Spend $2000 in the first three months on each card to earn 50,000 bonus points each.
Then spend an additional $6,000 to get you to a total of 110,000 points which will get you the companion status. (This can be done by transferring points from partner companies. I will personally be transferring over Marriott points to cover this $6k spending)
Now this is important- make sure that all points you earn is in the billing period with a closing date in January 2015 because only points in the same calendar year count towards your companion status.
Wow, this looks fantastic.
I've never done any credit card rewards churning and I have a question. Does the bolded mean that I'd essentially have to spend $10,000 in one month (2000/card + 6000)? I can't do that....
Everything I say here is assuming you want to get the companion pass in 2015 (which is definitely the way to go):
Not in one month. You need to absolutely make sure that in 2015 you reach $2000 per card in spending since account opening. You can still make purchases in 2014 to reach $2000 per card.
However, spending in 2014 to reach the $2000 per card may not count towards the companion pass, because you need 110,000 Southwest points in the same calendar year. (I say may not, because it depends how Chase awards the Southwest points, and I don't know how they do. If they award points for your purchases after your statement closes, then your Southwest points earned at 1 point per dollar spent would post to your Southwest account at statement closing. Hence you could make purchases in December 2014 and have them count towards your companion pass if your statement closes in January 2015. But, if Chase posts Southwest points to your account immediately after each transaction clears, then this won't work).
In 2015, you will need to find some way to get all the points you are short. You will be short somewhere between 6000 and 10000 points, depending on how much of your spending towards the $2000 minimum per card occurred in 2014. You can do this all on the card, fly with Southwest, get some from transfer partners (though I've heard not all transfers from partners count towards the companion pass. Make sure you look that up if you are pursuing this route), buy stuff from the Southwest shopping mall, etc
As for how to spend that much money, you can search around for manufactured spending techniques, there's a ton of them. They vary in cost and hassle, but they're basically all worth it if that's the only way you can meet the signup bonus. As to whether it is worth it to manufacture spend on an ongoing basis is a different matter entirely.
So wait... how did you get the bonus if you opened up 2 cards at the same time? The website says you can't get the promotional offer if you've received a new cardmember bonus in the last 24months...
It's one signup bonus per person
per card every 24 months.