The Southwest Companion pass might possibly be my favorite benefit in the entire travel world! 🙂 🙂 🙂
With this pass, a companion can fly with you an UNLIMITED number of times for the calendar year it is earned plus the following calendar year!!!
Why do I feel the Southwest Companion Fly Free Pass is so valuable?
If you have a family of four (like me), and two of you (both parents), are able to earn the Southwest Companion Fly Free Pass, then that would mean that each parent could name one of the kids as their Fly Free companion, and thus the kids fly free for the year that the pass is earned (hopefully strategically earning it in January so it is good for the entire calendar year), PLUS the following calendar year!
It takes 110,000 Rapid Reward points to earn the Southwest Companion Fly Free Pass, those Rapid Reward points can be earned several ways which I go into greater detail when you sign up for our Free Guide. Once the Southwest Companion Fly Free pass is earned, you can use the Rapid Reward points that you earned while earning the pass to purchase the first two tickets (for parents), and then you would use the Southwest Companion Fly Free Passes to purchase the other two tickets (for the kids)!
***Southwest also recently announced that they will be adding flights to the Hawaiian Islands in late 2018!!
Southwest Companion Fly Free Pass Facts:
Flying limitations: There are no blackout dates or seat restrictions with the Companion pass – if there is a seat available for purchase, it is available for your companion. The companion pass can even be used if points were redeemed for a free flight. This can result in both passengers flying for FREE!
Number of times the companion pass can be used: Unlimited! There is no cap on the number of times the pass can be used!
Who qualifies as a companion on the pass? Anyone can be your companion – friends, family, a co-worker. However, the name on the companion pass can only be changed up to three times per year. You need to name your companion when first receiving the pass, this allows up to four people to use the pass per year (those people can be repeated and put back on as the companion as well, but it counts as one of your allowed changes every time you change the name on the pass).
Companion pass expiration: The companion pass is valid the remainder of the year it was earned plus the following calendar year! For example, if you earn the pass January 2018, you will have it for the rest of 2018, plus all of 2019! So it is important to try to plan out when you will earn the pass as you could potentially qualify to use it for two complete calendar years!
Directly from Southwest website:
Though you can transfer points from Ultimate Reward points partners and redeem the points on a 1:1 ratio for Rapid Reward points to use toward redeeming Southwest flights, the transferred points DO NOT count toward earning the Companion Pass Status.
Check out the Southwest Rapid Rewards site for more info: https://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/about
Check out the Southwest website to see all the destinations they fly to: https://www.southwest.com/
Check out our featured trips: to Washington D.C., Maui, Hawaii, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and get inspired to travel! Each featured trip offers examples of how to offset the cost of the trip by using travel points and miles to help cover airline and hotel costs. We also include family tips with each trip for best restaurants, family tours, free museums, best beaches for family snorkeling, what we loved about the hotels we have stayed at, and what your family should take on each trip to make and amazing family vacation!
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