The Travel Series #1: Our Flying Hack
How we fly for next to nothing: Southwest Companion Pass
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately as I get a lot of questions about travel as a family and how we do it! How we are able to travel so much, tips for traveling with kids, etc. and I thought it would be perfect timing to start a mini-series on the blog on travel especially now that people are traveling more now after COVID. I wanted to start off with how we travel so much as a family with the costs of travel these days.
A little bit of background: Us & Travel
I know a lot of people with kids wait till they get older to travel and I totally respect that. It costs a lot to travel and it is a TON of work. On top of that, kids are creatures of habit and it is hard on them to travel and be somewhere new. And, I know a lot of people say that the kids will never remember it, so why spend the money/time. I definitely agree with some of these sentiments, but my husband and I are definitely traveling people. Even though it is a lot of work, we are still making tons of memories and exposing our kids to different places all over the country/world which is really important to us! My friend Sarah puts it best : do you stop reading to your kids because they won’t remember it? Of course not ! Travel is so AMAZING for kiddos of every age.
E-A-S-Y
I will say that we have definitely curbed our travel (we’ve only been to Europe/overseas once since we had our oldest-before we had him we were traveling to Dubai, Australia, Thailand, etc!). And when I say curbed our travel, I mean picked places that are easy to get to (read: direct flights) and that are just EASY! Also, the last 2 years traveling internationally has been impossible with COVID. In saying that, we have gone as far as Hawaii with our kiddos and don’t regret it for a minute! We are excited to head over to Australia/NZ in the coming year when they completely open up and see our family overseas.
With real little kids (read: infants, toddlers, multiple ages of kids) Florida has been our go-to for so many reasons since we had kids. Obviously, the weather. On top of that, my parents have a place down here so we are able to coordinate when we can come down here. This also helps with keeping some “baby” things down here which make it feel more like home-think: high chairs, pack and plays, playpens, and other random kid things. We don’t always stay there -sometimes we get a hotel in Orlando or head to the Emerald Coast / 30A area (we did this in august and for February break) but 75% of the time we have the option to stay down here which is nice. Now that the boys are getting older we will be hitting different places for sure. 30A/Destin/Emerald Coast is our current family favorite!
My first tip is to avoid school break travel if you have toddlers/ preschoolers/ no kids. This will guarantee lower prices for flights, hotels, and less crowds at theme parks. Also, I find that leaving mid week is always best for prices. If you do have school age kids, I definitely recommend booking early, OR leaving a few days early/ and or returning a day or two late. This is what we did over February break. We never pull the kids out for a full week of missing school, but we are okay with missing 1-2 days to save $500 or more.
We have had 3 kids in 4.5 years, so Florida has basically been the #1 destination for us because we have always traveling with babies! lol! We need something simple & easy! Because we flew so much to Orlando on Southwest over the past few years, we decided to snag the southwest airlines credit card and THIS is how we travel. For example, when we flew to Florida over Christmas we paid under $1000 for 5 people during peak holiday travel.
How did we get it so affordable? I used points for part of the two older boys flights, and my husband has the companion pass through southwest and flies for free with me! AMAZING. I’m sure you’re wondering what the heck the companion pass is, and how you get it, right? Let me help you out:
What is the companion pass?
In a nutshell, the Companion Pass allows you to bring a designated friend or family member for (almost) free on any Southwest flight you take. You’ll just need to pay the taxes and fees (like $5 each way!). This is especially valuable because it applies to both paid and award tickets, allowing you to redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards points for you and then bring your companion without using any more points.
How do you get it?
You’ll need to earn 125,000 qualifying points or take 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year to earn a Companion Pass. I know this sounds totally out fo reach but HEAR me out!
Timing really is everything with this! The pass is valid for the rest of the year in which you earn it plus the entire following calendar year. The first time we earned ours was in August of 2019, so this means we had it for the remainder of 2019 and the whole of 2020! SO, you definitely want to earn it as early as possible to gain the most value.
All that said, it’s important to note that not all Rapid Rewards points count toward the standard qualification requirements. Here’s how Southwest defines points that will count:
“Companion Pass Qualifying Points are earned from your revenue flights booked through Southwest Airlines, your points earned by making purchases with a Southwest Airline Rapid Rewards Credit Card, and your base points earned from Rapid Rewards partners.”
All revenue flights booked on Southwest will count toward earning the Companion Pass, as well as partner activity including the following:
Rapid Rewards credit cards, including sign-up bonuses (we earned 50,000 signing up and spending $1,000 in the first three months! This means we earned almost half the qualifying points in the first three months!)
Shopping and dining partners, including Rapid Rewards dining
Hotels: This is how we racked up a ton of points and secured the companion pass. We booked the Grove Resort in Orlando in August 2020 the first year we had the card and paid a very reasonable price for booking through Southwest’s site and got another 50,000 points. I always look for hotels that have high return on points when booking hotels on any travel! I look on the southwest app under hotels or on the desktop.
To register for the SWA Credit Card, click here! Right now they have an offer out to earn Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 plus 30,000 points after you spend $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Can you change your companion?
You can change your companion up to three times per calendar year. In other words, you can have four different companions the first calendar year, then three in the second year (up to seven total across the life of your Companion Pass). It’s worth noting that even if you switch back to a previous companion, it’ll still count as one of your three allotted changes per calendar year.
What is the best way to earn the companion pass?
There are a few ways to earn the companion pass- Personally we used a combo of all of these to secure it! There is no way we could fly enough to gain it just via flights! I highly recommend looking into this in detail because it really is more attainable than you think!!!
Flights
Spending on the credit card- $1 = 1 point, and you get 1.5 points for any SWA purchase.
Partners (ie. booking through SWA for hotels, cars, etc.)
Credit Card bonuses: this is what i spoke of above, we got a huge bonus after we spent the initial amount. You can also open a small business credit card if you are self employed and double up on points and get a SWA business credit card.
What if I have no chance of doing the above and securing the companion pass? Is the card still worth it?
YES, YES and YES! I am constantly getting points deposited into my account to use for flights every month when we buy everything: gas, groceries, etc. So, even if you don’t manage to get the companion pass, you’re still able to get TONS of flights for free! Think about it: the current offer is 40,000 points for spending $1,000 in first 3 months- thats basically 2-3 roundtrip tickets in the USA! Totally WORTH IT!!!
We’ve flew to florida twice at peak travel times right before covid hit and paid less than $700 TOTAL for those two vacations for a family of five. This is unheard of!
About Southwest…
FYI this is NOT a sponsored post! I genuinely love this program and what it has done for our family. SWA has incredible customer service and is one of the ONLY airline out there that doesn’t have change fees! These are key for me traveling with kids (we are always moving things around between our businesses and things with the kids-sickness, etc!). Also they don’t charge for bags which is great because I always overpack HA. Also, with kids you have carseats and things and you never have to worry!
I know some people don’t like the fact that you don’t have an assigned seat, but 6 & under is family boarding and it is worth it to me with all of their perks!
To register for the SWA Credit Card, click here! Right now they have an offer out to earn Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 plus 30,000 points after you spend $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. This is AMAZING!!!!
And as always let me know if you guys have any questions about how we fly on Southwest or use the card or how any of this works!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Travel Series!
xo
Alex
***I am not a financial consultant or expert. I may gain additional points through Southwest’s program if you use my link. You should not use this blog to make financial decisions. From reading this blog I cannot assess anything about your personal circumstances, finances, so any information contained on this blog are just that-opinion/information. All thoughts and opinions are my own and should be taken as such, and are based on my personal experiences/situations.