Should You Buy Starpoints To Earn Southwest Companion Pass Status?

If I apply for a Starwood card now and hit the 3k purchase within a week, how quickly will I get those bonus sign on points and do I risk losing my chance of getting them in time?

Here’s the question no one is asking:

Will we be able to redeem the seven day certificate at Starwood hotels post merger?

Of course there is no way to know for sure yet, but interesting to keep in mind I think.

@Herschel:
You’ll get the signup points within a few days of completing the spending threshold.

@Mendy613:
It’s definitely a possibility eventually, but who knows.

Would transferring chase ultimate rewards directly to southwest at 1:1 ratio work as well?

@Nate:
If it did I would have said so 🙂

If I just recieved my marriot biz card and statement closes 1/12 is there a min. amount of days you gotta finish spend before statement closes (Like UR and I think Ba) or if I spend today it will post on this statement?

Dan, I’m disappointed that you chose to respond to Southwest’s generous reprieve on partner transfers with yet another exposition of how people can exploit Southwest’s generosity. This is both ungrateful and counterproductive.

I wish you would take a longer view: Managers of loyalty programs will be reluctant to do right by members if this is how they are rewarded.

Hi Dan
Opening a Chase marriott card personal or business will give a person an extra 83000 towards the marriott certificate too

@nsx at FlyerTalk: I think Dan wasn’t the first one to post the news. It’s posted on other boards that Southwest decided to extend the privilege until 3/31.

I have the opportunity to buy SPG points from someone cheap on the grey market. What’s best way to transfer them to me so that I can get the SW companion pass? I am told SPG and Marriott accounts need to have matching names. Suggestion I was given was open a new Marriott account under same name as the SPG seller, and then book award from there for miles+nights. Would that work? Does name on Southwest account need to match name on Marriott account?

is it only for category 1-5 or tier 1-5 as well?

Dan, so is it 100% worth to transfer 40k spg an additional 150k chase points to get it all? Or ot may pay to not to do it an get other ways to redem it?

Is it worth the companion pass? Or they do charge fuel charge an other surcharges to make sure you take enough money out your ocket even for the companion pass passenger?

about how much could i sell southwest points on the grey market ?

does companion statues apply for business class tickets or only coach

Dan, thank you for such a good coverage of the Southwest comedy. My question is if I already have the Southwest Companion, does it makes sense to purchase 60K StartPoints (I have 2 accounts with 30K points) for transferring to Marriott Certificate+United points?

@Anonymous: Companion pays only $5.60.
@mr eleff: Southwest only flies coach no business class.

I still don’t fully understand how the companion pass works. Do you have to choose *one* companion for the whole period (till end of 2018 in this case), or can you take different companions? (in my case, I would want to take a different kid with me for each flight, like I do with those Delta Companion Certificates)

[I doubt this is the case, of course]

Thanks Dan!!!

January 5th, 2017 at 1:45 pm
@Mark:
“You can change your designated companion and request issuance of a new Companion Pass up to three times each calendar year that you maintain Companion Pass status.”

@Dan: ““You can change your designated companion and request issuance of a new Companion Pass up to three times each calendar year that you maintain Companion Pass status.””

This is great. It means I would likely take 6 flights with a companion over the two-year period.

Next question. Is it worth doing this whole thing (converting 90k starpoints to 270k marriott points to convert to Southwest points to get companion pass) for just 6 flights? Also I usually have 2 Delta Companion Certificates each year that I use for this purpose that would probably end up going unused if I fly Southwest instead. I don’t know if I would use the 7-day hotel benefit, but I think we could force ourselves to use it at some point (don’t know exactly how a family of 7 could properly use it though).

[also commented with this on the old post if anyone is still reading it]

@Bert: Bert, I responded to this question in the previous Companion Pass Post. I had SPG points. I wanted my wife to have the Companion Pass. This is what we did. Hope it works for you.
Marriot and Southwest names must match.
Marriott will only give the southwest points to the name on the Marriot account. HOWEVER, despite their limit of 50,000 points transferred points a year, they will allow for a larger transfer to redeem a specific award. Here’s what you need to do.
1. Open a Marriot account for the person who has the miles.
2. Open one for yourself as well.
3.He needs to link his SPG account to his Marriot account.
4.He needs to transfer 90k points to Marriott. Now he’ll have 270k Marriott points.
5.Give him your Marriott info or better yet be on the phone with him when he calls Marriott. He must specify that he’d like to transfer 270k to your Marriott account for you to purchase this specific package. (I needed to Huca once to find a rep who would do it.)
6. They may need to confirm that you want this package and your Southwest RR information.
7. They’ll make a one time exception for the 2 of you and transfer the points and purchase the package.

If I already have 30,000 SW points…
Should I still transfer 90k from SPG or just transfer direct from chase or from any other options mentioned
looking for the best value

Ive been looking and am i mistaken that this is very difficult to have make sense from NYC?
The southwest nonstop flights tend to be pretty expensive- to the point that airlines with stronger roots in the area have tickets typically 1/2 price of southwest.

Just want to see what everyone else is seeing here.

Also- if were a family of 6- on a give trip- can we buy 3 and take 3 as a companion?

I transferred the 270K Marriott points on Jan 2nd, SW points posted Jan 4th, Companion pass showed up in my account today through 12/31/18! Thanks Dan, it was worth the 3 month wait for the two year benefit.

Dan, I applied and got the SPG card, just changed my cycle end dates to the 10th of the month to make sure I get my bonuses on time… but I was on AMEX live chat and they said the bonus points (25,000 per SPG AMEX card) post 8-12 weeks after meeting the minimal spending requirements. Is AMEX for real? How come it takes this long — are they for real? Or this is just their standard reply, but in practice they practice even mid-cycle, as soon as the minimal spending requirements are met? For my AMEX Plat card they posted immediately, mid-cycle, but are their co-branded cards treated differently? I’m aiming to get the SW Companion Pass and want to transfer to Marriott no later than March 21st (to be safe)…

“-Some agents will refund 45K Marriott points (15K Starpoints) if you return the 7 night stay certificate, but not all agents will do that.”

Any luck in getting this done?

Hello! Anyone knows, can canceling SPG Amex cards somehow affect SW companion pass and Marriott 5nights certificate?