A free course, start to finish—
Southwest Companion Pass Bootcamp
Earn a Companion Pass and someone flies with you for about $5 in taxes. Every flight. For up to two years.
You want a Companion Pass, but you…
- keep hearing the timing matters, and want to get it right.
- aren't sure which cards are best for you to open, or in what order.
- earned a Companion Pass before and want to do it again.
- tried piecing it together from blog posts and gave up.
Hey, I'm Katie. I think the Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best deals in travel points, and it's the one I get asked about more than anything else.
It's also the one where a few weeks of bad timing can cost you a whole year. That's not because it's complicated — it's because nobody explains the order things have to happen in.
So I put everything I know about earning this pass into one free course. No fluff, no upsell, and no assumption that you've done any of this before.
Start the course
Pop your email in and you're straight into the first lesson. That's the whole sign-up.
Wait, if this course is so good, why is it free?
Can't wait another second? Dive in right now!
Get Instant AccessWalk in confused.
Walk out with a plan.
When you finish the course, you'll know how to:
Earn the points.
Exactly how many qualifying points you need, which points count and which quietly don't, and how to get there without spending a fortune. Including how one household can end up with two passes off three cards.
Time it right.
The part people get wrong. When to apply, when to stop spending, and why finishing your minimum spend a few weeks too early can cost you an entire extra year of the pass.
Actually use it.
Adding and changing your companion, what happens with assigned seating, how to get the lowest fares, and how to rescue flight credits before they expire.
It's the Companion Pass chapter of my brain, handed over.
There's a learning curve to this stuff, and I'd rather you had all of it than the highlights. Every lesson is short, and nothing is locked — start at the beginning or jump to the bit you need.
Five sections, nineteen lessons. Here's how it breaks down.
Section 2
Companion Pass Basics
- What's a Companion Pass Worth?
- The Easy Way to Earn a Companion Pass
- Timing is Everything
- Prerequisites: Before You Apply for a Southwest Card
Section 3
Specific Strategy Tips
- Which Card Combo is Best for Me?
- Three Card/Two Pass Method (Great for a Family)
- One Person Modifications
- October 15: Ready, Set, APPLY!
- …and three more
Sections 4 & 5
Tips for Saving Hassle + Money, and Resources
- How to Use Your Companion Pass
- How To Extend Expiring Flight Credits
- Tips to Get the Lowest Prices on Southwest Flights
- Southwest Assigned Seating Tips
- Plus the tools and resources section
More than you can take on right now? Start with my free Travel Points 101 guide instead.
Get The Guide
Meet your teacher… me, Katie!
When I met my now-husband Micah, I found a frugal soulmate who loved to travel as much as I did. Thanks to some wild circumstances, our second date ended up being a five-day trip to Philadelphia and New York. By our third, he flew me to Germany, where his parents were living at the time, and we spent two weeks exploring Germany, Switzerland, and France. His Navy savings made it possible, but that trip cemented our shared love for travel and our determination to keep exploring, even with a limited budget.
I quickly got the hang of using travel points, spending hours on popular sites and forums to learn the ropes. But honestly, most of the advice was coming from dudes checking off bucket-list, first-class flights—not families like ours. I had to figure out my own system.
The Companion Pass was the first thing that made a real dent for us. Two adults flying for the price of one changes what a family holiday costs, and it's the trick I'd hand a beginner before any other.
You might still be wondering…
How much does it cost?
Nothing. Your email address is the only thing it costs, and that's so I can send you your place in the course and let you know if something important changes.
Do I need a business to do this?
It's much easier with a business card, and more people qualify than expect to — a side hustle often counts. But there's a lesson on doing it without one, and I'll be honest with you about what's realistic either way.
What if I'm doing this on my own?
There's a whole lesson for that. Most Companion Pass advice quietly assumes a couple, which isn't much help if it's just you. The one-person route is different, and it's covered properly.
Do I have to finish the course before I start?
No, but please read the timing lesson before you apply for anything. It's the one where a small mistake is expensive, and it's early in the course for exactly that reason.
How do I know it's still up to date?
We just totally revamped this course in fall 2026 after Southwest made a number of changes in 2025 and 2026. The card offers inside it are pulled live, not typed in, so the numbers you see are today's.
