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Southwest Companion Pass.

What is it:

The SW CP is arguably the most valuable airline perk available today. It allows you to bring a companion with you for free on any Southwest flight, regardless of whether you are on a revenue or award ticket. All you pay are the government taxes on the ticket. The pass works for all Southwest flights, including international flights. The pass also works on Airtran flights that are sold on Southwest.com. Airtran flights that are not sold on Southwest.com are not eligible.
Like all other Southwest award bookings, the CP is not subject to any capacity controls, and as long as there is still a seat for sale on a particular flight, it is yours.
The pass is valid for the year it is earned in and the entire next calendar year. If you earned your CP in July 2014, your pass will be valid for the remainder of 2014 and the entirety of 2015.

How to get it:

The SW CP is obtained by earning 125,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. For example, if you earned 8k points by flying at the beginning of 2014, you need to earn another 117k points throughout the rest of 2014 in order to qualify for CP. Once 2015 rolls around, the points you've earned in 2014 no longer qualify for earning your CP, although they will still be redeemable points.

The primary method of accumulating Southwest points is CC signup bonuses. The Southwest CC frequently offers 50k point signup bonuses on all 4 flavors of Southwest cards and signup bonuses count towards earning the CP. Get approved for 2 of these cards, meet the 2k spending requirement on each and you are only 21k points away from the CP.

All points earned through the Rapid Rewards shopping mall also count towards SW CP eligibility.
Points transferred from Hyatt, Club Carlson, Marriott, and Wyndham all count towards CP status.
Points transferred from Ultimate Rewards do not count towards CP, although you can transfer can transfer 50K Ultimate Rewards points into 50K Hyatt and 50K Hyatt transfers into 30K Southwest.

Points earned by crediting hotel stays and car rentals to Southwest also count towards CP.

Using the CP:

Using your CP is very simple. Once you book a flight on Southwest, an "Add a companion" button will appear under your reservation. Just fill out the info and pay the taxes and you are done.
It is best to add your companion right when you book your own flight as there have been instances where people have forgotten to add their companion, the flight subsequently sold out and they were not able to add their companion. One thing to keep in mind is that online changes with a companion booked are not possible, you need to cancel the companion, wait 10-15 min, make the change and then add the companion again. You can make the necessary changes over the phone though.
You can change your companion up to 3 times during the life of your CP. (I believe you can change it 3 times per calendar year.)

« Last edited by pointer on January 23, 2020, 03:35:55 PM »

Author Topic: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread  (Read 316316 times)

Offline Hamavin

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1200 on: February 12, 2017, 08:08:06 PM »
Can I open a spg and marriot and southwest account for my 6 year old son so he can take his 2 year old brother as companion?
Bump...Any data points on this?

Offline miles lover

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Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1201 on: February 19, 2017, 03:17:33 PM »
I did it last week.
How long did it take you from when you initiated the transfer from Marriott until you got the points in south west ? Did the companion pass show up then as well or it took more time ?

Offline yakovwogi

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1202 on: February 19, 2017, 03:28:06 PM »
How long did it take you from when you initiated the transfer from Marriott until you got the points in south west ? Did the companion pass show up then as well or it took more time ?
Transferred on Friday by Saturday night it showed up in my account. Both points and CP status

Offline miles lover

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1203 on: February 19, 2017, 03:31:48 PM »
Transferred on Friday by Saturday night it showed up in my account. Both points and CP status
Cool, thanx

Offline as2

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1204 on: February 21, 2017, 10:37:53 AM »
Not getting a response on the other thread,  so I will post here. If I signed up for a SW card and got the bonus, can I sign someone else up with my RR number and receive their bonus as well? Will it count for a companion pass?
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Offline shaulyaakov

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1205 on: February 21, 2017, 03:07:24 PM »
Not getting a response on the other thread,  so I will post here. If I signed up for a SW card and got the bonus, can I sign someone else up with my RR number and receive their bonus as well? Will it count for a companion pass?

No, it goes by name.

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1206 on: February 22, 2017, 11:35:57 AM »
I did it last week.

so i'm new to this whole thing...i wanted to xfer spg to marriot to then xfer to sw for the 7 nights and companion pass...my understanding is sw took away that ability in beginning of the year, but now is allowing it until 3/31...is that true?

Offline shulem92

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1207 on: February 22, 2017, 11:54:38 AM »
so i'm new to this whole thing...i wanted to xfer spg to marriot to then xfer to sw for the 7 nights and companion pass...my understanding is sw took away that ability in beginning of the year, but now is allowing it until 3/31...is that true?
Yes

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1208 on: February 22, 2017, 12:17:55 PM »
Memories last forever, make them while you can.

Offline Moshe26

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1209 on: February 24, 2017, 12:32:39 PM »
I have enough spg points to get the CP. on one hand im not sure if its worth it for me as I don't fly that often on the other hand having it would def be a nice addition.  what calculations can/should I make to see if its worth it? id appreciate any sort of direction.

Offline shulem92

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1210 on: February 24, 2017, 01:39:36 PM »
I have enough spg points to get the CP. on one hand im not sure if its worth it for me as I don't fly that often on the other hand having it would def be a nice addition.  what calculations can/should I make to see if its worth it? id appreciate any sort of direction.
What's the alternative? Sell your spg points? Or use them? If you use them then no one can really judge for you. Do you fly more often or stay at hotels more often. If you are going to use up all the SW points though, then it may be worth it, because each point has a value of 3.5cpp. SW values their points at 1.75cpp x2...

Offline Dr Moose

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1211 on: March 05, 2017, 11:43:20 AM »
I transferred Marriott -> SW, the names on the account did not match. About a week later, Marriott seems to have canceled the package and all the points are back in my account.

Is this because the names were not matching? Anyone else have data points on this?
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Offline efflpetzel

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1212 on: March 07, 2017, 11:51:04 PM »
I did a Marriott Air + Hotel cert to Southwest RR which gave me Companion Pass, however its showing as valid till 12/17

shouldn't it be showing till 12/18?

BTW I'm shocked at how glitchy their website is, every time I book a flight thats 6 months out the reservation gets all screwed up, wasted hours on the phone today with them >:( >:(
« Last Edit: March 08, 2017, 12:10:45 AM by efflpetzel »

Offline efflpetzel

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1213 on: March 08, 2017, 12:18:38 AM »
Transferred on Friday by Saturday night it showed up in my account. Both points and CP status
till when does the CP status show as valid?

Offline shulem92

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1214 on: March 08, 2017, 01:25:59 AM »
I did a Marriott Air + Hotel cert to Southwest RR which gave me Companion Pass, however its showing as valid till 12/17

shouldn't it be showing till 12/18?

BTW I'm shocked at how glitchy their website is, every time I book a flight thats 6 months out the reservation gets all screwed up, wasted hours on the phone today with them >:( >:(
They're in middle of revamping their system. Starts anew on march 9th
ETA: I see that you've figured that out already


anyone had an issue with booking flights a couple of months out, ticketing & when clicking on the reservation seeing other peoples names & totally different flights. Maddening.

something to do with them switching to a new reservation system on march 9th

« Last Edit: March 08, 2017, 01:30:37 AM by shulem92 »

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1215 on: March 08, 2017, 01:50:38 PM »
Is anyone familiar with upgrading the 7 night cert from a 1-5 category to higher one by points upgrade? The actual 1-5 I have is fairly unhelpful for me. But the higher category hotel in kauai.. :D

Bump. Is this possible? Or must the higher category cert be purchased right off the bat?

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1216 on: March 08, 2017, 01:56:46 PM »

Offline Hamavin

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1217 on: March 14, 2017, 04:14:04 PM »
Can I open a spg and marriot and southwest account for my 6 year old son so he can take his 2 year old brother as companion?
DP= Bh he now has CP status...

Offline nifty21

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1218 on: March 16, 2017, 08:59:18 PM »
If the Starwood points are in my name can I transfer them to my wife's Marriott account to then transfer to sw? She already has 65k sw points how many miles to I have to transfer to Marriott to the switch to sw for a companion pass? I have one already so don't need it

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1219 on: March 16, 2017, 11:45:07 PM »
If the Starwood points are in my name can I transfer them to my wife's Marriott account to then transfer to sw? She already has 65k sw points how many miles to I have to transfer to Marriott to the switch to sw for a companion pass? I have one already so don't need it
You can transfer the SPG from your account to hers assuming they've both been open for thirty days and you have the same address on file. If that's not an option, you can pay $10 to transfer from your Marriott to hers, this is waived for plats and possibly if you tell them that it's for a specific redemption. Were those SW earned from CC's?
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