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Southwest just finished offering up to 80,000 points for signing up for a credit card yesterday.
They know that many people signup for their credit cards in order to qualify for a companion pass, that allows them to bring along a companion on their flights for free.
Currently, if you earn 110K Southwest points in a year from select sources, including flights and their own credit card cards, you get a companion pass valid until the end of the following calendar year.
However Southwest announced today, that starting in 2020 you will need to earn 125K points in order to earn a companion pass.
People applied for their credit cards in order to earn that companion pass in January 2020, so that it would be valid until 12/31/21. Now Southwest is changing the rules so that they need to earn 15K more points in order to earn the companion pass.
In other words if someone applied for a card earning 80K points for spending $5,000 and finished that spending after their December statement closed, they would have 85K Southwest points earned in 2020. If they spent another $25K on the card they would have earned 110K points and a companion pass. With these changes they will have to spend another $15K on the card to earn the companion pass.
If Southwest was being honest, this change should have been made when the limited time offers began on 9/10. By waiting until the day after the limited time offers ended they have pulled the wool over the eyes of their customers.
In more positive news, Southwest has announced that their points will no longer expire.
This isn’t the first time Southwest has had bad behavior with their companion pass.
Some people had already made a point transfer for 2017 before Southwest made the changes.
I advised using Twitter to get Southwest’s attention and filing a DoT complaint against Southwest for deceptive practices.
Some commenters and bloggers called me out for suggesting a DoT complaint when they are within their right to make program changes, but the campaign worked. A few days later Southwest agreed to give a 3 month grace period for hotel point transfers to count towards earning a companion pass.
My advice remains the same today. If you applied for a Southwest card in order to earn a 2020 companion pass file a DoT complaint and let Southwest know on social media how you feel by retweeting this:
@SouthwestAir Very Disappointing To See Negative Companion Pass Changes Made The Day After Increased Southwest Card Offers Expired #WhereIsTheLuv #UnSouthwestmanlikeConduct https://t.co/XdMEf4wRZS
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) October 17, 2019
Southwest Once Again Plays Dirty Pool With CompanionPass Changes @SouthwestAir #WhereIsTheLuv #UnSouthwestmanlikeConducthttps://t.co/XdMEf4wRZS
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) October 17, 2019
Changes should be made with proper notice. Letting people know before increased Southwest card offers are made is the right thing to do when you claim to run on #SouthwestHeart
Making changes the day after increased Southwest card offers expire is just wrong. #WhereIsTheLuv
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) October 17, 2019
People applied for the increased bonus on Southwest cards this week with the intention of completing the spending and earning the signup bonus in January 2020.
Southwest should do the right thing and allow 110K points to qualify for companion pass within a grace period in 2020.
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) October 17, 2019
Did you apply for Southwest cards with hopes to earn 110K points in 2020 for a companion pass?
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48 Comments On "Southwest Once Again Plays Dirty Pool With Companion Pass Changes"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
True that is is deceptive to change today, but most people are applying for two cards which is extremely doable. Even with the 70k premiere and a 50k-60k personal, you’ll land over 125k points.
To be honest I’m surprised the CP still exists, and that they allow it to be earned with CC bonuses!
I’m sure some applied for 2 cards, but I doubt most people do that.
Companion pass exists to sell people more Southwest flights and credit cards. If it didn’t exist then people would focus on Chase Ultimate Rewards cards and avoid spending on Southwest cards as they avoid spending on United cards.
Companion Pass isn’t a right, it’s a benefit that no other airline comes even close to matching. Let’s not get Southwest to focus too much on it, shall we?
So they’re going to change their business model and how they sell credit cards because we’re complaining about a deceptive change?
OK then.
Back in 2017 people made the same complaints about my post. In the end, they relented and did the right thing.
They could have waiting till Jan. 1 to make the announcement and I’d still be grateful they offer an unlimited companion pass at all, let alone one that can be easily earned with a couple credit card signup bonuses.
Why are you conflating being happy that a benefit is offered with a deceptive business practice?
Just because an airline has a benefit doesn’t mean they get to act deceptively without being called out for it. Especially when they claim to behave better than the other airlines.
And again, they don’t offer the CP out of the goodness of their heart. They know the numbers of credit cards they sell and the revenue they get from Chase versus the cost of the companion pass.
I don’t see it as deceptive. Just as offering a CP is a business decision, waiting until today to announce the increased CP requirement is a business decision. Deceptive would be implying that CP will be around next year and that the requirement will be 110k, and then changing it to 125k when they officially announce the terms. I’m grateful that they’ve confirmed CP will be around next year and didn’t wait until Jan 1 to spell out the terms. I’m all for consumer rights, but CP is one of those benefits that each year I assume will disappear the following year because it’s so generous. I understand SW has business reasons for offering it, but it’s such an unparalleled benefit that I wouldn’t want to rock the boat.
We’ll have to agree to disagree here.
In my mind, the only possible reason to announce this change the day after the increased card offers ended is a deceptive one. Sure it was good for their business, but a company professing to be honest should have announced the change last month.
I agree with Dan. It is not about the fact that they offer something that others don’t. It is about setting expectations and then not delivering. Thats immoral.
When did they set expectations?
By allowing people to sign up for increased bonus cards up until oct 16. They knew people will take advantage of it because of timing. Announcing this on Oct 17 tells us exactly what their motives were
I suppose that’s true for anyone intending to spend their way to 110k points from 85k (80k bonus plus 5k required spend). But for those who planned to sign up for 2 cards anyway to reach that threshold (which is a far easier way for most to get the CP early in the year), they’d have a lot more people jumping on that 80k offer if people knew the threshold was moving up to 125k.
Yeah but then it wasn’t 10 weeks notice. It was 2 day notice.
As long as they don’t increase the 100 flights requirement I can still make it.
Did Southwest offer the increased sign up or was it Chase?
It’s a joint decision on when to increase the offers.
Would you also recommend filing a DoT complaint about United’s changes? I find them to be very late in the year as I already purchased several flights in 2020 based on the PQM system.
Sure.
+1
at least the sign up bonus still counts. thats all that matters.
They also added change fees for the first time. They say its effective 1/1/21, but I wonder if that’s a typo
“Having the freedom of same-day standby can mean heading home earlier when your plans change last minute. We know how much this benefit means to our A-List and A-List Preferred Members2. In order to keep offering same-day standby free of airline charges4, starting January 1, 2021, anyone who changes their itinerary using same-day standby will be responsible for any additional government taxes and fees that may result.4 On the day of travel, please see a Customer Service Agent at the airport when using this benefit and to learn more about any additional government taxes and fees”
Only for standby for elites if fees go up.
A 15,000 point difference isn’t that much. Why is it deceptive? It would be deceptive if they canceled their mileage program the next day. Really, what do they owe us? Nothing.
It’s deceptive because they wanted until the day after the limited time card offers ended to let people know that they will need to spend another $15K to get a CP.
@Dan
I now 85% agree with you. I went back and checked and saw that they did advertise the CP as part of the offer, perk or inticement (15% in they did not specific in the offer or fine print the 110K requirement explicitly). As well as the boilerplate clause “…reserve the right to change….any time.”
Intially I thought that nothing was advertised about the CP in the offer or app, but the offer has been around 4 months and I expected it to end by 9.30 before I saw the 10.16 FB ad. I think I would have been miffed if they raised it to 125k in January.
Now the big miles/point sale right before a devalue (UA I’m looking at you, and a few others IIRC this past year).
Hi Dan,
Quick question about the $5k spending threshold in order to receive the 80k mile bonus on the business card I was approved for yesterday:
Do I need to limit my spending so that I don’t hit the $5k spend threshold until December so the 80K points aren’t credited until January 2020 in order to have the valid companion pass until 12-31-21?
In other words if I spend $5k tomorrow on the card and am credited the 80k mile bonus in November would my companion pass then only be valid until 12-31-20?
Correct.
Totally within their right
They need to be profitable like any other biz
Nobody is saying it’s not within their right.
It’s the timing that is problematic.
I agree that a DOT complaint is warranted, and I applied for one of the cards based on the understanding that the requirement would be 110k points. I would be happy to submit a DOT complaint, but don’t have time to write it. Dan, are you willing to post here what you submitted?
No need for it to be long. Say exactly that and copy a line or 2 from this post.
I earned my Companion Pass on March 7, 2019. The card and my account say it expires on December 31, 2019. Their rules say explicitly that it is valid for the remainder of the calendar year PLUS the next calendar year. When I called, they said if I had qualified in June or July, it would extend to the next calendar year, but since I qualified in March, it doesn’t continue for 2020. Am I missing something?
If you earned the Companion Pass from opening the special card offer that granted a Companion Pass then it does not work for the following year.
If you earn 110K points this year then it would be good for next year.
I don’t think offering nearly three months notice is playing dirty. It’s only 15k points more. You can’t expect them to just give them away. In general they’ve been very honest with rapid rewards. Maybe save the hostility for other airlines that deserve it.
I offer hostility to AA, Delta, and United all the time.
I maintain that the honest thing to do was announce this a month ago before the credit card limited time offer started, not now after people signed up with the expectation to only need 110K.
Imho anyone applying for the cards yesterday that is savvy enough to get bonuses to hit in January is savvy enough to waste 15k more ms on southwest. Most people going for the full 2 years don’t sign up until November or December giving more leeway not to mess up the spend threshold.
There’s never a good time to announce a rewards program change. Here there was minimal impact and plenty of notice.
Every blog out there was advising applying this past week for the 2020 CP. Didn’t take any particular savvy.
Last month or earlier would have been a perfectly good time to announce the changes. Nobody would have been angry about that. Waiting until the day after the official end of the credit card push is acting in bad faith.
Maybe but i imagine if they’d announced it a month ago everyone would still be making a big hooha about it. It’s not like they got rid of free baggage or no change fees.
Plus how many people will this really affect? Like 50? Most people are on the odd year cycle after Marriott nights and flights plus most everyone is way over 5/24.
In any event I think the points never expiring is way bigger and better news. Hopefully others soon follow.
Would I have posted about it? Yes.
Would I have said it was unethical or dirty pool? No.
This really is not that complicated to understand.
And what in the world are you basing that number off of? Ridiculous to even speculate.
The window to get the card and hit the spend so points only hit in 2020 is very tight if you applied in October. You’re giving yourself only 2-4 weeks max. Plus most people really don’t even care much about the companion pass. Like its a really cool thing to have but you need to fly at least $1000 in tickets to make the math work instead of just using a bbp from amex.
So for someone like me the cp is huge but most people i know (including heavy business travelers) really don’t use it much. So maybe maybe the number is 100 instead of 50 that have already applied before yesterday and are seriously miffed. But most everyone that’s under 5/24 gets the new cards December time. It’s really a non story imho and leave the poor southwest rep alone.
Why would “most everyone that’s under 5/24 gets the new cards December time”?
Can someone please explain this: “Plus most people really don’t even care much about the companion pass. Like its a really cool thing to have but you need to fly at least $1000 in tickets to make the math work instead of just using a bbp from amex.”
Assuming bbp is blue business plus. Couldn’t you use BBP points to book and still use companion pass. Am I missing something?
Dan’s point seems so clear.
Yes we are happy they offer something that others don’t. BUT announce A change BEFORE people sign up for new cards based on old info…
Did you sign up in the past two weeks?
FWIW:
Just saw that you can also earn 15K points with Premier card 1:$1 – not available on Performance card – of course timing will be everything – that rare to earn points/miles on BT
“. 1 point on balance transfers: You’ll earn 1 point for each $1 of the first $15,000 of balance transfers made during the first 90 days from your original account open date. 6,000 bonus points each account anniversary year: You’ll receive 6,000 bonus points each account anniversary year. “Account anniversary year” means the year beginning with your account open date through the anniversary of your account open date, and each 12 months after that. 1,500 tier qualifying points: You’ll earn 1,500 tier qualifying points…..”
The timing is poor, sure. But of all the airlines and mileage programs, I feel Southwest has really been the gold standard for honesty and transparency. And value, too! No change fees, last minute cancellations, mileage refunds, etc. Plus WN cabin crew are far and away nicer than nearly any other airline. CP is a very generous benefit, and I, too, am surprised it still exists via CC bonus. Can’t complain too hard.
That’s my thinking too. If there’s a big issue complain away but this is silly. If you’re getting it from 2 cards you already hit the threshold. If you can spend 50k+ in 2 weeks you can spend another 15k the next cycle and just get the cp one month later. Leave the poor reps alone.
Sorry, I’m late with my comment. I was tech limited over Yom Tov.
At first, I was very surprised that there wasn’t more outrage at Southwest’s announcement. As soon as I got the email from Southwest (before Dan’s post) I was incensed at the injustice. Then I started to see the comments roll in and I was shocked that everyone is so quick to forgive the airline for this slight. Especially since this puts me in big trouble now bec I signed my wife up for the 60,000 bonus point card as my companion pass expires at the end of the year and now it seems like it was a waste of time.
Then I realized that most commenters here probably aren’t eligible for the companion pass through opening credit cards either because they already got the bonuses on these cards or they can’t open consumer cards due to 5/24. Others, though they could get the bonuses, have their ways of spending all worked out and another 15k maybe isn’t such a big deal for them to put on the card.
But for many others like my family, companion pass is a savings of hundreds of dollars a year and this will greatly impact us. We have no way of putting an additional 15k on the card right now so we’re at a loss.
Of course, like any company, Southwest can make any changes they want to their offers but doing so after everyone signed up for the cards with this plan in mind is plain old deceit and Dan is 100% right for calling them out on it.