Topic Wiki

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 316302 times)

Offline mdrills

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite + Lifetime Silver Elite
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2013
  • Posts: 633
  • Total likes: 9
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 6
    • View Profile
  • Location: New York
  • Programs: SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Diamond, SW Companion
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1060 on: January 01, 2017, 11:37:07 AM »
well marriott is closed for jan 1st so its gonna be hard to do
looks like the Marriott page changed. Can someone post a link to the proper page to transfer Marriott to SW for the 7 day vacation and potential CP

Offline 12HRS

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 5108
  • Total likes: 575
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 6
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1061 on: January 01, 2017, 11:44:23 AM »
looks like the Marriott page changed. Can someone post a link to the proper page to transfer Marriott to SW for the 7 day vacation and potential CP

https://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi

have to be logged in for some reason

Offline jewdkoff

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Aug 2013
  • Posts: 452
  • Total likes: 3
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1062 on: January 01, 2017, 12:44:17 PM »
well marriott is closed for jan 1st so its gonna be hard to do

Well that's unfortunate :(

Offline mmgfarb

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Dec 2015
  • Posts: 8355
  • Total likes: 1110
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 4
    • View Profile
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline keepsmiling123

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Dec 2014
  • Posts: 1271
  • Total likes: 27
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 9
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: United States
  • Programs: UR, SPG, MR, UA

Offline 12HRS

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 5108
  • Total likes: 575
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 6
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1065 on: January 01, 2017, 02:55:23 PM »
well that changes my plans a bit

Offline Mountain Man

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite + Lifetime Gold Elite
  • ******
  • Join Date: Dec 2013
  • Posts: 892
  • Total likes: 34
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 10
    • View Profile
  • Location: Colorado
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1066 on: January 01, 2017, 04:28:00 PM »
Ouch! I guess I'm glad that the online transfer didn't work last night. At least I have the points in spg.
Quote from: JTZ link=topic=10531.msg1695873
If you never had to eat crow then you lived one boring life.

Offline PillanSmye

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Aug 2015
  • Posts: 1028
  • Total likes: 68
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1067 on: January 01, 2017, 04:31:49 PM »
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/01/no-hotel-transfers-for-southwest-companion-pass/

I was greedy and waited for the last month to do this transfer in Jan and get 2 years of the CP.   

Guess that's not going to work out too well for me.  :D

Offline mdrills

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite + Lifetime Silver Elite
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2013
  • Posts: 633
  • Total likes: 9
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 6
    • View Profile
  • Location: New York
  • Programs: SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Diamond, SW Companion
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1068 on: January 01, 2017, 04:41:27 PM »
Anyone have a 50k credit card link?

Offline keemster26

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jan 2015
  • Posts: 2315
  • Total likes: 37
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1069 on: January 01, 2017, 04:57:19 PM »
Anyone have a 50k credit card link?
For which card?

Offline Mountain Man

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite + Lifetime Gold Elite
  • ******
  • Join Date: Dec 2013
  • Posts: 892
  • Total likes: 34
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 10
    • View Profile
  • Location: Colorado
Quote from: JTZ link=topic=10531.msg1695873
If you never had to eat crow then you lived one boring life.

Offline steventravel

  • Dansdeals Silver Elite
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2014
  • Posts: 51
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
  • Location: Around the World
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1071 on: January 01, 2017, 05:33:13 PM »
I was greedy and waited for the last month to do this transfer in Jan and get 2 years of the CP.   

Guess that's not going to work out too well for me.  :D

Greedy or logical

Offline PillanSmye

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Aug 2015
  • Posts: 1028
  • Total likes: 68
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1072 on: January 02, 2017, 02:15:08 PM »
Greedy or logical

It's logical when it works,  greedy when it doesn't.   As of now,  it would have been logical to just get the CP in October when the SPG/Marriott/RC programs merged...the whole 1 in the hand,  2 in the bush philosophy.

Offline shulem92

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Feb 2015
  • Posts: 2955
  • Total likes: 122
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
    • View Profile
  • Location: Lakewood
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1073 on: January 02, 2017, 02:47:22 PM »
It's logical when it works,  greedy when it doesn't.   As of now,  it would have been logical to just get the CP in October when the SPG/Marriott/RC programs merged...the whole 1 in the hand,  2 in the bush philosophy.
In my books its not greedy, as the points aren't worth transferring if ur only getting one years worth of CP out of it

Offline reallytrying

  • DansDeals Copper Elite
  • *
  • Join Date: Jan 2014
  • Posts: 11
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1074 on: January 04, 2017, 11:10:38 AM »
I meant you should ask about which cards you've had in the past two years.

Here's where it gets tricky: If I open a sw card > 2yrs ago, but earned the bonus points < 2 years ago, as it takes a while to earn them, will I still get the points I will earn from sw on my new card if it has been less than 2 years since I earned the points????

Offline steventravel

  • Dansdeals Silver Elite
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2014
  • Posts: 51
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
  • Location: Around the World
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1075 on: January 04, 2017, 12:20:43 PM »
It's logical when it works,  greedy when it doesn't.   As of now,  it would have been logical to just get the CP in October when the SPG/Marriott/RC programs merged...the whole 1 in the hand,  2 in the bush philosophy.

I thought about that but my foreseeable 2017 year doesn't have alot of time for Southwest but the year 2018 could have.   Thus logical to wait. Even in hindsight for me.   But sad to see it go.

Offline ShlockDoc

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jun 2012
  • Posts: 2335
  • Total likes: 54
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 34
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1076 on: January 04, 2017, 01:07:32 PM »
My wife also got the CP Congrats email. She thought I was the best travel hacker ever until I told her that it's probably a glitch.

Offline mmgfarb

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Dec 2015
  • Posts: 8355
  • Total likes: 1110
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 4
    • View Profile
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1077 on: January 04, 2017, 01:09:29 PM »
Here's where it gets tricky: If I open a sw card > 2yrs ago, but earned the bonus points < 2 years ago, as it takes a while to earn them, will I still get the points I will earn from sw on my new card if it has been less than 2 years since I earned the points????
24 month rule for bonus goes from when you got it so you'll have to wait.
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline reallytrying

  • DansDeals Copper Elite
  • *
  • Join Date: Jan 2014
  • Posts: 11
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1078 on: January 04, 2017, 01:24:12 PM »
24 month rule for bonus goes from when you got it so you'll have to wait.
1) I just called Chase customer service and was told bonus goes from when I opened the card, not when I got it. I got the name of the rep and the time I spoke to him. I even mentioned I was writing down what he told me. Is that good enough?

2) It was the customer service number on the back of my Sapphire card not my SW card. Would that make a difference?

3) If what you are saying is true, how do I find out exactly when I earned the 50,000 points previously. Is it from the closing date on the statement that shows 50,000? Would I need to get this info from Chase ? If it is closing date, can I request a closing date after that date? I am hoping to pay my home owners insurance with my cc this month which will be as much spend that I need.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2017, 01:58:13 PM by reallytrying »

Offline Agoldsc1

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jun 2015
  • Posts: 1518
  • Total likes: 125
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
    • View Profile
  • Location: New York, NY
Re: Southwest Companion Pass Master Thread
« Reply #1079 on: January 04, 2017, 04:05:28 PM »
So as things stand, if I open up and meet the spending threshhold on a Southwest Airlines personal and business card, I should receive 100,000 points which count towards the CP. Can I transfer the balance of the 10,000 points from anywhere which would count towards the CP, or I have to actually earn those from flying?