Get temporary Southwest Companion Pass with one round trip flight (Book 8/25-8/28)

Southwest Airlines has brought back its popular temporary Companion Pass offer whereby you can book a qualifying round trip or two one-way flights between 8/25/25 and 8/28/25, travel by 11/15, and earn a temporary companion pass that’s valid from 1/6-3/6/26.

The Deal

• Southwest Airlines is offering a promotion to earn a temporary promotional Companion Pass as follows:
  1. Register for the promotion
  2. Purchase a qualifying round trip or two qualifying one-way flights between 8/25/25 and 8/28/25
  3. Complete travel by 11/15/25
  4. Earn a promotional Companion Pass that is valid from 1/6/25 to 3/6/35
• Direct link to register

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 August 25, 2025 and 11:59 p.m. CT on August 28, 2025 (the “Promotion Period”) for travel from August 25, 2025 to November 15, 2025 (the “Travel Period”), and fly during the Travel Period to earn a promotional Companion Pass® valid for use between January 6, 2026 and March 6, 2026.
• Basic fares are not qualifying flights for this promotion.
• 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 bookingMember’s qualifying flight to earn a promotional Companion Pass valid for use between January 6, 2026 and March 6, 2026.
• The promotional Companion Pass is valid from January 6, 2026 through March 6, 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 January 6, 2026 and March 6, 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 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.
• 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.
• 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, Basic fares, 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

Southwest brings this promotion around now and again and it can be highly valuable in some circumstances and not at all in others.

They most important things to know include:

• Basic fares do not count.
• Award redemptions (using your points to book) and cash & points bookings do count.
• Previously-booked travel does not count. You must register first, then book between 8/25-8/28 and complete travel by 11/15.
• Terms indicate that changes are allowed if the qualifying travel is still completed in the Travel Period, but read carefully: any changes you make must be made during the “promotion period” (which means between 8/25-8/28) and travel still needs to happen during the “travel period” (which means 8/25-11/15). The bottom line is that you need to book a new reservation between 8/25-28 and then if you need to change it, you also need to change it between 8/25-8/28. Changes you make later may eliminate qualification for this promotion.

All that said, if you’ll fly a couple/few reservations with a companion between January 6th and March 6th, it could be worth registering and making a book during this promotion. I’m personally not sure I’ll need this, but since award bookings count, I might still register and make a qualifying booking. I’ll be in Los Angeles toward the end of the promo period and could use some of my existing Rapid Rewards points points to book a really cheap same-day round trip from Los Angeles just so I have the option of taking the trip later if it turns out that the extra household companion pass would come in handy between January and March (we don’t yet have our travels during that period plotted out).

Another interesting aspect here is that the companion can be changed upm to 3 times. While that is also true with the full-scale Companion Pass, I was surprised that the promotional one allows for the same number of changes. That might make the temporary pass more useful for someone who would like to travel with a couple different people during the companion pass window.

Overall, I find these temporary Companion Pass promotions to have really niche appeal, but this time around I’ll actually register and book a placeholder flight and see what happens.

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