Southwest Vacations WITH Companion Pass

[chrisfuen]

New to Companion Pass:  1)  if we book a Southwest Vacation pkge (flight+hotel), does the companion pass only apply to the flight portion or does it apply to the entire vacation package?   2) how do you make a SW Vacation pkge and apply the Companion Pass? TIA

[TheMiddleSeat · Accepted solution]

Companion Pass is strictly a Southwest Airlines program valid only for airfare on Southwest Airlines. Southwest Vacations is a completely separate company, unaffiliated with Southwest Airlines. If you are able to purchase airfare for only one traveler as part of the vacation package you should then be able to add a companion through the air reservation which will appear in your account on southwest.com. The key question is if Southwest Vacations will let you book air for one person and hotel for two. Personally I would recommend that you not book through Southwest Vacations, their customer service seems to be horrible based on many other posts from people here in the Community. If the savings over booking the trip as a package versus separate items is truly significant I might consider it, but it would not be my first choice. 

--TheMiddleSeat

[dfwskier · Accepted solution]

It would seem to me that you have three choices

1) See how much it costs via Southwest Vacations - take the cautions mentioned above seriously

2) See how much it costs using companion pass and then Southwest Vacations for hotel,.

3) See how much it costs using companion pass while booking hotel separately

[chrisfuen]

Thanks, Everyone.  After 1 hour online trying to research, 1 hour on phone with guy that couldn't figure it out, and 1 WONDERFUL hour with a SW rep that helped us determine that the best option is to fly w/ companion and book hotel separately. If vacay booked as one person, price is astronomical compared to 2 people and just didn't calculate in the end.  So 3 hours later, we are booked for flight and hotel separately and all's well that ends well....

[bwallet]

@chrisfuen A five minute search for Apple Vacations should pretty convincingly convince you that doing business with "Southwest Vacations" is a very, very, very, very,,,very bad idea.

[Xasered]

Southwest Vacations has a confusing travel package system. It is often impossible to wait for a response from the call center operators or the support service in the application. Now I use their services only as a last resort. Although due to covid, I began to travel less, so the number of trips also decreased. But I try to get out of the house. Two months ago I managed to visit the greenest country in the world — Costa Rica! It was a fantastic trip; I have a lot of impressions left. So don't let any SV spoil your vacation. Good luck!