Southwest status showers you with hundreds of dollars in valuable benefits

Southwest status showers you with hundreds of dollars in valuable benefits

Southwest is the favorite airline among the Million Mile Secrets staff and readers. It has super customer-friendly policies, like two free checked bags per passenger and generous change and cancellation policies. And Southwest rewards its frequent flyers.

It pays to be loyal to the airline and you can start reaping the benefits by setting up a Southwest account. Southwest status can be worth hundreds of dollars in benefits. Here’s what to expect from Southwest elite status:

Southwest flies to fun destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and the U.S. — including Hawaii. (Photo by MH Anderson Photography/Shutterstock.)

Should you earn Southwest status?

You’ll be surprised at the value you’ll receive from elite status offered by a low-cost airline like Southwest.

Let’s clear up some jargon about the Southwest Rapid Rewards program, different Southwest fares and the ways you earn status for your flights in the list below:

Different types of Southwest fares

Southwest offers three different fares for its flights:

  • Wanna Get Away — The cheapest option
  • Anytime — More expensive but fully refundable
  • Business Select — The most expensive but comes with perks like priority boarding, free alcohol and is fully refundable

Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs)

For every dollar you spend on Southwest airfare, you earn a certain number of points toward elite status called Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs). You can’t redeem these points for flights. They’re just like elite night credits at a hotel. For example, if you stay 50 nights at a certain hotel, you get hotel elite status.

Here’s how Southwest doles out TQPs:

  • Wanna Get Away (the lowest fares) — 6 TQPs per dollar
  • Anytime — 10 TQPs per dollar
  • Business Select — 12 TQPs per dollar

You can also earn TQPs by spending on these cards:

You’ll receive 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points for each $10,000 in purchases, up to $100,000 in purchases annually (for a maximum of 15,000 TQPs).

The information for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business card and Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business cards has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

One-way qualifying flights

Similarly, you’ll earn Southwest elite status after you complete a certain number of qualifying one-way flights. A qualifying one-way flight is a trip on Southwest from your origin city to your destination city (including connections). Award flights don’t count, so you’ll have to pay cash.

Base fare

You earn Tier Qualifying Points on your base fare. That means you only earn points for the actual airfare, not for taxes and fees associated with the ticket.

Earn Southwest A-List elite status

How to achieve A-List status: Fly 25 qualifying one-way flights or earn 35,000 Tier Qualifying Points in a calendar year.

Benefits of A-List status:

  • Priority Boarding: If you don’t know how the Southwest boarding process works, it’s unique. There are no assigned seats. Instead, it’s first-come, first-served. The sooner you check in for your flight, the earlier you can board because you’ll get a place closer to the beginning of the line. With A-List status, Southwest automatically checks you in 36 hours before each flight. That’s 12 hours earlier than anyone without elite status. So you’re guaranteed to be one of the first passengers aboard (though anyone who springs for Business Select will still be ahead of you).
  • Fly By Priority Lane: A-List status comes with priority check-in, which means you can reach the departures desk faster. In some cities, you can even go through security faster. Folks who don’t check bags or already have TSA PreCheck won’t care much about this perk.
  • 25% bonus: You’ll earn an additional 25% points.
  • Same-day standby: You can jump on an earlier Southwest flight for no charge if there’s room. This is a cool perk, but it’s also available to anyone who purchased a ticket above “Wanna Get Away.” Also, it’s only available for flights between the same cities, so if an earlier flight opens up to a nearby destination, you can’t jump on it.
  • Dedicated phone line: You’ll have a phone line to connect with customer service if something goes awry.

Southwest A-List Preferred status

How to achieve A-List Preferred status: 50 qualifying one-way flights or 70,000 Tier Qualifying Points in a calendar year.

Benefits of A-List Preferred status:

  • All the benefits of A-List status.
  • 100% more points: Instead of earning just 25% more points than someone without elite status, you’ll earn 100% more points. That’s a pretty big deal, especially if you fly enough to earn A-List Preferred status.
  • Free Wi-Fi: With A-List Preferred, you’ll always have free Wi-Fi aboard all Southwest flights. Southwest charges $8 per day for inflight Wi-Fi (which really isn’t that bad), so depending on how much you fly, this could really save you.

If you have the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card you’ll have perks that mimic many status benefits. For example, you’ll get 365 inflight Wi-Fi credits per year and four upgraded boardings per cardmember year (when available). To learn more about the perks of this card, read our Southwest Performance Business credit card review.

Southwest Companion Pass

This isn’t elite status per se, but it does come with unbelievable perks that you must work for in order to qualify. So we’ll cover it. The Southwest Companion Pass is the greatest deal in the travel industry, after all.

How to earn the Southwest Companion Pass: 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 125,000 qualifying Southwest points in a calendar year. The Companion Pass doesn’t rely on Tier Qualifying Points. You can earn the Companion Pass simply by earning the welcome bonus and spending on Southwest credit cards, like:

Currently, the three personal cards have are offering a welcome bonus of 40,000 Southwest points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

Earning the bonuses from these cards will count toward the Companion Pass. So by opening one personal and one small-business Southwest credit card, you’ll have enough points to immediately qualify for the Companion Pass.

You can only hold one Southwest personal credit card at a time, but you can have one or more business Southwest cards, in addition to a personal card.

Benefits of the Southwest Companion Pass: The Southwest Companion Pass lets a friend or family member travel with you for free whenever you travel on Southwest. It doesn’t matter if your flight is booked with points or purchased with cash – your companion flies nearly for free (you’ll still have to pay taxes and fees on their ticket, but that’s usually ~$11 round-trip).

You can change your Southwest companion up to three times per calendar year, after you initially choose your companion. That means you can have four different companions the first calendar year, then three in the second year – or 7 total across the life of the pass.

Read this post for everything you could possibly want to know about the Southwest Companion Pass.

Status extension due to COVID-19

Elite status extended by 12 months

If you currently have Southwest A-List or A-List Preferred elite status, Southwest is letting you keep it through December 31, 2021.

Companion Pass extended by six months

If you’ve got a Southwest Companion Pass set to expire on December 31, 2020, you can now use it through June 30, 2021 — six months longer than normal. That should be enough to recoup the time stolen from you by the novel coronavirus.

Companion Pass easier to earn

Southwest is making their elite status and the Southwest Companion Pass easier to earn this year. They’re doing that by providing all Southwest Rapid Rewards members the following:

  • 15,000 qualifying points/10 flight credits toward A-List and A-List Preferred status
  • 25,000 qualifying points/25 flight credits toward the Companion Pass

Remember, you’ll need 125,000 qualifying points to earn the Companion Pass. With this complimentary 25,000 point jump, you’ll only need 100,000 points to qualify. You could achieve this by opening one personal and one small business Southwest card and meeting their minimum spending requirements!

Southwest travel funds extended

If you’ve got travel credit set to expire between March 1 and June 30, 2020, Southwest has pushed the expiration date back to September 7, 2022. This generosity also extends to any travel credit offered due to cancellations between March 1 and June 30, 2020.

Notably, Southwest will soon allow members to convert travel funds into Southwest points. Any funds created between March 1 and September 7, 2020, can take advantage of this offer. The amount of points you’ll receive per dollar will be roundabout the same number of points it costs to book a dollar’s worth of Southwest flights (generally 78ish points per dollar).

Bottom line

Yes, Southwest is considered a low-cost airline. But it’s amazing, and an absolute favorite of the MMS team. It even has surprisingly valuable elite status.

You can receive benefits like:

  • Priority boarding
  • Bonus points for flying
  • Same-day standby
  • Free Wi-Fi
  • Priority check-in

Plus, the Southwest Companion Pass is the holy grail of travel perks. And it happens to be the easiest status perk to earn.

Let us know what you think of Southwest elite status.

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