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Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

PettyIntrigues
Adventurer A

I feel like I’m going nuts.

 

Since I became a “road dog” for the organization I work for in 2016, I’ve qualified for Companion Pass in the air and in the air only (I don’t have/use a SWA credit card) every year. Earliest was in April in 2017 and 2019, latest was October in 2020 and last year. 

I’m way behind this year despite my flying not appreciably decreasing (although I am indeed a few flights less than normal), currently sitting at 47,500 in Companion Pass qualifying points for the year and 35 qualifying flights. Nothing wild (I know a lot of people here in Texas commute on it daily, for instance) but a fair bit of traveling.

 

I should still qualify at my current pace, but still: gonna be cutting it closer than I’d like. Probably December.

 

I know the benchmarks have increased through the years. And I know not every flight is created equal, but I’ve had a few work flights to SJU and PVR and BZN which would pad my points more than, say, TUL or MSY (I’m DAL-based).

 

Something just seems…off. But I keep doing the math and it seems like everything checks out. But still—off pace.

 

Again, I’m not SWA’s biggest of customers, but this is still a lot of flying with them—seems crazy to me I need to be eyeballing possible mileage runs around the holidays.

 

Is Companion Pass mostly a credit card perk now? Southwest is still primarily an airline, right?

6 REPLIES 6

Re: Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

PettyIntrigues
Adventurer A

(FWIW, these are almost entirely WGA fares as I work for a non-profit, but they always have been these years.)

Re: Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

bec102896
Aviator A

You could always look for a good deal on your day off just to get ahead of the holiday rush and pricing. Every once in awhile a nice sale comes out I think the best ones come in June and October maybe find a day off and fly RT in a day or if you don’t want to spend an extra day in the airport try a point to point booking so if your going from DAL to MCO try DAL MSY MCO booked as 2 one ways 

 

i think a lot of people do earn off of the credit card or the opening account bonus now what percentage of CP holders are flights vs CC spend I have no idea but would definitely be interested to know if that is ever released. 

Re: Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

dfwskier
Aviator A

IMO, unless you basically live on planes, there is no easy way to earn CP unless you get the credit card. I guess if you book lot of 10,000 point hotel stays you could get there.

 

Heck I've been A-List since the program started, and never would have made it off of points. I do it off of flight segments. 

Re: Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

PettyIntrigues
Adventurer A

I think I’m likely to earn it off segments this year for my first time ever.

 

That’s part of why I’m vexed—it almost seems like the points have decreased in value? But I have seen nothing online or anywhere that indicates such.

 

Occam’s Razor says I’m just a few segments behind what I normally fly by the first third of the year, on shorter/cheaper flights, with a higher qualifying benchmark. 

 

And yet! Heh, thanks all.

Re: Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@PettyIntrigues wrote:

I think I’m likely to earn it off segments this year for my first time ever.

 

That’s part of why I’m vexed—it almost seems like the points have decreased in value? But I have seen nothing online or anywhere that indicates such.

 

Occam’s Razor says I’m just a few segments behind what I normally fly by the first third of the year, on shorter/cheaper flights, with a higher qualifying benchmark. 

 

And yet! Heh, thanks all.


I think the difference is that it is still 100 flights, but the points have gone up from 115,000 to 125,000 up to 135,000 so a lot of people who previously earned it on points are going to be squeezed if they just made it previously.

 

The other wrinkle is that even if you do buy BS fares, that doesn't help you if you are still way ahead on segments as opposed to points. The extra point bonuses only help you if you will qualify on points. 

 

Since it "renews" in a way that there isn't any gap, if you are on track to fly twice a week for low fares, just keep on chugging.

 

Maybe book some points-run flights (segment runs for you) just in case that you can cancel if they won't be needed and save the travel funds for next year.

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Companion Pass qualifying In The Air

PettyIntrigues
Adventurer A

That is not the worst idea, but my plan was to just wait and see where I stand around Thanksgiving, and if it is a matter of just grabbing a segment or two (which, if it comes to that, I think will be the case, though I also don’t think it will actually come to that), booking the cheapest one-day round-trip I can in those slow early December weeks with the one or two vouchers I seem to collect every year as just a fact of volume.

 

Again though, that’s just whackadoodle to me. I’ve done basically 17 1/2 round trips so far this year. There’s only been 18 weeks so far this year! If a weekly flyer has to sweat out getting their top-tier, then Southwest needs to fix its frequent FLYER program.