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Post by neednewpark on Jun 12, 2023 14:03:47 GMT -5
Been doing a lot of research on this travel hack. I do not see much speak of it on the boards. Was interested on what camp most were in.
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Post by FessParker1 on Jun 12, 2023 16:28:41 GMT -5
Love it!
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Post by brp on Jun 12, 2023 16:33:28 GMT -5
My relevant option is not on here:
"Would consider, but don't fly Southwest enough"
Cheers.
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Post by nrspepe on Jun 12, 2023 16:39:39 GMT -5
Love, love. Easy peasy!
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Post by Wiltony on Jun 12, 2023 17:31:00 GMT -5
I have had it for the past two years and since my wife and I travel frequently together, it has saved us thousands of dollars. We have been using the SW credit card in order to qualify for the points. I'm probably not going to get it next year because having it has motivated us to "make it worth it" resulting in us taking too many trips, which has been unfavorable for our finances lol! I think we took about 11 or 12 round trip flights with it last year, and will be pretty close to that this year as well. The small thing I get frustrated with is that when you're checking the SW site in order to check for fare changes to potentially re-price your flights, you have to cancel the companion ticket first (it won't let you "modify" the original ticket with a companion pass reservation attached). I found myself having to do a lot of canceling and re-booking the companion pass whenever I re-priced my ticket.
One other important piece of information -- for domestic flights, the companion pass only costs $5.60 per direction. However, international flights are a lot more. We go to Cancun a lot, and the companion pass would still cost me about $80-$100 round trip.
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Post by richviii on Jun 12, 2023 20:59:26 GMT -5
To Wiltony’s point, modifying is annoying at times. I actually book each segment now to make this even easier. But these are #FirstWorldProblems when you have a free ticket to anywhere.
That challenge aside, they now put your companion in the following boarding number which is a huge deal if you have you kid with you. It was so annoying to get A19 and companion get A43. So I had to move back with her since she could not board alone and she could not move up to my boarding number. That has been resolved and is even a further perk!
To me, it is one of the best deals around. It does cause you to fly more places or even weekend jaunts with it. But the best thing about it the CP is you can even book on points AND book your companion. So it is not like you have to book a revenue flight to use it. The best use of a companion pass is booking to Hawaii!
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Post by amdev on Jun 13, 2023 6:23:45 GMT -5
DH has it this year and we're able to use it to go to Seattle which saved us quite a bit of money. Only down side is that it expires on 12/31 so I had to pay for our flight home on 1/1.
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Post by neednewpark on Jun 13, 2023 7:58:24 GMT -5
Do you actually have businesses to access the business card or just using the plain old SSN?
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Post by tomandrobin on Jun 13, 2023 13:33:57 GMT -5
We have had the SWA Companion Pass for many years now. It has been fantastic for us over the years. We have been recommended it to our friends almost as long as we have had it. Sadly, one of them ever go for Companion Status. This subject has been talked about a lot over the years.
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Post by tomandrobin on Jun 13, 2023 13:36:06 GMT -5
Do you actually have businesses to access the business card or just using the plain old SSN? For a business visa you do need a business. It doesn't have to be profitable, just a business.
The easiest way yo make Companion status is to have both a personal and business card, both linked to your Rapid Reward account.
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Post by disnydad on Jun 15, 2023 15:11:52 GMT -5
I've had it for the past three years. Saved us a LOT of $$$.
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Post by fuzzylogic on Jun 16, 2023 7:27:17 GMT -5
Been doing a lot of research on this travel hack. I do not see much speak of it on the boards. Was interested on what camp most were in. Companion Pass is great -- if you are at or near a Southwest hub, which we are. I get it every so often. I'll shoot for January -- at which point I get to use it for the remainder of that year and the entire next year. I have a post on it further down in the Transportation threads about Companion Pass in 2 weeks (that was my best ever). The kids and I fly on points and my wife is my free companion (exc. $5 fee / flight). You can get it pretty quickly by applying for a couple credit cards. On top of that you get all the points. I do it for 2 years, then take a down year to reorganize and plot out my next move. If you'd like referrals I'm happy to send to you (I'd get points for the referral). If you were to start the process now, you could complete it around August. Useful if you have flights planned for the end of this year or all of next. You can even rebook flights you currently have booked, as a companion. Marriott (formerly SPG / formerly Sheraton) is also good for earning points if you stay non-Disney. We travel a lot and between Southwest, Marriott and DVC, don't pay much for most of what we do. :-) We just spent 10 days in the World... Points room on the way there and back, and DVC there. Have to strategize what works for you between all the different options! It's kind of a game for me; I really enjoy it. |
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Post by neednewpark on Jun 16, 2023 9:12:28 GMT -5
Been doing a lot of research on this travel hack. I do not see much speak of it on the boards. Was interested on what camp most were in. Companion Pass is great -- if you are at or near a Southwest hub, which we are. I get it every so often. I'll shoot for January -- at which point I get to use it for the remainder of that year and the entire next year. I have a post on it further down in the Transportation threads about Companion Pass in 2 weeks (that was my best ever). The kids and I fly on points and my wife is my free companion (exc. $5 fee / flight). You can get it pretty quickly by applying for a couple credit cards. On top of that you get all the points. I do it for 2 years, then take a down year to reorganize and plot out my next move. If you'd like referrals I'm happy to send to you (I'd get points for the referral). If you were to start the process now, you could complete it around August. Useful if you have flights planned for the end of this year or all of next. You can even rebook flights you currently have booked, as a companion. Marriott (formerly SPG / formerly Sheraton) is also good for earning points if you stay non-Disney. We travel a lot and between Southwest, Marriott and DVC, don't pay much for most of what we do. :-) We just spent 10 days in the World... Points room on the way there and back, and DVC there. Have to strategize what works for you between all the different options! It's kind of a game for me; I really enjoy it. I read your post. It was a great read. I have one question. Did you miss out on the yearly renew points if you got the Cards in Dec? Instead of waiting for Jan? |
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Post by fuzzylogic on Jun 16, 2023 12:16:13 GMT -5
I have one question. Did you miss out on the yearly renew points if you got the Cards in Dec? Instead of waiting for Jan? The anniversary points I don't think matter. That's based on your anniversary and you should get them when your annual fee gets paid. The CP qualifying bonus points, I'm not sure. If you squeaked in a new card by Dec 31, would you get them right away in Jan? I did not... so I didn't get that in time. I see on 2/1 I have a Companion Qualifying Bonus of "0". So I definitely did not qualify or have it in time to make the start of the year trigger. By the way, the SW RR Biz Card just ran a promo these last 3 months. I don't know if it was targeted or for all, but it was double points on all purchases -- even categories I don't have an easy way to get bonus points on. This is a great bonus, up to 15,000 free points. |
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