hotel packages. Would most o c u still do marriott and southwest or would u change which airline u get points from to something else?

dan
dan (@guest_333143)
January 2, 2017 13:39

With more than 300k pts in Marriott acct, is it better to wait for a decent xfer bonus offer from airlines like united or such, or xfer back to SPG’s?

Matt P
Matt P (@guest_333016)
January 1, 2017 23:15

I bought 30k SPG points at the 50% discount just to use for this. Got to rethink what I will use them on now.

Jose
Jose (@guest_333386)
January 3, 2017 00:56

I also purchased 30,000 spg points to
Bring my total to 90,000. Transfering
80,000 points to virgin americs to
Convert to alaska air, which has some
Grest redemtion travel to asia. Spg is ending their relstionship with virgin smerica
This friday.

Dan
Dan (@guest_333011)
January 1, 2017 22:38

The Marriott package is still great value. You just can’t get CP with it. 110k points is still well worth it.

Ryan
Ryan (@guest_332995)
January 1, 2017 21:28

Back to buying a lot of 1800flowers.

Will Massenburg
Will Massenburg (@guest_332993)
January 1, 2017 21:13

You gotta be shitting me.

The entire reason I was excited about the Marriott merger was transferring 90K SPG points to Marriott for 270K. And then using those 270K Marriott points to purchase the 120K miles + 7night stay at any cat5 or lower Marriott just to get Companion Pass on SW for another 2 years!!

Marc
Marc (@guest_333054)
January 2, 2017 02:39

Agreed. I’m two Amex SPG cards, annual fees and $10k of spend invested, in addition to 2 Marriott cc’s, annual fees and spend. That’s $400 in annual fees and $16k in spend that could have earned better returns. I don’t even like Marriott hotels…

J. Sarayda Shapiro
J. Sarayda Shapiro (@guest_333290)
January 2, 2017 20:14

Serious bummer. My Southwest companion pass is good until the end of 2017, but I still planned to get a Marriott hotel & flight package soon to extend my SW pass until the end of 2018.

I suspect Southwest changed the rules specifically because of the SPG/Marriott merger. There’s probably a ton of people who now have enough SPG/Marriott points to get a Marriott hotel & flight package.

Oh well, Marriott hotel & flight packages are often still a good deal even without earning a SW companion pass.

And yeah, 1800flowers may be the best route towards a companion pass now, if you can’t get enough points through a Southwest visa signup. However, I find that 1800flowers points often don’t post as they should. Even calling 1800flowers often doesn’t work.

Ben
Ben (@guest_332969)
January 1, 2017 19:52

Well…this sucks. I was just about to pull the trigger on a Marriott flight/hotel package.

Mark O
Mark O (@guest_332955)
January 1, 2017 18:48

Shopping portal/reselling is the way to go outside of the CC I think

Chalkitup
Chalkitup (@guest_332942)
January 1, 2017 18:31
Jason Smith
Jason Smith (@guest_332956)
January 1, 2017 19:05

Sadly, I have seen other websites also telling people to put in complaints to the DOT. It is unfortunate that people always seem to think they are entitled to something.

Chalkitup
Chalkitup (@guest_332970)
January 1, 2017 20:00

Unilateral change in terms and conditions without notification of affected consumers.

Please remember that there are plenty of people who have made long term spending and redemption plans based on this feature (now called a loophole) of the Rapid Rewards program who have nothing to do with credit card churning etc.

This is a legitimate concern with at least some supporting case law found with a cursory google search. All Rapid Rewards members are, in fact, “entitled to something.”

Last fall, after unilaterally changing their terms and conditions regarding the use of eBay gift cards for certain purchases, eBay chose to offer a grace period for their use after multiple complaints to them and relevant regulatory bodies.

http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2015/01/safeway-cant-unilaterally-modify-online-terms-without-notice.htm

http://pub.bna.com/eclr/0675424_071807.pdf

Skor
Skor (@guest_332965)
January 1, 2017 19:35

This is sad…