@kingsmatt80 wrote:
Yes you should be able to add a companion in January once the CP Privilege kicks in. So If you have yourself and Dad already booked, on 1/24 the option to add a companion (your Mom) should be active and a button will now appear when you go to the "manage reservations" option on the desktop website.
I would suggest you also book your Mom's flight now just to save the seat. Since you are using points you can go in on Jan 24th through "manage my reservation" and cancel you Mom's flight before you add her as your companion.
This way your Mom and Dad will be on the same reservation as you and get the A-List boarding position benefit when you go to check in.
There will be three ways to do this each with its own benefit and downsides:
- Don't buy your mom the extra ticket now, just wait to add the companion. Downside is what if the flight sells out before you get the companion pass activated there would be a potentially costly scramble at the last minute.
- Protect yourself and buy all three tickets now on points, refund your mom's ticket when the time comes to add the companion booking. Downside is you may have to call in to break off one person from the reservation, I'm not sure if that's a self-service option online.
- Protect yourself and buy two tickets now with points, and a separate points ticket for your mom, then it will be easy to self-service cancel the points ticket and then add the companion. Downside is that if you do end up using the backup ticket she won't be on your A-list confirmation number.
We are normally doing Option 1 ourselves, if the flight sells out we'll have to scramble for an alternative but most of the time, especially since Southwest stopped overselling flights, there is almost always one seat available even if you are trying to snag it at T-24 or on the way to the airport. But your (your mom's) stress level might be worth reserving a seat with points either Option 2 or Option 3 above.
Hope this helps clarify the otherwise great advice from @kingsmatt80 - it's a bummer that you can't add the companion in advance to be active during the eligibility window, you have to wait until the pass is turned on unfortunately.
We did this in September this year, changing flight plans to extend a trip one day so that our travel would be during the CP window even though the CP would only be turned on that day of travel. Mild amount of stress and flight was full and we ended up splitting up the parents and kids on two different flights since we couldn't get all on one flight. I used my A-list same day change to move to a later flight with one kid as my companion and my wife stayed on the original flight with the other kid as promotional companion.
Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.
