Reports came out over the past few days about a Southwest Airlines survey indicating that the airline is considering major changes to its famed Companion Pass, with the benefit potentially becoming a top-tier elite member benefit. To be clear, no changes have been announced but rather this was simply a survey gauging member reaction to the proposed changes. Still, it is concerning that the Companion Pass may change dramatically from the long-beloved value proposition that it currently offers.
I have long said that the Southwest Companion Pass is the best deal in domestic travel. Earn 135,000 points in a calendar year and a companion flies for free every time you fly (paying just the taxes, which are $5.60 one-way on most domestic awards). The pass can be used an unlimited number of times during its validity and it can be used whether the passholder’s ticket was booked with money or points. The named companion can even be changed 3 times per calendar year.
For many years, it has been possible to earn the necessary points for a Companion Pass by strategically opening two new credit cards. Those who do this late in the year and wait to meet minimum spending requirements until January can earn nearly two years of Companion Pass travel in one go. You can read more about that in our Southwest Companion Pass Complete Guide.
Now Doctor of Credit and View from the Wing are reporting on a survey sent to members proposing changes to the elite status program that look like they may move the Companion Pass to an elite status benefit rather than a benefit earned by simply earning enough points in a calendar year. That would represent a seismic shift. Today, Companion Pass-qualifying points can be earned from credit card spend, credit card new cardholder bonus offers, shopping through the Rapid Rewards shopping portal, booking hotels through Rocketmiles, rental car partnerships, 1-800-Flowers orders, and more. If the Companion Pass becomes an elite status benefit, that would completely change things and almost surely lead to a drastic reduction in the number of Companion Pass holders.
While I wouldn’t be surprised to see Southwest change the value proposition significantly one way or another, I think that eliminating the ability to earn the Companion Pass through a variety of means of engagement would be a colossal mistake. While Southwest has been rapidly reducing its value proposition this year — eliminating checked bags, re-introducing expiration for flight credits, and beginning to charge for seat assignments — the Companion Pass is really the main thing Southwest has going for it in terms of maintaining customer loyalty. At a time when other airlines are moving toward rewarding members for engagement through shopping portals, hotel bookings, and more, it would be really disappointing to see Southwest take the opposite approach.
On the surface, the Companion Pass might look like an expensive benefit since it is essentially an infinitely repeatable Buy One, Get One Free coupon. However, assuming it to be expensive requires the assumption that all passholders are flying enough for the cost to transport their companion to outweigh the value to Southwest in selling miles to the various miles-providers (the bank, shopping portals, etc). While we have had a Companion Pass in my household for more than a decade, there have been some years where we haven’t used it many times at all. In other years, we used it often. Either way, it has maintained our loyalty through thick and thin: Southwest is our primary domestic airline in large part due to the Companion Pass.
Those using the Companion Pass the most often — perhaps flying a companion weekly — are likely spending enough and/or flying enough with Southwest to likely earn the elite status that will continue to provide a Companion Pass. The only “cost savings” would be realized by reducing the use of the BOGO coupon for people who don’t fly Southwest often enough to earn elite status naturally. For the most part, I imagine that crowd probably isn’t getting enough “free” travel (in terms of the incremental cost for Southwest to carry their companion / not sell that seat) to far outweigh whatever Southwest makes on average from the sale of 135,000 miles. Further, I imagine that demand for Southwest credit cards would drastically reduce if they were no longer useful for earning the Companion Pass. Given that Southwest points are worth less than 1.5c per point toward flights, it wouldn’t make any sense to put purchases on a Southwest credit card if they wouldn’t count toward Companion Pass requirements. It would presumably still be possible to earn tier points through card spend, but I wouldn’t be confident that will be appealing.
Southwest seems to be considering a 4-tier elite system and surveyed options indicate that only top-tier elites may have access to an unlimited Companion Pass in future years. It appears that those in the tier before top-tier may get access to a set number of Companion Pass uses.
For clarity, surveys don’t always line up with what eventually happens. Part of the purpose of a survey is to gauge customer reaction and I can’t imagine that there would be an overwhelmingly positive response to Companion Pass changes among those familiar with it. But ,unfortunately, Southwest seems intent on offering an inferior product — one where miles can’t be used for travel to other continents, flights have no seatback entertainment or power outlets, etc — yet they still charge the same junk fees as airlines that do not share those disadvantages. To play Devil’s advocate, perhaps the “cost savings” (which I still find dubious) could be used to fund better elite benefits which could at least make them competitive on that front. However, I won’t hold my breath.
I wouldn’t expect to see any major announcements regarding changes for months yet, but we will have to keep an eye on whether changes are announced ahead of the start of traditional “Companion Pass Season” in October.
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Companion Pass had always been the low hanging fruit of cost savings, why they didn’t reduce this benefit before messing with baggage fees is beyond me. They really did things in the wrong order
Companion Pass is currently the only thing keeping me on WN. It’s not incredibly convenient for me to fly them and ticket pricing is very comparable with the legacy carriers. If Companion Pass changes much I’ll likely drop my WN flying and choose more convenient options for similar prices.
I’m curious if Chase has any say in this as the co-branded card issuer? Seems like there will be a lot less interest in (and revenue on) their credit cards with this major devaluation.
This or something like it was always inevitable; I am surprised it is taking this long. You cannot have a system this generous. WN “free flights” are pushing 17-18% of total load per the 10-K. Allowing points to be used on any ticket (as opposed to excess inventory) is an outlier to begin with, and after the rise of the internet where everyone learned the “get 2 CCs with 100+K points worth a couple thousand bucks for $200 in fees and BOGO tickets for 2 years and cancel after a year,” it just costs them too much. Of course, this is gonna kill them as they lack lounges/perks/meals/etc of the legacies.
The reason I invest time finding ways to earn Southwest miles and basicly ignor other domestic carriers is to use them with the Companion Pass.
Interesting discussion. I’d like to throw two thoughts in:
1) There’s probably some name for this phenomenon but I don’t know it. It shows up over and over again with American consumers though, and it’s when we (American consumers) say we want one thing but then don’t actually pay for that product or service. People say they are willing to pay more for more legroom but don’t, they say they want to eliminate tipping culture but then don’t support restaurants where staff is paid regular wages because the food costs more, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Southwest leadership was looking at raising fares or enshittifying Southwest and realized consumers wouldn’t pay more for the old Southwest experience.
2) When discussing things like the WN CP I think we exercise some extreme selection bias and as a result probably vastly overestimate the number of people chasing and using this benefit outside of the hobby. I’d be fascinated to see how many people actually have one and what the average usage is, but I suspect that both of those numbers are lower than we probably think.
Great analysis, Nick. I assume Southwest will have to honor the terms of all current CP holders who have earned a CP through 2026 even if they change the qualifications terms starting in 2026. My P2 and I have rotated the CP since 2016, but I have been more steadily booking away from Southwest over the last several 2 years except when booking a nonstop flight due to their increasingly poor on time performance, even if this means we use more miles for another carrier. I agree with multiple previous comments that SWA management perceives every CP flight as lost revenue. I doubt they have accurately calculated how many people will book away from them if this change occurred. Couple the lost Chase credit card revenue with two types of folks in this CP game. Person A pivots to the other big 4 (including Alaska for those of us on the West Coast) due to improved reliability, upgrade opportunities, lounges, etc or Person B who is looking for ultra-cheap award travel and is willing to consider other ULCC to save a few bucks or points since they no longer get the second person free. Southwest is just hoping that being the largest domestic US carrier is their winning strategy, this is a big gamble on their part.
Don’t be surprised if SW limits the Companion Pass to those meeting (for example) some airfare revenue threshold as opposed to any swinging Richard who times two credit card acquisitions every two years.
No one likes to see something like this change. It’s one of those too good to be true things. It’s the only thing that makes SW worth it. But, SW is in the financial hurt locker and it needs to do something. This isn’t about corporate greed as some will complain; it’s about SW surviving.
But they could be putting the final nail in their coffin if they make this change on top of all their other cost-cutting measures! It’s now the only thing that sets them apart!
Absolutely. The industry has evolved. And, it might be that SW doesn’t survive the transition it needs to make. And, the reasons for not surviving might be many and varied.
Yikes, the CP was the only reason I’ve been sticking with Southwest for the remainder of 2025. If that is gone, I see no reason to think of them first anymore. Funny enough, Frontier (which we had sworn off) has been inching its way back into my mind.
Frontier has been gunning to steal market share as Southwest implodes. I’m hearing more folks in my circle fly them and will start to consider them more if they grow their route network enough to have consistent options where I am.
Question: Will Southwest nerf the Companion Pass next?Answer: Yes, Elliott is on a roll and hell bent on destroying the company. Why stop now?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the CP is the ONLY thing that keeps me flying SWA. Without that, why would I choose to fly them when there may be a more convenient or cheaper routes?
Took three flights in May on new SW planes (one delivered two weeks earlier) those three all had USB-C/-A outlets (USB-C was 25W IIRC baeed on my phones charginf rings with the proper USB-cord).
That said we won’t. Likely get the CP again – after the recent devaluation.
Out last CP MSR was met early Feb 2020 – just missed pending charges posting to get it for 23 months – but thst was moot bc of.C19).
We decided to.get CP last September and chabged our focus on No. America Travels for 2025-2026, prior three years were 85% Int’l flights vs US.
Regarding power, personally, I’m not looking for USB ports on a plane, I’m looking for power outlets.
For starters, it’s usually my laptop that I want/need to charge (I’m trying to work while I’m in-flight. If they want to actually attract the type of business travelers who will fly enough to earn elite status, I imagine many of them would like to charge a laptop, too!).
Beyond that, I don’t like plugging my phone into a wall USB outlet because I don’t know which of those are run by some sort of computer system where a malicious actor could install harmful software. There was a story a while back about the FBI warning about plugging into them in airports because of something like that. I’m sure that some USB outlets are power-only, but I’m wary of plugging my phone into something other than the charging brick because I use my phone for so much.
Nick… regarding the FBI warning… it’s possible but there hasn’t be a single verified incident of this ever happening.
The only reason I still fly southwest. Hopefully, it will make them more attractive to whatever airline that ends up acquiring them.
I’m 20 minutes from ORD but yet fly exclusively with SW at Midway (good hour away) due entirely to the companion pass. My wife and I have been in 2 player mode on the CP since 2012. However, I find Southwest prices typically much higher than others. Do away away with the pass and I’m likely gone. In the words of Cosmo Kramer, “I’m out”!
Elliott doing Elliott things
Trying their best to ruin the company and doing a bang up job!
World record speed run completely destroy brand loyalty built up over 58 years any%
I’m A List Preferred; I never have enough points for the CP. I’ve always wondered why the ways to “get” the CP did not include having status. So, if they limit it to top tier, it might work out for me. No intent to get any of their credit cards for the CP earning points; just would like it as a result of status.
How do you get A-List Preferred without getting a Companion Pass? Seems like it would be tough to hit those flying miles without getting enough in CC spend too.
A List Preferred currently requires 40 flights in a calendar year. I had no problem the last two years doing that. Lots of shorter cheaper flights – doesn’t matter the mileage, just the flights. Depends on where you fly out of also – I’m in SLC and there are lots of flights where I go to – LAS, SAN, DEN, etc.
Companion pass requires more points, which implies more money spent, or at least a SWA credit card to get the points? You can get it with 100 flights but that’s tough. So not the same count method.
So you’re not paying for the 40 flights with a SWA CC then?
No. Actually I usually try to use SWA gift cards, often on sale for 10-14% off at Costco.