Roadmap to 1 MILLION points/miles PLUS TWO Southwest Companion Passes

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Does your family want to earn 1 million+ points/miles in a year. PLUS TWO Southwest Companion Passes?
It’s much easier than you think.
So just for fun, I wanted to map out how you can pretty easily attain this…

*This is assuming you are starting at 0/24 – 2/24 with the 5/24 rule, that you can get business cards (spoiler alert.. you probably CAN!) & that you have a Player 2 to work with. The dates are just to show timing/spacing. This roadmap can be used in sequence, out of sequence, or just partially (EXCEPT the southwest cards, you definitely want to get those Nov/Dec to maximize your Companion Pass dates). **If the minimum spend is too high for your budget, remove the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card for now.

January
Player 1 signs up for Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Meets minimum spend of $4K in purchases in 3 months, receives 60K Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points.
Player 1 refers player 2 and player 2’s application is accepted. Player 1 gets 15K referral points.
Player 2 meets minimum spend of $4K in purchases in 3 months. Player 2 receives 60K Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points.

Minimum spend required: $4K in 3 months x 2 = $8K total in 3 months
Total annual fee for 2 cards: $190
Total points earned: 143K (including minimum spend)

March
Player 1 signs up for Ink Business Cash® Credit Card . Meets minimum spend, receives 90K Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points after spending $6K in 1st 3 months.
Player 1 refers player 2 for Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Player 1 gets 40K referral points.
Player 2 meets minimum spend by spending $6K in 1st 3 months. Player 2 receives 75K Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points.

Minimum spend required: $6K in 3 months x 2 = $12K total in 3 months.
Total annual fee for 2 cards: $0
Total points earned: 217K (including minimum spend)

June
Player 1 signs up for Capital One® Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Meets minimum spend of $4K in 3 months, receives 75K Capital One miles.
Player 1 refers player 2 for Capital One® Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Player 1 gets 25K referral points.
Player 2 meets minimum spend of $4K in 3 months. Player 2 receives 75K Capital One miles.

Minimum spend required: $4K in 3 months x 2 = $8K total in 3 months.
Total annual fee for 2 cards: $790 (but remember, with 2 cards you’ll have $600 credit in the Capital One Travel portal)
Total miles earned: 191K (including minimum spend)

September
Player 1 signs up for Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card. Meets minimum spend of $6K in 3 month, receives 90K Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points.
Player 1 refers player 2 for Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card^® Card. Player 1 gets 40K referral points.
Player 2 meets minimum spend of $6K in 3 month. Player 2 receives 75K Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points.

Minimum spend required: $6K in 3 months x 2 = $12K total in 3 months.
Total annual fee for 2 cards: $0
Total points earned: 217K (including minimum spend)

November
Player 1 signs up for Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card. Meets minimum spend of 1K in 3 months IN JANUARY (do NOT meet early!), receives 50K Southwest points.
Player 1 refers player 2 for Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card. Player 1 receives 20K referral points from Southwest.
Player 2 FINISHES minimum spend of 1K in 3 months in JANUARY. Player 2 receives 50K Southwest points.

Minimum spend required: $1K in 3 months x 2 = $2K total in 3 months.
Total annual fee for 2 cards: $138
Total points earned: 122K (including minimum spend)

December
Player 1 signs up for Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card. Meets minimum spend of $5K in 3 months IN JANUARY (do NOT meet early!), receives 80K Southwest points.
Player 1 refers player 2 for Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card. Player 1 receives 20K referral points from Southwest.
Player 2 FINISHES minimum spend of $5K in 3 months in JANUARY. Player 2 receives 80K Southwest points.

Minimum spend required: $5K in 3 months x 2 = $10K total in 3 months.
Total annual fee for 2 cards: $398 (with 2 cards you’ll get 2 TSA Pre-Check credits + 8 upgraded boarding passes annually)
Total points earned: 190K (including minimum spend)

RECAP
Total points: 1,080,000
Total annual fees: $1,516
Total minimum spend met: $52,000 between 2 people, over 12 months. Averaging $4,334 monthly spend put on credit cards.

You’ll have 312K Southwest points + 2 Southwest Companion Passes (after you hit the minimum spend in January).
You’ll have 547K TRANSFERABLE/FLEXIBLE Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points.
You’ll have 191K TRANSFERABLE/FLEXIBLE Capital One miles.

You can TRANSFER the Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points to Hyatt. If you stay in Hyatts that average 20K points a night… that’s nearly 27 free Hyatt nights! Some Hyatts are as low as 3500 points per night, so you could stay way more than 27 nights if you throw some of these super cheap ones in.

You can transfer your Capital One miles to Flying Blue (Air France’s loyalty program) for economy roundtrip tickets on Air France to/from Europe. These average 30K – 40K per person (depends on availability & departure airport).

You can use your Southwest points to get your family to Hawaii. Use Southwest’s “low fare calendar” to find flights for 30K – 40K per person round trip to Hawaii. Since you have TWO companion passes, you’ll only be using 60K – 80K for a family of 4 to travel to Hawaii!

Quick links:
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Capital One® Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Chase Business Ink Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Card
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card

**Using points/miles for nearly free travel is only worth it if you pay your balance in full/on time every month and don’t spend more than you normally would just because you are using a credit card. Keep your credit score high by spacing out your applications (as shown above) and keep all cards for a minimum of one year (I keep almost all of mine long term)

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