Big4Flyer

I was just looking over our travels from the last couple years and realized that the WN Companion Pass is, by far, the best deal on travel we've ever received. Since receiving the CP in Mar 2015 and alternating my wife and son as my companion, I've been able to receive >$3800 in value.

While we've been able to use it to make our vacation budget go farther, the best use has been using it for work trips. Since receiving the CP I've steered nearly all my trips for work to WN, which allows me to bring my one person along, and since work will pay for someone to fly out with me for trips that overlap a weekend (in lieu of paying to fly you home over the weekend), we're able to bring the entire family for little to no cost. As a result, we've been able to turn what used to be a road warrior lifestyle into a much more enjoyable arrangement where work trips become a mini-vacation.

One of my favorite uses has been using the CP for short day-trips with my son. As a result of some sales along the west coast from SMF, we've been able to take short, one-night trips to SAN and SEA, which, while short, has given us some great one-on-one time with each other. Without the CP we never would have done this.

While I've received value from several different elite statuses, frequent traveler programs, and credit cards, the CP has been the most valuable to me by far, in regards to improving my overall life and career satisfaction. I'm curious if others have received the same value from this that I have.

smmrfld

Best deal in the air, and I've used it frequently for years.

joshua362

Simple equation, the more you can use it, the more valuable it becomes.

All depends on your individual circumstances.

Travel for work too much, have grade school children, own your own business, prefer a drive to and relax 2 week cabin rental on lake vacation - it can sit unused for years as in my case.

I did use with 4 different companions once in a year that I was dating a lot and traveling to Furthur concerts.

It's all what you can make of it.

alggag

it works both ways. Sure, the flexibility and freedom with being able to add a +1 to your reservation with just a few clicks and the token fees is amazing but I can tell it made me spend more money on taking trips I probably wouldn't have taken in the first place. I actually didn't make CP this year and am kind of glad I didn't as dumb as it sounds. That said I'll probably aim to get it early next year and jump back into the fray again.

PAX62

I have CP, my business partner has CP and one of our other senior employees all have CP. We have saved tens of thousands of dollars moving other employees that we fly all over the country with...then use the points for leisure and guests we travel with.

We get MUCH more value that way then using CP purely for a leisure companion.

darthbimmer

In 2015 I used mine for effectively 6 round trips and got about $2,000 in value from it. "Value" is a squishy word, though. The face price of the equivalent tickets on WN was much higher than $2,000. I'm only counting as value what I would have paid on the open market for equivalent flights. Sadly with WN's record high fares this year it's becoming challenging to find value in the RR program even with the CP.

konems

I'm on my third consecutive year with CP - my companion has traveled with me, on average, for about ~25 segments a year. Let's call it an average of $100 fare per our typical one-way, so about $2,500 in value per year.

sam_goh

It hasn't been terribly useful for us. We got it thinking it would be great, but then not living in a SW town has been limiting. Having to drive the night before and stay in a hotel kind of limits the savings. We've still used it plenty I guess.

bwow

14 one ways last year.
7 one ways so far this year with 6 more already booked and at least 6 more before the year is done.
The value has been more than we ever imagined.

Ceres

I have used it plenty and it makes life more expensive sometimes. But more enjoyable.
I end up taking trips I would not normally take. Last weekend I was bored so we went to Epcot for the day spent an extra couple days at the Grand Cypress Hyatt. I can work out of the hotel when I hook my laptop up to the TV for an extra screen. So I work she hangs at the pool and then when the markets close we go do something.

So between burning a DSU and a "free flight". The weekend cost me a couple "large" So, while I have gotten a lot of value out of it. Its still a costly proposition lol. And like Josh, In the last two years I have had a few different blondes names on the CP.

Like another poster said, WN's fares have gotten high enough that sometimes I only use it because of the Free baggage. Sometimes two tickets on a legacy are really close to a WN fare.

Just my .02

joshua362

[Borat voice] HIGH FIVVVVVE! [/Borat voice]

nineworldseries

My GF will fly over 120 segments in the ~2.5 years we've had the CP (9/13-12/14 and 10/15-12/16). Certainly many thousands of dollars in value.

Mort

I've had CP for two years after switching from Delta. It's tough for me to put a dollar value on our 20+ CP round trips each year because we would never have purchased her tickets for actual cash. So her "free" trips actually cost us more money (for her food, drink, entertainment) rather than saving money.

But her travel companionship has given me a new lease on life. I had been getting burned out being on the road so much, but now travel is fun again because every trip is a bit of a "romantic getaway". So it's making me willing to retain my nice-paying job, or at least my sanity. That's pretty high value!

betsifur

We've definitely gotten somewhere in the thousands from it. This year we are actually switching the companion temporarily to one of our kids, which we've never done before, so that increases the value even more. As other posters have stated, it's hard to exactly quantify, because I've accompanied my husband on trips where I might have otherwise stayed home, and we've taken extra vacations because of the cheap airfare with a CP, but then we have to pay for the vacations.

Hot Pocket

I'm taking my 11 year old son with me on business trips around the US this summer. For the incremental cost of a few meals (with a lot of food/drink actually provided by various hotel executive lounges), he will be able to see a big chunk of the nation, places where we wouldn't necessarily go for a vacation.

We're excited.