To me, Southwest is the simplest and easiest airline to fly around the U.S. I have focused my blog around not only travel tips and news, but in showing people how they — and their entire families — can fly nearly free on this domestic airline with a few simple steps.
My family flew to SIX destinations in just ONE year for less than $100 per flight for all four of us the first year we held the Companion Pass. Now, we mostly fly free everywhere in the U.S. on Southwest. Everyone needs to know easy it is to do this!
Download my free cheat sheet below that shows you 10 Things You Must Know to Earn the Southwest Companion Pass.
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5 Reasons It’s Easy to Fly Free on Southwest
- You can quickly earn TONS of points by simply signing up for two Southwest credit cards: 1 personal and 1 business. Pick from the Chase Southwest Rapid Reward Priority, Premier or Plus and the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier cards. Sign up for two when they have a 40,000-60,000 point sign-up bonus. After the minimum spend and earning 1 point per dollar spent, you will have accrued between 104,000-120,000 points if you accrue at least 50,000-point bonuses.
- After your first 104,000 points, it’s easy to reach Southwest Companion Pass status by earning another 6,000 points through every day spending on the cards or other ways (see 4 Easy Ways to Earn Rapid Rewards Points) to reach the status threshold of 125,000 points. This means ONE person can fly free with you from the time you earn the status until the end of the FOLLOWING year. This makes your points stretch so much further! Now your 125,000 points are effectively 220,000 points.
- The points needed to book a Southwest flight are based on the current price of the flight. So if you wait until Southwest is having a sale, you can book your flights for the lowest possible points, continuing to stretch them. It’s a good idea to study the price of a flight over time, so you know its lowest threshold and can wait to book the fare until it reaches that price. Here’s How to Know if a Southwest Sale is a Good One and the latest Southwest sales.
- Southwest charges no cancellation fees. This means even if you’re not sure the price has reached its lowest point, you can go ahead and book, knowing you can change the flight later if the price drops and get a refund of points spent. If you want to cancel entirely, the Southwest points simply go back into your Rapid Rewards account. If you paid with cash, you will be issued a Southwest credit good for one year. Read 8 Reasons Why I LOVE to Fly Southwest.
- There are no blackout dates for awards seats. Unlike other airline rewards programs who only open awards seats on certain dates on certain flights, all Southwest flights are bookable through points/awards. Yee ha! So much easier than constantly searching for an award seat!
Don’t forget to download my free cheat sheet below that shows you 10 Things You Must Know to Earn the Southwest Companion Pass:
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Have you ever flown free on Southwest? Are you ready to learn how? Let me know!
Read More:
- How the Southwest Companion Pass Changed My Life
- 11 Ways to Meet the Minimum Spend on Your Southwest Credit Card
- 6 Reasons to Start Earning Your Companion Pass NOW
- 8 Reasons Why I LOVE to Fly Southwest
