Southwest updating Companion Pass and elite status counters

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We posted a few weeks ago about how Southwest is handling 2020 Companion Pass and elite status qualification by essentially adding some qualifying points (not redeemable points, just imaginary points that get you closer to the goal) to all member accounts. We also noted that it would take some time for the IT systems to implement this. Good news: Southwest has started updating accounts with the extra points. My wife was over 100K Companion Pass qualifying points on the year and today she received the email that she now has a Companion Pass:

a close-up of a credit cardI had checked her online account just last night and it did not reflect this change then. However, her online account now reflects that she has earned the Companion Pass (oddly, it doesn’t show how many points she earned, but that doesn’t matter for our purposes).

a screenshot of a computer

As you can see above, she now also has 16,500 points toward A-list status. That reflects the 15,000 points Southwest added for all customers and 1500 that she had already earned from credit card spend this year.

It’s good news to see Southwest has finally gotten the IT in place to implement their solution. I noted when we wrote about how they are handling the Companion Pass that I find it disappointing (read more about why in that previous post), but it’s great to see accounts reflecting the juiced up points before travel picks back up. While we still don’t know when travel will return to normal, at least now those who have qualified for the Companion Pass under the new requirements can speculatively book summer or fall travel and add their companions. Given Southwest’s lenient cancellation policy, it makes sense to book while flights are cheap and decide when the time comes whether or not it makes sense to travel.

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