It’s official, you will need to earn 135,000 Southwest points to qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass in 2023 (up from 125,000 in previous years).

Southwest made the announcement this morning via an email to their customers and a post on their website. Seemingly unaware that many of us were off to a good start today, jamming to Taylor Swift’s new album that dropped last night.

At first glance many will assume this is devastating news that they couldn’t have imagined in their Wildest Dreams, but look a little deeper and you’ll realize that there’s no need for Bad Blood here. In fact, most people can probably just Shake it Off.

Here’s what you need to know:

This Doesn’t Change Much (if Anything) About Conventional Southwest Companion Pass Strategy

Also hidden in this morning’s announcement was that “Members with an open Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card on the first business day of each calendar year will earn one boost of 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each calendar year.” Meaning that if you are following conventional strategy and opening one or more Southwest credit cards late in the year you can expect to earn an additional 10,000 points toward Companion Pass in the following calendar year.

(Note that these are just Companion Pass Qualifying Points, you cannot redeem them for travel)

Southwest seems to know us All to Well by throwing us a bone with this one. It effectively covers the Blank Space of 10,000 miles that was created with the increase to 135,000 required miles to earn Companion Pass.

We are still unsure if this applies to all Southwest Credit Cards (Business & Personal), but even if it only applies to one or the other it effectively makes up for this change.

So relax. You Need to Calm Down. You’re Ready for It.

Stick to the conventional strategy outlined in our Companion Pass Post and you’ll be good to go.