In the past 10 days, many sites have covered the new Southwest personal card offers which are available publicly and through a referral. While the offer only includes a 30,000 point sign-up bonus, it also comes with a Companion Pass good through the end of February 2026. That could be a compelling offer depending on your circumstances, but for many an even better option exists to get an extra 10 months of Companion Pass.
I recently wrote about how to take advantage of an in-airport (or in-flight) offer of 65,000 points for the Southwest Personal card from anywhere. That alone would not earn a Companion Pass, but combined with the Southwest Business Premier card’s 60,000 point sign-up bonus would be enough for a Companion Pass good through the end of 2026. So, which is the better option? Let’s break it down:
Point Value and Minimum Spend
With the current personal card referral offer, you have to spend $4,000 to earn the 30,000 point sign-up bonus. That would result in 34k points (30k from the sign-up bonus and 4k minimum from the spend) worth about $460 towards future flights.
The two-card approach using the in-airport offer requires the same total of $4,000 in minimum spend but would earn 129k points (65k for the personal card and 60k for the business card, plus the 4k from the minimum spend), worth about $1750 towards future flights. With the in-airport offer, the personal card requires only $1k of spend and the business card requires $3k of spend.
Companion Pass Details
Both options would earn a Companion Pass. The first option, with the current referral deal would earn the Companion Pass through February 2026. Assuming you hit the $4k spend in your second billing cycle, you could realistically have earned the Companion Pass by the end of April, giving you ~ 10 months to use the Companion Pass.
With the two-card option, you would extend that to ~ 20 months through the end of 2026, essentially doubling the usefulness!
Referral Impact
If you have the ability to refer this card within your family, the current referral offer also earns 20,000 points for the person giving the referral. You might consider that to be an argument for the 30k point offer, but in this case it would come out the same either way because all referrals allow the referee to choose any of the 5 Chase Southwest cards (3 personal, 2 business). In other words, since the two-card option requires the business card too, you can use one referral either way.
Chase 5/24 Rule Considerations
All of the Southwest cards are subject to the Chase 5/24 Rule, where you are unlikely to be approved for a new card if you have opened 5 or more new accounts across all banks in the past 24 months. While both cards are subject to the 5/24 Rule, only the personal card adds to your 5/24 total so both options are similar in this case; getting the business card shouldn’t hurt your chances of getting the personal card. Keep in mind that you are not eligible for the personal card sign-up bonus if you currently have any of the 3 personal cards or received a sign-up bonus for one of them in the past 24 months.
Which Offer Would I Choose?
On the surface, the two-card option is far superior, both in terms of the total points earned (129k vs 34k) and essentially doubling the duration of the Companion Pass. However, if you are unable to get the business card and have several trips planned with Southwest later this year, the referral offer could also be a good fit. After all, the Companion Pass only has value if you actually use it! If I was going to pursue the two-card option and apply for both the same day, I would recommend applying for the business card first. That way, if you are not approved you could change course and apply for the personal card referral offer.
TL;DR: The Chase Southwest personal card referral offer of 30k points and a Companion Pass good through February 2026 has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks, but there is an even more attractive option if you combine one of the Southwest business cards with the “in-airport” personal card offer.
