Companion Pass
I have once again earned the Companion Pass on Southwest Airlines. It took some finagling this year because my travel has remained slowed by the lingering Coronavirus pandemic. It was bonus points from a credit card statement that posted today, two weeks before the end of the year, that put me over the top of the annual 125,000 qualifying points needed to re-earn it for next year.
Southwest's Companion Pass is pretty much unique among airline elite statuses. With a CP you designate a companion, and then that companion is able to join you on any itinerary you fly, nearly for free. You only pay the federal passenger facility charges, currently $5.60 each way. And it applies whether you bought your own ticket with cash or frequent flyer points.
Most casual travelers and even a lot of elites don't grasp the value of this program. They think it's like a one-time certificate. No- it's good for an unlimited number of flights over the course year, or more! It's also not like typical elite-status levels. Even Southwest has a separate, more traditional elite status program. The tiers there are called A-List and A-List Preferred, and they provide more comparable elite benefits such as earlier boarding and a multiplier on points earned.
The value of a Companion Pass is, potentially, huge. It really is unlimited... except by how much you can travel! And there's the rub. We're both working stiffs so we don't get to travel as much as we'd like. Plus this year we missed a few opportunities to travel- mostly because of Coronavirus, but also once because of extreme heat and fires. Even so, by 12/31 Hawk and I will have used it for 6 round trips (actually 5 returns plus 2 one-ways), netting about $2,500 value from it.
Is $2,500 a lot or a little? It depends on compared to what. Compared to my own history with earning the CP most of the last 10 years it's pretty good. Being a pair of working stiffs does limit our travel. Not only do we go on fewer all-leisure trips than we'd like but it rarely works out to have Hawk join me when I go on business trips to extend them through the weekend for sightseeing. Often it feels like a struggle to get even $1,500 value from it. Last year was awful with Covid-19 shutting down travel after February. In 2020 we only used it on two short one-ways, making it worth about $300.
What do I aspire to making CP worth? Well, with MOAR TRAVEL it could be worth maybe even double. I know a few people through a frequent flyer board who do manage to use the CP on a dozen trips a year or more and say it saves them several thousand. But still, our $2,500 is nothing to sneeze at. Not for people in our income bracket, anyway. For 2022... well, we'll see if we can beat $2,500!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/155924.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
Southwest's Companion Pass is pretty much unique among airline elite statuses. With a CP you designate a companion, and then that companion is able to join you on any itinerary you fly, nearly for free. You only pay the federal passenger facility charges, currently $5.60 each way. And it applies whether you bought your own ticket with cash or frequent flyer points.
Most casual travelers and even a lot of elites don't grasp the value of this program. They think it's like a one-time certificate. No- it's good for an unlimited number of flights over the course year, or more! It's also not like typical elite-status levels. Even Southwest has a separate, more traditional elite status program. The tiers there are called A-List and A-List Preferred, and they provide more comparable elite benefits such as earlier boarding and a multiplier on points earned.
The value of a Companion Pass is, potentially, huge. It really is unlimited... except by how much you can travel! And there's the rub. We're both working stiffs so we don't get to travel as much as we'd like. Plus this year we missed a few opportunities to travel- mostly because of Coronavirus, but also once because of extreme heat and fires. Even so, by 12/31 Hawk and I will have used it for 6 round trips (actually 5 returns plus 2 one-ways), netting about $2,500 value from it.
Is $2,500 a lot or a little? It depends on compared to what. Compared to my own history with earning the CP most of the last 10 years it's pretty good. Being a pair of working stiffs does limit our travel. Not only do we go on fewer all-leisure trips than we'd like but it rarely works out to have Hawk join me when I go on business trips to extend them through the weekend for sightseeing. Often it feels like a struggle to get even $1,500 value from it. Last year was awful with Covid-19 shutting down travel after February. In 2020 we only used it on two short one-ways, making it worth about $300.
What do I aspire to making CP worth? Well, with MOAR TRAVEL it could be worth maybe even double. I know a few people through a frequent flyer board who do manage to use the CP on a dozen trips a year or more and say it saves them several thousand. But still, our $2,500 is nothing to sneeze at. Not for people in our income bracket, anyway. For 2022... well, we'll see if we can beat $2,500!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/155924.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]