By Nicole Sweeney
We all love to travel with our families and often, the cost is one of the hurdles we must face. The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass (CP) can help create travel opportunities for your family by reducing the cost of flights to a fraction (fees only). The CP covers destinations all over the US, Caribbean, Mexico and South America.
CP has created travel opportunities we would not have otherwise had. We have booked 4 trips over the last 5 months using CP. We had purchased season passes for Universal Studios the prior year and didn’t plan to go back. But since our flights were basically free with CP and miles ($44 total fees for a family of 4), we decided to head back for a second trip this past September, as we only had to pay for food and hotel (discounted by season passes). We also decided to book a stay at the Nickelodeon Resort in Punta Cana for January because it was on our bucket list for the kids. The trip was made more affordable thanks to CP and miles.
After a fun-filled trip to Orlando, we were looking for some relaxation — especially realizing Nickelodeon Resort was going to be fast-paced. We decided to squeeze in one more trip in November to Jamaica. We found a very affordable all-inclusive and for a 4 night/5 day stay spent only $1,300 total for flight fees, hotel, airport shuttles, airport parking, and personal items. We never would have done this trip without CP. We loved it so much that we hope to visit again every year!
CP also helped us book our bucket list trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas. We booked 4 nights at Atlantis for only the fees ($260) and utilized Companion Pass and miles again, making the total cost for the hotel and flight for 4 nights/5 days only $720.
We have booked 4 round-trip flights and a one-way flight for our family of 4 using CP and miles and still have 39,000 miles remaining. Even when we run out of miles we will still be able to utilize CP to get flights for half the price for the rest of this year. Costa Rica or Belize, as well as a return trip to Jamaica, are on our list for this year.
How you can get a Companion Pass
How do you earn CP? Currently, there are 2 easy ways to earn it. Southwest Airlines (SWA) personal credit cards are currently offering a chance to earn 30,000 miles and a Companion Pass good for this year only. However, because of the short period of time, I do not recommend this offer.
By earning 110,000 miles, you can earn the Companion Pass good for the year you earn it plus the following year. This means it could be good for almost two years. By taking out both an SWA business credit card (60,000 miles bonus when you spend $3,000) and an SWA personal credit card (40,000-mile bonus when you spend $1,000) you will earn 4,000 miles from the minimum spending and be 6,000 miles away from earning CP. There are several ways to earn the extra miles, but spending on your SWA credit cards is a simple way to do it.
If you are interested in earning the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass, you can learn more here.
