Southwest has once again returned with an opportunity for Rapid Rewards members to earn a limited-time Companion Pass. As is usually the case with these types of promotions, there are three key sets of dates to be aware of.
The Deal
- Earn a limited-time Southwest Companion Pass by:
- Registering for this promotion and then booking one round trip or two one-way flights by February 5, 2026.
- Complete that travel by March 31, 2026.
- Receive a Companion Pass valid August 10 through October 7, 2026.
- Direct link to registration.
Key Terms
- Register for this promotion, then book one qualifying round trip or two qualifying one-way Southwest® flights between 8:00 a.m. Central Time (“CT”) on February 2, 2026 and 11:59 p.m. CT on February 5, 2026 (the “Promotion Period”) for travel between February 2 and March 31, 2026 (the “Travel Period”), and fly during the Travel Period to earn a promotional Companion Pass valid for use between August 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026.
- Registration must be completed prior to booking and commencement of travel.
- Valid on new qualifying flights booked during the Promotion Period for travel during the Travel Period and flown within the Travel Period.
- Member’s qualifying flights must be booked through Southwest.com, the Southwest Mobile App, swabiz.com (SWABIZ), Global Distribution System (GDS), or Southwest Partner Services (SPS) distribution channels with Southwest Airlines inventory during the Promotion Period for travel that must be completed during the Travel Period.
- Member’s Rapid Rewards account number must be entered at the time of booking Member’s qualifying flight to earn a promotional Companion Pass valid for use between August 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026.
- A qualifying one-way flight for this promotion is a one-way flight on Southwest Airlines from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest Airlines.
- A qualifying round trip flight for this promotion is a round trip flight on Southwest Airlines from an origin city to a destination city and back to the originating airport or carrier-recognized co-terminal.
- Valid on new reservations booked within the Promotion Period for travel during the Travel Period only. Travel booked or flown prior to registration for this promotion is not eligible for this promotional Companion Pass offer. Travel date is determined by the qualifying flight(s) original scheduled departure time.
- Qualifying flights must be flown by the same Member.
- Redemption reservations and Cash + Points bookings qualify for this promotional offer.
- Basic, Choice, Choice Preferred, and Choice Extra fares are all qualifying flights for this promotion.
- Cash + Points bookings will earn Rapid Rewards points, tier qualifying points for A-List and A-List Preferred status, and Companion Pass qualifying points on the portion of the base fare that is paid with dollars.
- Companion Pass, charter flights, group travel, and Getaways by Southwest bookings do not qualify as one-way or round trip flights for this promotion.
- Changes made within the Promotion Period are allowed if the qualifying travel is still completed in the Travel Period.
- Changes made to any itinerary after the Promotion Period may eliminate qualification for this promotion.
Quick Thoughts
If you need to book Southwest flights in the next few days for travel that’ll take place by the end of March, registering for this promotion is a no-brainer. Even if you don’t have any travel plans right now, if you think that you’ll be able to get good value from a Companion Pass that’s valid for almost two months in late summer/early fall, it might be worth booking a couple of cheap flights if that would save you more money further down the line.
Interestingly, bookings with Rapid Rewards points are qualifying flights for this promotion. I don’t think that used to be the case, but they have been eligible the last couple of times that Southwest has run this promo. That makes prospective bookings a little more palatable seeing as Southwest credits are more restrictive nowadays.
Note that although qualifying flights have to take place by March 31, you have to book by February 5.
Interestingly, it might be possible to earn two limited-time Companion Passes that will run for almost five consecutive months. There’s this targeted promotion where you can earn a three month Companion Pass valid from May through July after taking four qualifying round trips or eight one-ways. While those flight requirements are far more stringent than this new one that only requires one round trip or two one-ways, the dates you need to complete qualifying flights are fairly similar. You’d then earn a Companion Pass valid May 1 through July 31, then another one valid from August 10 through October 7.
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Where are you finding these terms? The reason I ask as I do not see where it states you can book via SWABIZ and qualify:
Promotional Companion Pass® Terms and Conditions
Register for this promotion, then book one qualifying round trip or two qualifying one-way Southwest® flights between 8:00 a.m. Central Time (“CT”) on February 2, 2026 and 11:59 p.m. CT on February 5, 2026 (the “Promotion Period”) for travel between February 2 and March 31, 2026 (the “Travel Period”), and fly during the Travel Period to earn a promotional Companion Pass® valid for use between August 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026.
To register for this promotion, you will need to provide your Southwest Rapid Rewards® account number at the time of registration. If you do not have a Rapid Rewards® account number, you may register for an account by going online to Southwest.com/rapidrewards to become a Member. Rapid Rewards accounts are free. Member must register for this promotion, book one qualifying round trip or two qualifying one-way Southwest flights during the Promotion Period for travel during the Travel Period, and fly during the Travel Period. Registration must be completed prior to booking and commencement of travel. Valid on new qualifying flights booked during the Promotion Period for travel during the Travel Period and flown within the Travel Period. Member’s qualifying flights must be booked through Southwest.com®, the Southwest Mobile App, ry during the Promotion Period for travel that must be completed during the Travel Period. Member’s Rapid Rewards account number must be entered at the time of booking Member’s qualifying flight to earn a promotional Companion Pass valid for use between and October 7, 2026. A qualifying one-way flight for this promotion is a one-way flight on Southwest Airlines from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest Airlines. A qualifying round trip flight for this promotion is a round trip flight on Southwest Airlines from an origin city to a destination city and back to the originating airport or carrier-recognized co-terminal. Valid on new reservations booked within the Promotion Period for travel during the Travel Period only. Travel booked or flown prior to registration for this promotion is not eligible for this promotional Companion Pass offer. Travel date is determined by the qualifying flight(s) original scheduled departure time. Qualifying flights must be flown by the same Member. Redemption reservations and Cash + Points bookings qualify for this promotional offer. Changes made to any itinerary after the Promotion Period may eliminate qualification for this promotion.
The promotional Companion Pass is valid from August 10, 2026 through October 7, 2026 and allows you to designate one person to fly with you, free of airline charges (does not include taxes and fees from $5.60 one-way) on flights purchased by you, booked through Southwest, and completed between August 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026. Visit Southwest.com/rrterms for a complete list of Companion Pass rules. No Rapid Rewards points nor tier or Companion Pass qualifying points will be awarded for flights taken by the Companion when flying on a promotional Companion Pass or Companion Pass reservation. Member is limited to one Companion Pass at a time. You may change your designated Companion up to three times while you have promotional Companion Pass. If you earn Companion Pass in 2026 by earning 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or flying 100 qualifying one-way flights, any changes to your designated Companion during the time you have a promotional Companion Pass will reduce the number of changes you can make to your designated Companion in the 2026 calendar year. For example, if you earn a promotional Companion Pass through this promotion, change your designated Companion twice during the validity period for promotional Companion Pass, and later in 2026 earn Companion Pass, you would only be able to change your designated Companion one more time in 2026. Companion Pass is nontransferable. All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply and can be found at Southwest.com/rrterms. Southwest reserves the right to amend, suspend, or change the Rapid Rewards program and/or Rapid Rewards program rules at any time without notice. Rapid Rewards Members do not acquire property rights in accrued points. The number of points needed for a particular Southwest flight is set by Southwest and will vary depending on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare type, point redemption rate, and other factors, and is subject to change at any time until the booking is confirmed.
It’s on the registration page. It looks like the terms you’ve copied have deleted that section as it goes from ‘the Southwest Mobile App’ to ‘ry during the’.
Here’s the article you meant to write: “Earning the Companion Pass: Cheapest Round Trips From Your SWA Base in Feb and March. Results from 5 AI LLMs”
Lots of errors there, on which you could bring your experience to ellucidate.
Or you could just go to Google Flights and search Home Airport -> United States and filter by Southwest Airlines for Feb/March and see results in seconds.
Google flights won’t filter by Southwest Airlines on that route choice..
They do indeed if you know how to do it 🙂 but you seem like a know it all so you can probably figure that out on your own.
Not to “United States”. Only alliances can be filtered on. Try it.
That is what it appears on the outside – but there are always little tricks to get around stuff like this.
And it won’t help locking in “Southwest Airlines”. It doesn’t let you choose the two months search interval for a trip of stipulated length or rank the results by price. AI chatbots at least do this.
So basically, you don’t have a google fligghts solution. That explains the evasiveness of your answers.
If I am wrong, present your method here, so clearly that everyone can replicate it.
If you click a random route after you do your initial search, and then set your filters (Southwest Airlines, nonstop or whatever else you want to filter to), it remembers your filters on future searches and the next time you search Home Airport -> United States it will search just what you’ve filtered to.
As I thought, your answer does not select the cheapest fare for a trip of a specified duration (e.g. 2 days) in the specified window (e.g. Feb-Mar.). Let alone ranking all possible destinations in ascending price order.
Try it! And you can’t have Jimmy help you, he is waiting for his parents to pick him up.
If I am wrong give instructions so clear that anyone here can unambiguously follow them. Your last “answer” was a retreat into obfuscation, reflecting the fact that your method does not work.
I don’t know about you but I already booked my day trip for $94 round trip in March on Southwest to get the companion pass offer. Probably took me 4 minutes if anything.
I’m sorry this is such an overtly complex task for you that you’re hoping for someone to find an AI solution for you instead of doing the work yourself in minutes.
Best of luck!
“Or you could just go to Google Flights and search Home Airport -> United States and filter by Southwest Airlines for Feb/March and see results in seconds.”
So glib, and so wrong.
Fellas, thank you for this exhilarating back-and-forth. Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the pithy retorts. *chef’s kiss*
You’re welcome! Happy companion pass hunting everybody!
This is late. This has been out since early Monday.
Friend, it’s only Tuesday (the 3rd); there is time (two more days)!