Southwest is back with another opportunity to earn a limited-time Companion Pass. You have to book by Thursday and fly twice by the end of March; if you do, you’ll earn a Companion Pass that’s valid for two months from early August to early October.
This even works with flights booked with Rapid Rewards points.
The Deal
- Earn a Southwest Companion Pass by completing the following requirements:
- Register for this promotion
- Book a round trip flight or two one-way flights by February 20, 2025 for travel through March 31, 2025
- Earn a Companion Pass valid from August 7, 2025 through October 8, 2025.
- Direct link to registration.
Key Terms
- 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.
- 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, charter flights, group travel, and Southwest Vacations packages do not qualify as one-way or round trip flights for this promotion.
- Changes made within the Promotion Period is 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 seems to run this type of promotion a couple of times per year. It’s not the most enthralling promotion ever seeing as the Companion Pass is only valid for two months. However, if you anticipate flying a fair bit on routes served by Southwest from early August to early October, there’s definitely some value to be had here.
Southwest made a positive change to this type of promotion the last time they ran it in September. That’s because they added the ability to take qualifying flights when booking with Rapid Rewards points. Before that, only cash fares were eligible.
This promo could even be worth a mileage run for a couple who’ll be able to put the Companion Pass to very good use. If you can find low cash or points fares, booking a round trip could save you much more cash or points from August to October even if you didn’t need to actually fly anywhere by the end of March.
As a reminder, Southwest personal cards currently have an offer awarding a Companion Pass that’s good through February 28, 2026, so that will be a better choice for many people who are under 5/24.
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This piqued my interest as the August – October dates overlap a Labor Day weekend trip and our kid’s school Fall break which would make the companion pass very useful. Unfortunately I couldn’t find much for sub-$100 one-way fares from PHX before end of March. Spring Training and spring breaks will pump up travel here for a while so not too surprised.
I did notice that prices dropped $25 – $50 for many days on the same routes when looking at all of April. Will be curious to check in a few days if there is still the March/April price disparity because of busy tourism locally or if Southwest refused to discount March flights as much knowing they had this promotion on offer.
Hi Stephen, would you know if booking a flight using one of those Southwest 20% off award flights promo codes is allowed under this companion pass promotion? I read the fine print but couldn’t determine for sure if this was allowed or if using the promo codes would not be considered a qualifying flight. Thanks!
I would think that it would, but I’m not 100% certain on that and so I’d be inclined to not risk it if you think you’d be able to get good use out of the Companion Pass. It would be a shame to miss out on that if it would give far more value than the 20% savings.
Thanks for the insight!
I canceled and rebooked a round trip for this. Saved about 1000 points on a redemption and paid $11 more on a paid ticket. All in all a wash but might come in handy.
Did you get any confirmations of the companion pass? I did that too but no emails received.
No but I have a screenshot of the email and the reservations in case they don’t give the CP.
would paying for the qualifying flights by March with southwest flight credits work? Says Cash or points but is available flight credit considered either one of those?
Yes, using flight credits is fine.