Yes, they count toward companion status. It's a good way to add RR credits to get to 100 if you are close. This has been discussed several times in the SWA forum on FT. Do a search for Hilton on that forum for the past year and you'll find a few threads that deal with this topic as well as purchasing the Companion Pass from Hilton for 350,000 (?) HHonors points. What's interesting is that if you use your points for the companion pass, you are issued 100 Rapid Rewards credits (which actually means you get a companion pass AND 6 free RT tickets). So if you use the companion pass and the 6 free tix together, that is 12 free tix for 350,000 points. Not a bad deal!!