Southwest Companion Pass: Year 1 Recap
If you’re an avid traveler and/or active in the points and miles space, chances are you’ve heard of the Southwest Companion Pass…and if you haven’t (or are considering whether it’s worth earning), this post is for you! I first learned about the Southwest Companion Pass (which I often shorten to CP in this post) when I started following 10xTravel, and I decided to go for my own at the end of 2023 so that I could have it for 2024 and 2025.
I thought it’d be fun and useful to document how Korri and I (and my dad) took advantage of the first year of my Southwest Companion Pass by sharing where all we flew and how much was spent on the flights. Plus, there’s information about how exactly I earned the CP (it was so easy) and how you can do it, too!
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Southwest Companion Pass: Year 1 Recap
I’m so thrilled to share more about how we used the Southwest Companion Pass in 2024! In this post, I explained what exactly the Southwest Companion Pass is, how to earn it (and how I earned it, including the resource I followed), where we went with the CP in 2024, and how much we spent on each flight (whether we paid in points or cash). Let’s dive in!
What is the Southwest Companion Pass?
The Southwest Companion Pass is not your ordinary airline companion ticket. It’s one of the best out there! With the CP, you can take a plus one with you on every single Southwest flight you take for up to two calendar years. You just need to pay their taxes and fees, which start at $5.60 per leg.
Yes, even if you book your flight with points. And no, there are no blackout dates. As long as there are tickets that can still be purchased for your flight, even if they are the most expensive ticket, you can add a companion. It might sound too good to be true (it did to Korri when I was first telling him about it!), but I promise it’s not!
Caveats: You can only designate one person as your companion at a time, you can only change your companion three times in one year (changing it from person 1 to person 2 and back to person 1 counts as two changes), you cannot book a ticket for person 2 if you have a flight booked for person 1 already (you will have to cancel person 1’s flight or wait until a day or two after the flight occurs before changing you companion to person 2), and your companion cannot fly without you.
The Southwest CP is essentially a buy-one-get-one-free flight situation, and who doesn’t love that?!
How to Earn the Southwest Companion Pass
You can earn the Southwest Companion Pass a number of ways as long as you hit the required 135,000 Companion Pass-eligible Southwest points in the same calendar year. I followed this guide by 10xTravel exactly.
Of note: You can also earn the CP by flying 100 qualifying (cash fare) one-way Southwest flights in one calendar year. That’s a lot of flights!
The easiest way to earn a CP is to open two Southwest credit cards and reach the sign up bonus (SUB) on both cards in the same calendar year. Any points you earn in 2024 won’t count for 2025, and any points you earn in 2025 won’t count for 2026.
I earned the CP by opening a Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card (80,000 points) in late October 2023 and a Southwest Rapids Rewards Priority Credit Card (50,000 points) in mid-December 2023 and spending enough to hit the SUB of both cards in January 2024.
My 140,000 Southwest points hit my Southwest account the day after each statement closed, and I was awarded my CP a day after the second statement closed (even though it was the weekend!).
I spent $6,000 total on regular everyday expenses between the two cards ($5,000 for business, $1,000 for personal). My business card has a $199 annual fee, and the personal card has a $149 annual fee. I opted for those cards because of the benefits (4 upgraded boarding positions per card and cardmember year, free wifi with the business card, anniversary points).
You can also earn the CP by opening one Southwest card and spending enough to hit the SUB plus enough after the SUB to reach the full 135,000 points (this would take THOUSANDS of extra dollars, which is not recommended). Another option is to refer friends and family for their own Southwest cards; the referral points you earn count towards CP.
The best part? You don’t “pay” for the CP with your points! Once you hit 135,000 points, you automatically receive the CP AND you keep all of your points, which you can then use to book flights for yourself and then add your companion to the flights you book.
Where We Flew with the Southwest Companion Pass
In 2024, Korri and I flew with my Southwest Companion Pass seven times, and I changed my companion twice (once to change it to my dad, once to change it back to Korri) to bring my dad with me on one trip.
Where Korri and I flew:
roundtrip to Houston Hobby to see the total solar eclipse just outside of Austin
roundtrip to Houston Bush on our way to/from Scotland (we flew Singapore Air from Houston to Manchester)
to Minneapolis for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for gymnastics (only on one leg; Korri flew direct from Minneapolis to Alaska)
roundtrip to Denver to see Kacey Musgraves in concert (and my brother)
roundtrip to Honolulu for the Boise State football game vs. Hawaii
roundtrip to Miami to see The Eras Tour one last time
roundtrip to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl (technically one flight was in 2024 and one flight was in 2025 ha)
Where my dad and I flew:
roundtrip to Burbank to visit my great aunt in the LA area (these flights were nice because they were inexpensive and not full!)
How Much We Spent with the Southwest Companion Pass
I attempted to keep track of how much we spent (and therefore saved) by using my Southwest Companion Pass, but I forgot to grab some of the cash fares when we paid with points, so this is a little incomplete. Southwest points fares are tied to the cash fare; for instance, as the cash fare increases, so does the points fare.
Remember, these are the roundtrip prices we paid TOTAL for TWO people (unless otherwise noted)! If we didn’t have the companion pass, all of these prices would be doubled. Also, almost all of these flights were Wanna Get Away fares. I think there may have been one or two Wanna Get Away Plus fares and only one Anytime fare.
Houston Hobby: 24,191 points + $5.60 taxes and fees + $135.23 (+ $11.20 for Korri) = 24,191 points + $152.03
Houston Bush: $233.98 + 8,071 points + $5.60 taxes and fees (+ $11.20 for Korri) = 8,071 points + $250.78
Minneapolis: $208.98 (+ $5.60 for Korri) = $214.58 (my return flight home cost $350.98—ouch!)
Denver: 7,290 points + $5.60 taxes and fees + 4,973 points + $5.60 taxes and fees (+ $11.20 for Korri) = 12,263 points + $22.40 (cash price: $240 round trip for one)
Honolulu: $360.70 + $340.70 (+ $11.20 for Korri) = $712.60 (OUCH—and these were Wanna Get Away fares!)
Miami: 27,362 points + $5.60 taxes and fees + 17,943 points + $5.60 taxes and fees (+ $16.80 for Korri) = 45,305 points + $28 (cash price: $680 round trip for one)
Phoenix: 21,301 points + $5.60 taxes and fees + 43,074 points + $5.60 taxes and fees (+ $11.20 for Korri) = 64,375 points + $22.40 (cash price for the 43k flight was $573—the Anytime fare)
Burbank: 5,705 points + $5.60 taxes and fees + 5,705 points + $5.60 taxes and fees (+ $11.20 for my dad) = 11,410 points + $22.40 (cash price: $178 round trip for one)
Total spent in 2024: 165,615 points + $1,425.19
Safe to say we would not have been able to travel to all of these places if we had to pay double those prices! I’m so thankful for the Southwest Companion Pass and am excited to travel with it again in 2025! Have you earned the CP before? If not, are you going to go for it now?! If you get it now, you’ll have it through December 31, 2026!