Southwest is currently running a promo that they did last year:
(I have embedded my referral link above because I'm a points whore)
For those who aren't familiar with what a companion pass is, you could Google it, or read on for my explanation. It's basically BOGO plane tickets - you have to designate one companion for your account and I think you can change it once or twice a year, but the bottom line is that the companion pass really only makes sense if you're having consistent and dependable sex with someone who's also willing to deal with Southwest's bullshit open seating policy.
That said, normally it takes earning 135K SW points in a calendar year to get the CP (short for companion pass) and it's good for the rest of the year you earn it, as well as the entire next year. Obviously this promo isn't as good since it'll expire at the end of next February, but it's pretty solid.
The interesting thing about Southwest is that it's the only airline that allows you to earn (significant) points towards status from its co-branded credit cards. For instance, the 30K sign-up bonus above would count towards CP status. By comparison, if you got 60K free miles from signing up for the United card, you get 60K miles to spend but it doesn't count towards shit in terms of status.
135K points is a lot to get in a year, even with credit card spend...or is it?
The fact that this is a business card scares people off, but for my five loyal readers, they'll know I like to dabble in the biz card game. Now, using both of the sign up bonuses to earn 110K points (+ the 8K from spend required to get said bonuses) puts you awfully close to 135K points. The problem is that to get the most out of this in the past you had to time it so you had both cards open late in the year so that you could complete both sign-up bonuses early in the next year. If you fucked it up you could earn points in the wrong year and the CP would be hard to get, or you get it too late the following year and it eats away at the time you could have been using the CP.
What's different about this year, is that you can get the CP early with the personal card, then later in the year do biz card - you'll be enjoying the CP during 2023 while working towards extending the CP until the end of 2024. Worst case is you don't get there and at least got the CP promo.
This is the personal challenge I've put on my self - I just got the personal card in the mail and I plan on going hard in the paint in order to get the full CP.
Join me on this journey (or don't, whatever). If nothing else I can update milestones and/or failures here! (But if you want to try this too, seriously, apply through my referral link above)
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