Southwest Overhauls Rapid Rewards—New Loungee, Elite Tier And Partner Awards, But A Much Harder Companion Pass

Southwest Airlines has revealed a bit more about its airport lounges, they’re introducing premium cabin awards on partner airlines and a new top elite tier. But its 2027 Rapid Rewards overhaul also ends the usual credit card bonus path to Companion Pass, raises the number of flights needed for its existing status levels, and cuts points earned on its two most expensive fares. There are real improvements here, especially for customers earning status through everyday card spending. And there’s an important exception for new credit cards approved by December 2. The details Southwest has published tell a much more complicated story than the airline’s announcement of “more to love.” The Easy Credit Card Path To Companion Pass Is Going Away For years, one of the best deals in travel has been earning a Southwest Companion Pass with credit card initial bonuses and modest additional spending. I’ve written about timing that qualification for early January, so the pass lasts nearly two years. Currently, you qualify with 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year. Southwest credit card customers get a 10,000-point annual head start. Initial bonuses, card spending and qualifying partner activity can get you there. Starting January 1, 2027, Southwest is eliminating Companion Pass qualifying points and using tier qualifying points for both status and Companion Pass. Under the new Companion Pass rules, these will no longer help you qualify: Credit card initial bonuses, referral bonuses and anniversary points, apart from the transition exception below. Extra points earned in credit card bonus categories. A purchase earning 2 points per dollar still earns just 1 qualifying point per dollar. Partner points from activities such as hotel stays and car rentals. You’ll still earn those points to spend on travel. They just won’t earn Companion Pass. When Southwest raised the requirement to 135,000 points, the credit card head start largely offset the increase for readers. This change is much bigger: it removes the ways many people reached the requirement in the first place. There will be two regular Companion Pass earning levels: 95,000 tier qualifying points or 75 qualifying one-way flights: three Companion Pass trips. 140,000 tier qualifying points or 100 qualifying one-way flights: Platinum status with unlimited Companion Pass trips. Each of the three trips can cover either a one-way or a roundtrip itinerary. Using one for a one-way consumes the whole trip benefit. There’s no unused half left over, so book a roundtrip when possible. The basic Companion Pass structure remains in place: one designated companion at a time, up to three companion changes per calendar year, no blackout dates, and a seat must be available. Taxes and fees start at $5.60 each way. You book yourself first, then add your companion, and you have to travel together. Existing companion reservations must be canceled before changing your designated companion. Companion Pass isn’t valid on their partners. December 2 Is An Important Credit Card Deadline Southwest’s FAQ includes an exception for customers approved for a Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card on or before December 2, 2026 – that’s the deadline for an initial bonus to count as Companion Pass qualifying points, even when the member meets the spending requirement in early 2027. That’s an approval deadline. It’s not clear yet how that early-2027 exception will be administered. For everyone qualifying under ordinary 2026 rules, activity needs to post by December 31. A Companion Pass earned in 2026 remains unlimited through December 31, 2027. A Companion Pass earned at the start of 2027 is valid through 2028. Southwest also says it will honor existing Companion Pass promotions under their stated terms, and continue offering promotional paths to the benefit. Those short promotional passes can be really valuable. Silver, Gold And Platinum Replace The Old Status Structure On January 1, A-List becomes Silver and A-List Preferred becomes Gold. Platinum is new. Here’s the full qualification structure, including the two milestones. You need to meet the points requirement or the flight requirement during the calendar year: Level Tier qualifying points Qualifying one-way flights First milestone 20,000 15 Silver 35,000 25 Gold 65,000 50 Three Companion Pass trips 95,000 75 Platinum, including unlimited Companion Pass 140,000 100 A-List currently takes 20 flights and A-List Preferred takes 40. Their replacements require 25% more flights. Silver keeps the 35,000-point requirement, while Gold drops from the current 70,000 points to 65,000. However, Southwest is also cutting how quickly some tickets earn those points. The benefits break down this way: Silver: Preferred or Standard seats at booking, available extra legroom seats within 48 hours of departure, Group 1 boarding, one free checked bag, and a 40% flight earning bonus, up from A-List’s 25%. Gold: any available seat, including extra legroom, at booking; boarding before Group 1; two free checked bags; two premium drinks on eligible flights; and a 60% flight earning bonus. That’s down from A-List Preferred’s 100% bonus. Platinum: Gold’s seating and drink benefits, boarding ahead of Gold, three free checked bags, a 120% flight earning bonus, and unlimited Companion Pass trips. All three tiers get priority check-in and security lanes where available, priority customer support, and same-day standby even on Basic fares. That isn’t free confirmed same-day change on Basic Economy. Southwest still requires Choice or a higher fare for that. The seat benefits extend to up to eight additional passengers on the same reservation. There are two protections for members who earn their 2027 status through 2026 activity: A-List Preferred members becoming Gold keep their 100% flight earning bonus through December 31, 2027. A-List members becoming Silver keep the $35 second checked bag price through December 31, 2027. Newly earned Silver otherwise pays the standard second-bag fee. Existing qualifying status moves across automatically. Status matches and promotions transition to the corresponding tier, but challenges extending into 2027 need to be read against their own terms. Higher Fares Will Earn Fewer Points Southwest’s new earning chart applies to both redeemable points and tier qualifying points before elite bonuses: Fare Current points per base-fare dollar Starting January 1, 2027 Basic 2 2 Choice 6 6 Choice Preferred 10 8 Choice Extra 14 10 Compared with today’s earning rates, that’s a 20% cut for Choice Preferred and a 28.6% cut for Choice Extra. Southwest already slashed earnings on cheaper tickets in 2025. Now they’re reducing the reward for buying their higher fares, too. A customer qualifying entirely through Choice Extra flying currently needs $5,000 in base fares to earn the 70,000 points for A-List Preferred. Under the new rules, earning Gold takes $6,500 in base fares. The published points threshold falls, but the airfare spending required rises 30%, before adding any credit card earning or other qualifying activity. The redeemable-points cut can be even larger when combined with the lower Gold bonus. A $1,000 Choice Extra base fare currently earns an A-List Preferred member 28,000 points. Under the standard new Gold rules it earns 16,000, a 42.9% reduction. A grandfathered member retaining the 100% bonus earns 20,000 in 2027, so even that protection doesn’t preserve today’s total earning. Unlike on some competitors, Basic fares continue earning points. Award flights and Companion Pass travel don’t earn qualifying flight credit or points. Cash + Points bookings earn points on the cash portion of the base fare. Redeemable points don’t expire while your account remains open, and Southwest retains redemptions on available flights without blackout dates. Every Southwest Credit Card Will Earn Status Faster Beginning January 1, all Southwest credit cards, including Plus and business cards, earn one tier qualifying point per dollar of eligible purchases, without a cap. Authorized-user spending counts toward the primary cardmember’s account. Points post after the statement closes, so the posting date matters at year end. That’s a real improvement for earning Silver and Gold. The personal Premier card currently earns 1,500 qualifying points per $5,000 spent, and Priority earns 2,500. Under the new rules, $5,000 of eligible spending earns 5,000 qualifying points on either card, and Plus becomes eligible too. There’s also a one-time 2027 boost of 10,000 tier qualifying points after cardmembers reach 130,000. That gets them to Platinum and unlimited Companion Pass, with status valid through December 31, 2028. The boost can take up to 30 days, requires an open account in good standing, and is limited to one per Rapid Rewards member regardless of how many cards they hold. Without other qualifying activity, that means $35,000 in card spending for Silver, $65,000 for Gold, $95,000 for three Companion Pass trips, and $130,000 for Platinum in 2027 after the boost. Southwest has announced that boost for 2027 only. It also arrives at the top of the earning track, so it won’t help you reach the earlier milestones. The debit card earns one qualifying point per $2 of eligible purchases. Qualifying Getaways vacation purchases and Southwest Groups travel also count. Qualifying points reset January 1 and can’t be spent; they’re separate from your redeemable points balance. Existing credit card benefits continue, including the first checked bag free for the primary cardmember and up to eight others on the same reservation, boarding no later than Group 5, and the seating benefits associated with the particular card. I previously wrote about aiming for A-List Preferred because confirmed extra legroom seats for my family, combined with an Austin lounge, could make Southwest much more useful to me. Gold at $65,000 in card spending, less whatever I earn flying, makes that easier. Southwest and Chase are giving customers a reason to put substantial ongoing spending on the card, while taking away the bonus-driven path to their best benefit. And there will be a premium card offering lounge access. The Two Milestones Have Different Uses At 20,000 qualifying points or 15 qualifying one-way flights, you choose 2,000 Rapid Rewards points or two Preferred Seat Certificates. At 95,000 points or 75 flights, you get the three Companion Pass trips described above. Each milestone can be earned once per calendar year. Your 2026 activity doesn’t count toward them. The seat certificate terms deserve attention. Preferred seats have standard legroom; these aren’t extra legroom upgrades. Certificates are for the member’s own travel, aren’t transferable, and must be applied after booking through the seat modification flow. A certificate covers one segment on a connecting itinerary. A direct flight with an intermediate stop and no plane change uses one certificate for the whole direct flight. You can use multiple certificates on a reservation. Once redeemed, you can’t simply cancel the certificate, but qualifying flight changes or cancellations return it; a no-show forfeits it. Group bookings are excluded. The certificates and milestone Companion Pass trips remain valid through December 31 of the following year. The seat certificate requires travel by its expiration date, and the initial milestone choice is final. If your card already gives you the Preferred seats you’d otherwise buy, the 2,000 points are the more useful choice. Southwest’s Lounges Get The “Icon” Name Southwest’s airport lounges will be called Southwest Icon Lounge, and the airline has released its first Nashville rendering. The name is meant to invoke the airline’s history and Herb Kelleher. The first four announced airports remain Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville, with openings beginning in late 2027 and at least seven more lounges planned over the following years. This isn’t a new announcement of an 11-lounge network; Southwest announced that in September, after leases, permits and airport documents had already revealed much of the work. I’ve since reported Orlando’s planned lounge, bringing the known pipeline to eight airports when combined with Denver, Dallas Love Field and Washington National. Those latter projects aren’t all at the same stage or on the same construction timeline. There are substantial spaces coming: Austin’s initial lounge is about 20,000 square feet, Nashville’s about 30,000, and Baltimore’s nearly 33,000. Honolulu’s lease covers 12,241 square feet across two levels. Nashville plans have included a mother’s room and a children’s area with a treehouse, climbing wall and interactive floor piano. Access will come with a new premium Southwest credit card from Chase launching in 2027. They haven’t published its annual fee, guest rules, reciprocal Sapphire lounge access, or a promise of entry based on Platinum status alone. Family guest access will matter a great deal at airports like Orlando and Honolulu. Southwest promises local dining, design and amenities informed by Chase’s Sapphire lounges. Lounges give Chase something to sell with a more expensive card, and give customers another reason to choose Southwest when someone else is offering a similar flight at a similar price. Premium Cabin Partner Awards Start In Spring, With Seat Redemptions Later Rapid Rewards vice president Nandika Suri confirmed at Media Day that Icelandair, Etihad Airways and China Airlines redemptions begin in spring 2027, and partner awards will include premium cabins. These partnerships cover both earning and redemption. Rapid Rewards members will be able to earn and redeem points for partner travel, and members of the partner frequent flyer programs will be able to redeem their points for Southwest flights. Suri also said Southwest envisions adding more earning and redemption partners. Reciprocal elite benefits are under discussion, though no specific benefits or start date have been announced. The airline points to destinations including Reykjavik and Paris, Taipei and Tokyo, and Abu Dhabi and Johannesburg. This addresses a limitation I’ve repeatedly pointed out: Southwest could connect passengers to international airlines without giving them a way to spend Rapid Rewards points on those trips. Premium cabin awards give customers saving for a big trip to Europe or Asia a reason to consider making Southwest points their primary currency. The remaining questions are what those awards cost, how many seats will be available, which premium products will be included, and whether there will be carrier-imposed surcharges. Southwest hasn’t published those details or the booking mechanics. Premium cabins are confirmed; the value of the redemptions is still to be determined. Two other redemption options are coming: Rental cars, beginning in mid-November 2026: redeem directly at cars.southwest.com across participating rental partners. Seat selection, later in 2027: use points for eligible seats, including Preferred and extra legroom. Suri confirmed this at Media Day as well; Southwest’s detailed updates page places it in late 2027. Seat redemptions must be made after ticketing and before check-in. They won’t be available at airport kiosks or the gate, or on Southwest flights within an interline itinerary. Each transaction uses one Rapid Rewards account and one payment method; you can’t mix points and cash for the same seat purchase. Point prices vary by flight and can change until you confirm. Cancel or change the associated flight and the seat points are refunded. Change to another seat and Southwest refunds the original points and charges the new price. Cancel only the seat while keeping the flight unchanged and the seat redemption is nonrefundable. Purchased seat selections aren’t transferable to another flight. Starlink Across The Entire Fleet “This Time Next Year” Southwest’s timeline at Media Day is “this time next year” for Starlink across all aircraft—roughly October 2027, consistent with the fall 2027 target in its release. They expect to be the first major U.S. airline to finish a fleetwide rollout. Internet remains free for Rapid Rewards members through the T-Mobile partnership, with connectivity from takeoff to landing. I wrote when they announced Starlink that unreliable internet was the biggest reason I avoided Southwest. That initial announcement targeted more than 300 aircraft by the end of 2026, and I wasn’t sure they’d replace the newer ViaSat installations. Now they’re committing to the whole fleet. Being able to book a flight without wondering whether I’ll lose several hours of work is worth more to me than another boarding group. Bob Jordan On First Class And Long Haul International Asked about first class at Media Day, CEO Bob Jordan said: Top two things we knew customers wanted after the things we’ve done the last 18 months, it was wifi and access to lounges. He also said: We are not going to stop chasing the customer and looking to fulfill our customers’ wants and needs. I’ve been up front we’re looking at more premium and long haul international. He had nothing to announce on those fronts today. But with Frontier adding first class and Allegiant introducing it in 2027, Southwest is on track to be the only major U.S. airline without it. Extra legroom helps, but the customer willing to pay for a wider seat can increasingly buy one even from an ultra low cost carrier. Each Change To Southwest’s Business Requires The Next One I’ve argued that Southwest’s changes follow from one another. They needed to reach customers who weren’t already going to Southwest.com. That meant putting their flights on Google Flights and online travel agencies. Once they appeared alongside everyone else’s stripped-down fares, including bags and flexibility in the ticket made Southwest look expensive. I flagged what the Expedia deal meant for free bags before Southwest announced bag fees. Broader distribution created pressure to unbundle. Basic economy and bag fees followed. Selling a premium for extra legroom meant assigning seats. Having given up much of the old proposition, they needed more of the benefits that make other airlines worth paying for: reliable internet, lounges, premium cabins and a loyalty program with somewhere interesting to take you. That’s also why the Boeing 787 possibilities I’ve covered matter beyond which aircraft Southwest might buy. There’s no 787 order announced today. But if they go down that road, buying airplanes would be the beginning of the work. In my view, a competitive long haul operation would require: More passengers feeding the flights in the U.S. Regional partners could bring in customers from cities that can’t support Southwest’s 737s or need more departures than Southwest can offer with them. That would require a deal with their pilots. Foreign partners feeding the other end. Southwest needs connections beyond its overseas gateways, plus partners that can sell the flights to customers who have little reason to know the Southwest brand. A premium product throughout the trip. A lie-flat business class seat across the Atlantic would help sell higher fares. Connecting that passenger to domestic coach would leave Southwest at a disadvantage before the long flight even starts. A frequent flyer program with competitive international redemptions. Customers who want Europe or Asia need a reason to concentrate their flying and card spending with Southwest. An award needs to be worth saving for, and realistically obtainable. Confirmed premium cabin partner awards let Southwest offer customers something to save for without buying a single widebody. Redemption in the other direction gives foreign frequent flyers a reason to choose Southwest for U.S. travel, too. More partners and reciprocal elite benefits would make those relationships more useful. But the prices and award availability on Icelandair, Etihad and China Airlines will matter enormously. Putting an overseas premium cabin in the redemption menu won’t win someone’s credit card spending if the points price is absurd. Southwest is taking on more of the complexity and cost that its competitors already carry. They need the premium fares, connecting passengers and loyalty revenue that support that structure. They’ve got a lot left to build before they can expect customers to pay them the same premiums they pay the airlines already offering the whole trip. Topics on this page