SW Companion Program...
 

Any thoughts? Worth sign up? 110,000 pts needed... SW cards personal cards at 40K bonus pts... business 60k

The only way someone could determine if it's "worth" it is to know how many times that person might take advantage of it

I get it every year through work travel, so it doesn't cost me anything

got it

Well worth it to some people. Not so much for others. I see you are new here. I would suggest scrolling down the page and check out a few posts. There is one about the value which of course is widely variable. Another that talks about how to get it (try to get all your points in the 1st qtr). Another has hints for new CP users.

I have it and worth a few thousand easily.

Well worth it as it lasts almost 2 years and your only out of pocket cost is $168 but for that $168 you also get 103K Sw points.

With the current CC offers you will get 103K points, only need 7k more to get 110K.

We have had CP via credit cards since 2014 and use it about 4 times per year.

I can tell ya one thing from first hand experience...if you rach CP by flights, last thing you wanna do on a day off is go fly somewhere!

Schedule client meetings on Mondays and Fridays, take wife along with for free and make it a long weekend :)

Exactly. I earned one the hard way each year for about 15 years in a row. Most I every used it was 4 times in a year with 4 different people when I went on a dating tear. There were years I never used it or just once for twice for Disney with a kid.

Usage really depends on your life's circumstance so be honest with yourself. If everyone used them as they expected like every other week (sic), they wouldn't exist anymore!

Spend $69 for a personal card (40,000 points) and $99 for a business card (60,000). Spend $10,000 on those cards (lost value of $200 you could have got with Citi Double Cash). Total costs, $368.

Receive 110,000 points (at 70 points per dollar, $1,571 of flying value). Even if you only fly once per year for two years with your companion on tickets that cost $200 per one-way, that is another $800. Minimum total value of $2,371. Where else can you invest $368 and get $2,371 in return? And, if you use the companion pass more than once a year, the return is even better.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Actually for me the CP value was for business travel. We travel with a full team all over the country for work and my business partner and I both earned CP. We each named an employee as our companion and saved thousands if not tens of thousands in hard airfare costs...then we just used points to book significant others for the few personal flight we did take.

Minor quibble: Beginning back in April, 76/$1 is the new average for points redemption. While there are occasionally fares available at less, 70 is very rare. The floor is allegedly 74, and 78 is common. Meaning the value of those 110,000 points is slightly less (~$85 on average), depending on your specific redemption patterns.

Your formula is correct in terms of taking the base fare, without taxes and converting it to points. Using that formula, 74, 76 or 78 points per dollar is how you get from base fare to points fare.

However, I tend to look at it as "How much money did I save?" So if a flight is $233 or 15,875 points (that is from an actual ticket I have outstanding), I consider that to be 68 points per dollar. I don't have to pay the tax (other than the $5.60 TSA fee) and neither does Southwest. However, if I bought the ticket, I would have to pay the taxes, thus $233. Granted, the base fare of that ticket is probably about $203, so 78 points per dollar. I still think of it as I traded 15,875 for $233 of value.

You are complicating this with the points earned and flight costs as compared to FREE FLIGHTS (plus $5.60). If I take my wife on 14 flights this year that would have cost $300 each, I save $4,200. That has nothing to do with point to dollar ratios.

My wife has been flying free for 4 years.....F yeah it is worth it!

Its worth it.....but all depends on your travel pattern with your companion pass holders.....in theory you think you will use it a lot....but in practice some years we dont use it much....still the best deal in FF perks going however...