Southwest Airlines made major changes in 2026. They ended open seating. They eliminated one of their most popular perks: free bags for everyone.
One thing Southwest Airlines did not eliminate: the Southwest Companion Pass. This amazing perk allows a passholder to bring along a second passenger for free every time you fly.
But with all the changes, some loyal Southwest fliers are asking: Is the Southwest Companion Pass even worth it anymore, in 2026?
For me, the answer is yes: The Southwest Companion Pass is still worth earning — even after all the changes.
I have earned a Companion Pass every year for the past six years. In 2026, after all the changes, I am still enjoying using the CP. I dislike some of the changes as much as other members. Others — like the improved perks for credit card holders — I actually like.
(Check out my post about how Southwest’s changes make the Rapid Rewards credit card more valuable than ever!)
But one thing I still love passionately is my Companion Pass. And I plan to qualify for it again in 2027.
If you are thinking about trying to earn a Southwest Companion Pass for the rest of 2026 and 2027, this post will help you understand all the benefits of this special perk, and why it’s still worth having.
This post contains “refer a friend” links to Southwest credit cards. If you sign up through my link, I’ll get a points bonus — and no cost to you.
Why the Southwest Companion Pass Is Still Worthwhile in 2026
Southwest’s Companion Pass is probably the most valuable perk in economy air travel. Other airlines may offer a free companion ticket for a single flight. But Southwest is the only airline that will let you add a second passenger to every flight.
The Companion Pass program has saved me thousands of dollars over the years. In 2026 alone, I have already saved about $1,000 worth of Rapid Rewards points thanks to the CP! That’s the total value of the five flight segments on which I brought a free companion this year.
My husband also has a Companion Pass this year. That means when we go on a trip with our family of five, we only pay for three flights! Thanks to this discount, we took our kids to Costa Rica for vacation this winter!
While saving money on airfare is the main Companion Pass benefit, the pass also has a few more subtle benefits that we’ll discuss later.
But will the Companion Pass be worth it for you?
Getting a Southwest Companion Pass has been a big win for me, because I fly relatively often. I usually bring one of my three teen/adult kids along for free.
Whether earning the Southwest Companion Pass is worthwhile depends on two things:
- How much you spend to get the pass.
- How much you fly (with at least one other person) while you have the pass.
How do you earn a Southwest Companion Pass?
Of course, Southwest doesn’t give out the Companion Pass for nothing. They offer two ways to earn the Companion Pass:
Method 1: Fly 100 paid segments in one calendar year.
Method 2: Earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year.
Unless you travel a ton, you’ll probably find it easier to earn the CP through Rapid Rewards points. That’s how I have always done it.
There are several strategies for accumulating 135,000 points to earn the Companion Pass, and each comes at a different price point. Depending on your strategy — and on how you calculate what you spend — you might get a Companion Pass after spending $0 extra, or you might spend more than $100,000 to earn it.
Cheapest and quickest strategy: Get 2 new credit cards
This is how my husband and I earned our current passes. There are five different Southwest credit cards, and each one offers a sign-up bonus. Each person is allowed to hold one personal Southwest card and one business Southwest card. So if you don’t already have a Southwest card, you can apply for one of each — and collect bonuses for both.
Example:
- Get a new Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card: 80,000 bonus points.
- Get a new Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier (Personal) Credit Card: 55,000 to 90,000 bonus points.
Total potential bonuses: 135,000 points or more —> Companion Pass achieved!
Note: Southwest and Chase do increase and/or decrease the points offered from time to time.
Of course, these points don’t come totally free. In order to receive the bonus points, first you have to apply for the card and get approved. Then, you will be charged an annual fee. Finally, you have to spend a minimum amount of money on the card before you receive the bonus points.
Here’s a breakdown of the costs of earning the CP through those two credit cards, the Performance Business and the Premier personal card:
- Performance Business annual fee: $299
- Minimum spend to trigger the Performance Business sign-up bonus: $5,000 in the first three months after account opening.
- Premier personal card annual fee: $149
- Minimum spend to trigger the Premier personal card sign-up bonus: $1,500 in the first three months after account opening.
So, to earn the Companion Pass by applying for these two cards, you would have to spend $448 in annual fees and charge $6,500 on your two cards.
Personally, I don’t consider the credit card spending as part of the cost of earning the Companion Pass. Why? Because I would only charge purchases I was already planning to make. It’s a bad idea to spend extra money you weren’t already going to spend, just to earn airline perks.
But what if you don’t have a business? Well … the secret is, you don’t really have to have a traditional business to qualify for a Southwest Business card. The application asks for very little information about your so-called business. Some people say they consider selling a few household items on eBay or Facebook Marketplace as having a business.
By the way: Southwest also gives all cardholders an annual 10,000-point boost toward the Companion Pass. So the strategy I just shared would actually get you past the 135k threshhold.
Slower strategy: Spend around $100,000 a Southwest credit card
If you already have a Southwest credit card, you can also earn a Companion Pass simply by spending.
Here’s how it works: For every dollar you spend on any Southwest card, you get at least one point. The cards offers bonus categories as well — for instance, depending on which card you have, you get up to 4 points per dollar spent on Southwest flights.
There are more opportunities to earn more points per dollar as well. Southwest regularly posts offers on their web site and app that you can register for to earn extra points.
I used this method to earn the Companion Pass in 2024. Thanks to bonus categories and that 10,000-point bonus I received for being a cardholder, I “only” had to spend about $100,000 on my credit card to hit 135,000 points.
Yes, that’s a lot of spending! For our household, we tend to only hit this threshhold if we have a major expense, like a home remodeling project. My brother and his fiancee qualified for the Companion Pass through spending the year they paid for most of their wedding expenses on their Southwest card.
Slowest strategy (probably): Fly a lot; pay for your flights with cash
Before airline credit cards came along, people mainly earned miles and points by taking flights. And you can still earn a Southwest Companion Pass by flying alone. You just have to pay for and fly 100 flights (50 round trips).
Yep, that’s a round trip practically every week of the year. I’m guessing that nearly everyone who earns a Companion Pass this way is a business traveler.
Lesser known strategy: Southwest partners
Most people probably don’t book their hotel through an airline portal. So this wasn’t a strategy I had thought about much until recently. But apparently, some hotels on Southwest Hotels offer huge numbers of points for staying at their properties.
For instance, by searching the hotel portal for the entire United States and then hitting the “sort by points” button, I found multiple hotels paying 25,000 points for a week stay. For instance, I could earn 25,000 by staying a week at the Doubletree in Sunrise, Florida, at a cost of about $1,500. Of course, to earn a Companion Pass by this method alone, I’d have to pay for about five such stays, costing me $7,500 or more.
Another very way to add a few points to your total: The Rapid Rewards Shopping portal.
The combo strategy
Most people — including me — usually combine several methods to reach 135,000 points.
Example of how to earn the Companion Pass by combining a number of point sources:
- Annual cardholder bonus: 10,000 points
- Spending on existing credit card: 90,000 points
- Shopping on the Rapid Rewards Shopping portal: 15,000 points
- Refer one friend to sign up for a Southwest credit card: 15,000 points
- Book a hotel through Southwest Hotels: 5,000 points
So: How much does it really cost to earn a Southwest Companion Pass?
That depends what method you use, and how you calculate costs. Personally, I calculate all the spending I do on my Southwest card, through the Rapid Rewards portal or on Southwest Hotels as $0. That’s because I try to never spend any more than I otherwise would have.
So for me, the real cost of earning a Companion Pass is just my credit card annual fee. I currenly hold the Southwest Priority card, so my annual fee is $229.
How much money a Southwest Companion Pass can save you
The other part of the equation of whether earning the Companion Pass is worth it = the savings. This is going to depend on how much you fly with a companion along, and how expensive the flights you take are.
In 2025, I took 11 flights using my Companion Pass, saving 125,000 points and $460 cash. That’s around a $2,000 total savings!
Earning the Southwest Companion Pass is worth it for me every year — including in 2026
To review, in 2025 I spent a couple hundred dollars on a credit card annual fee, and saved $2,000. So worth it!
Some years, I may have spent more and flown a bit less. In recent years, the Companion Pass has been really helpful in cutting the cost of college tours and trips to college and back.
But the Companion Pass was still worth it for me in most years — except of course for 2020, when we had the Companion Pass but barely flew at all.
But what about the changes Southwest airlines made in 2026? To be honest, they haven’t affected my flying experience negatively.
Southwest’s 2026 changes:
- No more open seating. While I liked the ability to choose your seat as you board — especially when flying with groups — the new assigned seating hasn’t made my flights worse. As a Priority card member, I’ve been allowed to select an Extra Legroom seat 48 hours before each flight — and one for my companion too!
- No more free bags for all. This hasn’t affected me, since as a credit card holder I still get one free bag on every flight. And believe it or not, companions are still getting two free bags on every flight! So in this way, having a CP is even more valuable in 2026 than it was before.
- The overhead bin problem. When Southwest stopped letting people check bags free, people started reporting that the bins over their seats were already full when they boarded. So far, I haven’t run into that problem. On the upside, on the occasions when I checked a bag, the staff also offered to check my carryon for free.
Lesser known Companion Pass benefits
Of course, the biggest perk of having a Companion Pass is getting a totally free second ticket every time you fly. It effectively makes every flight into a buy-one, get-one free deal.
But there are other, more subtle advantages to having a Companion Pass that I love. The first one is that two free bags thing I mentioned. No one knows if it’s a glitch or intentional, but when Southwest took away the privilege of two free checked bags from other customers, they didn’t take them away from Companions.
The other under-appreciated advantage of a Companion Pass is flexibility. Say you want to fly for Thanksgiving week with your college student child. But your kid isn’t sure if they’ll be able to get out of class early or not. You want to book the flight in advance, before fares go up. With a CP, you can wait until the night before to add the kid to your flight — and it’s still free. Or, you can change your companion the day before the flight and bring someone else if your kid bails on the trip.
Quick and dirty formula to figure out if earning a Companion Pass is worth it for you
When you earn a Companion Pass, you get to use it for the rest of the calendar year you earn it in, and the entire next calendar year. So if you earn a CP in June of this year, you’d get to use it for about 18 months.
Let’s assume that you will spend at least $500 earning a CP. That’s about the cost of the annual fees on two new Southwest credit cards.
$500 is about the cost of one round trip flight. So if you know you’ll fly one round trip in the next year and a half, you will probably break even on a Companion Pass. But if you will fly two or more round trips during that time, then the CP will definitely pay off.
Do you enjoy learning Southwest tips and tricks? Check out my post about how to stop your Southwest travel credits from expiring!