Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Companion Pass - Not Transparent

vpunzi
Explorer C

We know Southwest values transparency, but we do not feel like you have been transparent with us. We signed up for the Southwest credit card in Oct 2017 and were told that if we earn 110,000 companion points in a calendar year (2018), my wife and I would receive the companion pass for 2019.

 

We have made many efforts to achieve this goal and were very excited to earn 110,000 points the other day. However, we just found out that the December 2018 balance we paid does not post until Jan 4th 2019, so we will not be awarded the companion pass. Southwest only gave us 11 of 12 months to earn the companion pass. This feels like a deceiving marketing strategy and does not foster loyalty. 

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Companion Pass - Not Transparent

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

RR points earned via a Southwest credit card are posted to your RR account several days after your credit card statement closes,, not when you pay the credit card.  This is a Chase process.  Chase determines how many points you have earned and sends the information to Southwest after each month's statement closes.  As Southwest has no role in this besides accepting the information from Chase it's not quite right to get upset at Southwest for it. 

 

Additionally, based on the statement closing dates you mentioned, points earned from spending in December 2017 likely posted in January 2018 and therefore you had 12 billing cycles to earn points towards earning CP in 2018.  Yes, the statement that closed in December 2018 was the last one that would earn points towards CP in 2018.

 

If you verify that you are just a few points short from earning CP (southwest.com / My Account / My Rapid Rewards), you still have time to earn CP qualifying points via flying, shopping, car rentals, and hotels stays.  Points earned from flying will post to your account the fastest, but the other options should post if you complete within the next couple of days.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Companion Pass - Not Transparent

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

That’s not true about 11 of 12 months - your prior December spending from 2017 would have likewise counted for 2018’s total the same as this December’s statement that closes early in January 2019.

 

The terms are pretty clear that it is statement closing and not payment dates.. You won’t earn points on purchases in a month until that statement period closes.

 

But it sounds like you are really close then? The best suggestion is to take a “points run” by booking a flight to earn the points, or perhaps book a hotel room with Rocketmiles to close the gap. 

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Companion Pass - Not Transparent

truongmm
Explorer C

I completely agree with this post. Chase and Southwest do NOT work together to be transparent about this policy. I called a Chase Southwest representative about the companion pass BEFORE Dec 31 and the representative helped me calculate my points for my December statement date but did NOT tell me that those points needed to post before Dec 31 in order for it to count towards my companion pass. What kind of customer support is this if you're withholding important information like that??

 

Because of this, none of the charges I spent in the month of Dec counted when all that Chase representative had to do was move my statement date up a few days. I am so upset and have talked to MULTIPLE Southwest representatives who couldn't even tell me if I got the companion pass or not due to the points actually posting to my account but then were reversed...

 

Both Chase and Southwest need to train their customer support better so that their representatives actually know the poilcies and can inform their customers better.

Re: Companion Pass - Not Transparent

chgoflyer
Aviator A

I think that now more than ever it's really up to the customer to make sure they read carefully the terms and conditions of every offer and verify that they meet all the requirements. Offers can be complicated and very often there are many different ones, which may all have different terms. The only way to be sure is to do the research yourself, and get everything in writing.

Re: Companion Pass - Not Transparent

dfwskier
Aviator A

@truongmm wrote:

I completely agree with this post. Chase and Southwest do NOT work together to be transparent about this policy. I called a Chase Southwest representative about the companion pass BEFORE Dec 31 and the representative helped me calculate my points for my December statement date but did NOT tell me that those points needed to post before Dec 31 in order for it to count towards my companion pass. What kind of customer support is this if you're withholding important information like that??

 

Because of this, none of the charges I spent in the month of Dec counted when all that Chase representative had to do was move my statement date up a few days. I am so upset and have talked to MULTIPLE Southwest representatives who couldn't even tell me if I got the companion pass or not due to the points actually posting to my account but then were reversed...

 

Both Chase and Southwest need to train their customer support better so that their representatives actually know the poilcies and can inform their customers better.


You know that Chase TOTALLY controls this process, right? Southwest just sells Chase points.

 

Chase determines the offers.

Chase determines whether or not you qualify for the offers.

Chase determines how many points you should get

Chase tells Southwest how many points to add and when to add them.

 

So you are correct. Chase and Southwest do not work together because this is almost totally a Chase program. Southwest is simply a tool used by Chase in an effort to get more credit card business.