More Points!

Here are some ways to earn more points. Some of the most common ways to earn extra points are detailed on the home page of this site. Here's a recap of the most common ways. Below this list are some other options. Visit the page on the menu called "The Math" for some detailed math and thoughts on how to earn free companion.

1) Purchase flights via Southwest.com.

2) Rent a vehicle via Southwest.com.

3) Reserve a hotel via Southwesthotels.com. This is a good way to earn lots of bonus points.

4) Dining - Sign up for Rapid Rewards Dining. Eat Food and earn 3 or more times the points for the cost of the meal including the tip. They usually offer a 1,000 bonus point bonus for joining and using the program 3 times in the first month. It's free to sign up.

5) Shopping - Rapid Rewards Shopping. Sign up and earn points for shopping at major retail websites. This program works best when shopping on a computer compared to shopping on a mobile device. Get the "Chrome Southwest Shopping Button" to be reminded of which sites offer bonus points. Learn more at the shopping website. About 3 times a year they will run specials where they offer additional bonus points for spending a certain amount of money thru the shopping program. Watch for the specials in early spring, mid summer and around Halloween. Look into the option of purchasing Visa gift cards. Use your Southwest credit card to purchase the gift card and the program will give you .5 points per dollar of purchase. So you can then earn 1.5 points per dollar on your everyday purchase - gas, food, soda, lunch, etc.

More Options: There are other ways to earn bonus points but these do not count towards the Free Companion counter.

1) Sign up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. Fulfill the requirements of the card and earn around 50,000 bonus points. Those points can then be transferred to your Rapid Rewards account as a 1 to 1 transfer.

2) Buy points from Southwest.com. They usually offer deals towards the end of the year where you can get some bonus points. If you use your credit card to purchase the points the dollar amount you charge will go towards your free companion but the points you purchase won't. There is a chance you could earn 2x the points on the credit charge amount. If anyone knows this for sure please let me know.