Southwest Replaces A-List With Silver, Gold and Platinum on Jan. 1, 2027. Companion Pass Will Take 140,000 Tier Points, and Card Bonuses Won’t Count

The airline’s most famous perk is being folded into a new top elite tier, and the easiest shortcut to it closes at the end of 2026.

Southwest Airlines announced on October 15, 2026, that its Rapid Rewards program gets a new structure on January 1, 2027. A-List members become Silver, A-List Preferred members become Gold, and a new Platinum tier sits above both.

From 2027, the unlimited Southwest Companion Pass lives in Platinum. The tier takes 140,000 Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs) or 100 qualifying one-way flights, and it carries unlimited Companion Pass trips.

The catch is what stops counting. Credit card welcome bonuses, referral bonuses, anniversary points, bonus points from spending categories and partner points will no longer help anyone reach the pass.

Southwest Is Retiring the Points Currency That Made Companion Pass Easy

Through 2026, Southwest ran two separate scorecards. TQPs decided A-List and A-List Preferred, while a second currency, Companion Pass qualifying points, decided the pass at 135,000 points or 100 qualifying flights.

The second scorecard was the generous one. It counted the card activity TQPs ignored, and Southwest even gave every Rapid Rewards cardmember a 10,000-point Companion Pass boost each calendar year.

Southwest is retiring Companion Pass qualifying points after December 31, 2026, and calls the result “a simpler qualification structure.” From January 1, TQPs become the only currency for tiers, the new Milestone Rewards and the Companion Pass.

TQPs come from five places only: Southwest-operated flights, Rapid Rewards credit card purchases, the Rapid Rewards debit card, Getaways by Southwest vacations and Southwest Groups bookings. Anything outside that list still earns spendable points but no progress toward the pass.

The move fits a carrier that keeps dropping what once made it different. It ended open seating on January 27, 2026, a shift covered in how Southwest boarding works now, and it already prices award seats by demand rather than by a fixed chart.

The 2027 Rapid Rewards Numbers, Tier by Tier

Silver keeps A-List’s 35,000 TQP threshold, but the flight route rises from 20 one-way flights to 25. Its earning bonus rises from A-List’s 25% to 40%.

Gold is cheaper to reach than A-List Preferred on points, 65,000 TQPs instead of 70,000, but needs 50 flights instead of 40. Its earning bonus falls from 100% to 60%.

Platinum adds unlimited Companion Pass trips, a 120% earning bonus, up to three free checked bags and boarding ahead of Gold and Group 1. Two new Milestone Rewards sit below Silver and between Gold and Platinum.

• First Milestone: 20,000 TQPs or 15 one-way flights, for 2,000 points or two Preferred Seat Certificates.
• Second Milestone: 95,000 TQPs or 75 one-way flights, for three Companion Pass trips, each good for a one-way or round trip.

Base earning also drops on the two most expensive fares. Choice Preferred falls from 10 points per dollar to 8, and Choice Extra from 14 to 10, while Basic stays at 2 and Choice at 6.

Combine the two cuts and the top end shrinks fast. One Mile at a Time worked out that an A-List Preferred member on Choice Extra earns 28 points per dollar today, against 16 for a Gold member in 2027.

Card spending moves the other way. In 2026, the Premier card earned 1,500 TQPs per $5,000 spent, while the Priority and Performance Business cards earned 2,500. From January 1, every Rapid Rewards card, including the Plus card, earns 1 TQP per dollar.

Reaching Platinum on card spending alone therefore takes $140,000. In 2027 only, cardmembers who reach 130,000 TQPs get a one-time 10,000-TQP boost, so the card-only bar that year is effectively $130,000.

Who Loses the Companion Pass, and Who Barely Notices

The Companion Pass lets one designated person fly with the member on Southwest-operated flights for taxes and fees, which start at $5.60 each way. For two people who travel together, it makes the second seat nearly free.

The people losing the most are those who reached it mostly through a card. Under the 2026 rules, a welcome bonus, the annual 10,000-point boost and everyday spending all fed the same 135,000-point counter.

In 2027 the counter only moves with Southwest flights, Southwest vacation and group bookings, and dollars actually charged to a Southwest card. One Mile at a Time’s verdict was that Rapid Rewards is “going from being a frequent flyer program, to being a frequent buyer program.”

Genuine frequent flyers notice far less. The 100-flight route to an unlimited pass is unchanged, and the new three-trip milestone at 75 flights gives a partial pass to people who used to fall short and get nothing.

Platinum also bundles the pass with boarding ahead of Gold members and Group 1 on an all-Boeing 737 fleet of 803 aircraft as of June 2026, including the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a type Southwest launched as first customer. Gold and Platinum members can pick Extra Legroom seats at booking at no extra cost, when available.

Elite flyers get one cushion. Members who earn A-List Preferred on their 2026 activity become Gold but keep the 100% earning bonus through December 31, 2027.

What Southwest Is Adding Before and After January 1

The transition has two dates worth knowing. Southwest says cardmembers approved on or before December 2, 2026, can still have their welcome bonus count as Companion Pass qualifying points, even if they meet the spending requirement in early 2027.

Redemptions widen first. From mid-November 2026, points can pay for rental cars through cars.southwest.com, and from spring 2027 members can earn and redeem on Icelandair, China Airlines and Etihad Airways.

Those three partners take Southwest points to places its own aircraft never fly, from Reykjavik to Paris, Taipei to Tokyo and Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg. In late 2027, points will also buy seat upgrades after booking, including Extra Legroom seats.

The premium end arrives last. A new premium Chase card launches in 2027 with access to Southwest Icon Lounges, the network of lounges Southwest started building in Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville, with the first openings expected in late 2027.

Some things stay. Rapid Rewards points still do not expire, and award seats still carry no blackout dates.

What changes is who the program is built for. The Southwest Companion Pass used to reward whoever opened the right card at the right time; from 2027 it rewards the people who fly 100 one-way Southwest flights a year, or spend six figures on its card.