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The Southwest Companion Pass lets one chosen person fly almost free — paying only $5.60 in taxes each way — on every Southwest trip you take, for up to two years. It's not a flashy lie-flat suite; it's arguably the single best deal in domestic U.S. travel, because it effectively doubles the value of every point and every paid fare. Here's exactly how it works and how to earn it.
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Quick answer
- What it is: one chosen companion flies with you for just $5.60 in taxes each way, on points or cash fares, for up to two years
- How to earn it: 135,000 qualifying Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year (the 2026 threshold) or 100 qualifying one-way flights
- Fastest path: a Southwest personal card plus a Southwest business card (Chase) — welcome bonuses and card spend count
- Value: in our example, 25,000 points + ~$22.40 buys two $450 round trips — ~3.51¢ per point, about 2.6× our 1.35¢ baseline
- Catch: points transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards don't count toward the Pass (verify), and every seat is economy
Free tool: see what your Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi or Bilt points become at every airline and hotel, with live transfer bonuses at kritdeals.com/transfer-calculator, or in the free KritDeals app for iPhone and Android.
At a glance
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| What you get | A designated companion flies with you for taxes only |
| Companion cost | ~$5.60 per one-way segment |
| Qualify with | 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year (2026) or 100 qualifying one-way flights |
| Valid for | Rest of the year earned plus all of the next (up to ~2 years) |
| Companion changes | Up to three times per calendar year |
| Fastest path | Southwest personal + business cards (Chase) |
| Doesn't count | Points transferred from Chase UR (verify) |
| Baseline value | 1.35¢ per Rapid Rewards point (example hits ~3.51¢) |
The math — why it's a "buy one, get one" machine
The Companion Pass isn't a single redemption, so there's no one CPP. The magic is that your companion's ticket is essentially free on top of whatever you book — points or cash. Here's a representative round trip:
| Your ticket | Companion ticket | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash fare | ~$450 round trip | ~$450 round trip |
| Points used | 25,000 Rapid Rewards | 0 |
| Taxes paid | ~$11.20 | ~$11.20 ($5.60 each way) |
Your own ticket alone: (450 − 11.20) ÷ 25,000 × 100 = 1.75¢ per point — already above our 1.35¢ Southwest baseline because you caught a good fare. Now add the companion for taxes only and the effective value roughly doubles:
Combined: 25,000 points + ~$22.40 buys two $450 round trips = ~$900 of travel. (900 − 22.40) ÷ 25,000 × 100 = 3.51¢ per point — about 2.6× the baseline.
Rapid Rewards is a fixed-value program: points redeem for a set fraction of the cash fare with no award chart and no blackout dates — if a seat is for sale, it's bookable with points. The Companion Pass simply staples a free second seat to all of it. See how we value every currency.
How to earn the Pass
The Companion Pass is awarded when you collect a set number of qualifying Rapid Rewards points in a single calendar year — 135,000 qualifying points (the 2026 threshold), or fly 100 qualifying one-way flights. The part that makes it attainable: credit-card welcome bonuses and everyday card spend count toward that total. That is changing: Southwest announced on October 15, 2026 that welcome bonuses stop counting toward the Pass for cards approved after December 2, 2026, and the qualifying rules change for 2027, so check southwest.com before you plan around a card bonus.
A realistic path from a standing start:
- Open a Southwest Rapid Rewards personal card and a Southwest business card (Chase). Between two welcome bonuses and the required spend, you can land near — or past — the threshold in one shot. (The 100,000-point consumer offer that ran through 17 September 2026 did it almost alone; the standard 55,000-point offer plus the 60,000-point business bonus still gets you most of the way.)
- Add anniversary points, tier-qualifying flights, and normal card spend to close any gap.
- Time it early in the year. Earn the Pass in, say, January and it's valid for the rest of that year plus all of the next — up to ~2 years of free companion travel.
Important nuance: points transferred in from Chase Ultimate Rewards do not count toward the Companion Pass threshold (verify) — you need points earned directly through Southwest cards, flights, or partners. Transferred UR is still great for booking flights, just not for earning the Pass.
How to use it, step by step
- Designate your companion in your Southwest account once the Pass posts. You can change the designated person up to three times per calendar year.
- Book your own seat — with points or cash, any available fare.
- Add your companion to the same flight for just the taxes (~$5.60 per segment).
- Watch the price and rebook freely. Southwest has no change or cancellation fees — if your fare drops, cancel and rebook; points redeposit automatically and the companion re-links. No blackout dates ever.
What flying Southwest is like
The factual product (as of September 2026): Southwest is an all-economy carrier that now flies with assigned seating (since 27 January 2026 — the open-boarding era is over) and charges most passengers for checked bags. Rapid Rewards credit cardholders get their first standard checked bag free — and so do up to eight others on the same reservation, companions included (the cardholder's Rapid Rewards number must be on the booking; authorized users don't qualify). Boarding groups for Pass holders and companions follow the seat location or the cardmember/tier benefit, whichever is better. What's stable and unusual is the fare flexibility: no change fees, points redeposit on cancellation, and points fares track cash fares with no award chart.
Search & verify prices
Award pricing and space change constantly — check live before you transfer:
- Book & search award space: Southwest — shows its own Rapid Rewards points fares most reliably; scan the Low Fare Calendar (same site) for the cheapest dates.
- Find award space fast: seats.aero · point.me · ExpertFlyer
- Compare cash prices & date grids: Google Flights · ITA Matrix
These open external airline/tool sites; confirm the live price and space before moving any points.
Who it's for
The Companion Pass is the rare loyalty perk whose value scales with how much you fly — every trip you take together adds a second near-free ticket, so the more you fly, the higher the effective return. Because Rapid Rewards is fixed-value with no award chart and no blackout dates, the Pass works on any bookable seat, points or cash. The honest counterpoints: Southwest flies mostly domestic and near-international, every seat is economy, and the 2025–2026 seating and baggage overhaul shifts the calculus — so verify the current rules before you count on them.
Bottom line
If you and a travel partner fly together often, nothing in domestic travel beats stapling a free second seat to every ticket for up to two years. Earn it early in a calendar year with a Southwest personal and business card, and every points or cash fare effectively becomes buy-one-get-one.
FAQ
What counts toward the qualifying-points threshold? Points from Southwest card welcome bonuses and spend, flights (base-fare points), and Rapid Rewards partners. Points transferred from Chase UR do not count (verify).
How long does the Pass last? The rest of the calendar year you earn it, plus the entire following year — so earning early in a year gets you closest to the full ~2 years.
Does my companion pay anything? Only taxes — about $5.60 per one-way segment. The fare itself is free, whether your ticket was points or cash.
Are there blackout dates? No. Rapid Rewards has no award chart and no blackout dates; if a seat is for sale, points and the companion work.
Which cards help most? The Southwest Rapid Rewards personal and business cards from Chase — see the Southwest cards guide. Chase UR also transfers to Southwest 1:1 for booking, just not for earning the Pass.
