Details

• You must book a round trip or 2 one-way flights by September 5, 2024
• The flights must be flown by November 20, 2024
• You will receive a companion pass that will be valid for travel from January 6, 2025 to March 6, 2025
• You will only pay the taxes and fees for the companion, and the taxes are typically $5.60 each way for domestic flights, although some routes may have higher fees.
• You can change your companion up to 3 times during the promotional period, which is the same amount of changes that are available with a full companion pass.
  • Be aware that changes made during the promotional period will reduce the amount of changes you can make in 2025 if you earn a full companion pass, so if you change your companion 2 times during this promotion and then earn a companion pass later for 2025, you can only change your companion 1 more time in that calendar year.

How to Maximize the Value of this Promotion

I don’t generally fly Southwest, but as you can see from the route map below, Southwest has a very extensive route map, so I’m confident that I will be able to use it at least once and save more than the cost of the qualifying flights.

For my qualifying flights, I plan to book a round trip from CLT-BWI (Charlotte, NC to Baltimore, MD) in early November for about a week. Luckily Southwest has a calendar feature that allows me to find the cheapest flights, which are $76 each way for this route.

Since this is a flight that I hadn’t originally planned to take, I won’t assign a value to this, and instead choose to view it as if I am directly paying $152 for 2 months of companion pass, even though I’ll use the trip as an opportunity to visit family in the area.

I’ll use the companion pass for domestic flights due to work restrictions, likely to Seattle, Portland (Maine), or possibly re-visit New Orleans, which is where I am as I write this article. Interestingly enough, the last date that the companion pass will be valid is the Thursday after Mardi Gras, making this particularly useful for anyone who’s planning to fly in for Mardi Gras, since flight prices are likely to be much higher.

Final Thoughts

If you already have travel plans during the promotional period or have a flexible enough schedule where you may decide to take a trip during that time, it’s possible that it may be worth taking an unnecessary round-trip flight before November 20th, in order to earn the companion pass, especially if you are able to find a very cheap flight.

Alternatively, if you have a flight planned from now until 11/20 with a different carrier, it may be worth changing your flight to Southwest in order to hit this promotion without going out of your way to meet the requirements.