Prerequisites: Before you apply for a Southwest Card
First let's review the basics:
To earn a Southwest Companion Pass, you'll need to have 135,000 “Companion Pass qualifying points” earned in a calendar year.
The reason that so much of this bootcamp focuses on Southwest credit cards is that the very easiest way to do that is to sign up for two Southwest credit cards and earn your welcome bonus points.
The welcome bonuses alone will get you there if you time it right!
But there are some nuances I want to be sure you understand.
Prerequisites for Getting Approved for Southwest Cards
Make sure you qualify under these guidelines before you get ready to apply.
New in September 2026: 3/24 for sole proprietors
Starting in mid-September 2026, Chase appears to be denying most sole proprietors who are at 3/24 or above when they apply for business cards. That means 3 or more new cards on your personal credit report in the past 24 months.
This means we believe you'd have to be at 2/24 or below to get approved for a business card as a sole proprietor. Registered businesses (LLCs, corporations, nonprofits) don't seem to be affected.
I'm tracking the data points in this post.
Make sure you're under 5/24
Chase issues all the Southwest cards so we are beholden to their rules -- notably what's called the 5/24 rule.
In short: you will only be able to get approved for these cards if you have fewer than five new credit cards opened (from any issuer) in the past 24 months. This is known in the miles and points world as the “5/24 rule.” I have a whole post about it here if you are unfamiliar.
The easiest way to check if you are “under 5/24” is to go through your credit report and count how many new accounts show up in the past 24 months. You just need to do this work when you're getting started.
People are often asking if a card counts for this, and the very basic rule is, if it is on your credit report, it counts. So look at your credit report to check! Generally speaking, business cards do not count but store credit cards DO.
Occasionally people get approved when they are “over” 5/24 -- when they have opened 5+ new personal credit cards in the past 24 months but it's rare.
Have a good credit score + good credit habits
You have to have a good credit score to access these deals.
Also remember: banks make a lot of money on credit cards when people carry a balance. Nearly all travel cards have astronomical interest rates — usually 18% or higher.
If you carry a balance, you will quickly negate any value from the miles you're earning. Use your regular spending to meet your minimum spending requirements and enjoy the benefits of the points you've earned.
More on keeping your credit score high while getting into miles and points here.
If you have a personal Southwest card, you can't open another
You can only hold one Southwest personal (i.e. non-business) card at a time. You are allowed to hold both business card versions. IF you want to earn a Companion Pass and currently hold a Southwest personal card, you have two paths to the Companion Pass.
Option One: You could try to open both business cards to earn enough points for the Companion Pass. You would following the timing I will lay out in future lessons. But note that it is harder to get approved for 2 business cards close together.
Option Two: You could use your Southwest personal card to refer your spouse or partner to 2 cards following the strategies we outline in this course. They would become the one who holds the Companion Pass
Option Three: If it has been more than 24 months since you earned the welcome offer on your Southwest card, you would be eligible to open one again assuming at the time of your application you no longer hold a Southwest personal card. It typically takes about 7-14 days for a closed card to clear out of a bank’s system. Note that if you have any regular spending on a card at the time you close it, it takes a full statement cycle to clear out of the bank’s system. Best practice is to pay off any small balance before calling a bank to close an account.
If you already have 3+ business cards from Chase…
You might have a harder time getting approved for a Southwest business card if you already have 3+ business cards from Chase and you're applying as a sole proprietor. We're still seeing the data points in this article to be holding true for sole proprietors.
If that's you, you'll want to make some decisions and try to get down to 1-2 business cards before you proceed.
Apply for a business card (for the tiniest side hustle)
The very easiest way to earn a Southwest Companion Pass is to open one business and one personal card. Or to open both SW business cards.
If you have an LLC, this is fairly easy. I have found, though, that almost everyone I know is making some sort of money “on the side” that qualifies them as a “small business” in the eyes of the bank.
Some very common businesses that I see get approved include being a landlord, babysitting, tutoring, selling the occasional item on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, freelance writing, dog walking, and driving for Uber.
You don't have to be making loads of money. I have had people tell me they put that they make $50 a year from their business and got approved. The important thing is to be honest on your application.
To get approved as a sole proprietor (as of September 2026) you’ll ideally want to be at 2/24 or below to have the best chance of approval. Review the section above on 5/24 if those words don’t make sense to you! See data points here.
If you want to learn more, I have an in depth blog post here that you can read. I also walk through a business credit card application here.
If you're worried about putting personal spending on a business credit card, here is my understanding.
Fake News in Fall 2026: Lifetime Language
In August 2026, Chase updated the eligibility language on the business cards to include more vague language that stated "The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card. We may also consider factors pertinent to your business in determining your bonus eligibility."
By mid-September, some bloggers were reporting this as fact that Chase had changed the rules on these cards. We took a more cautious approach at Katie’s Travel Tricks because we had been tracking this and noticed this was only appearing on some links -- specifically affiliate links and some other public links.
On September 29, 2026 Chase confirmed that, in fact, this was an error and rules are not changing.
