Greetings (or should I say howdy?) from Oklahoma City!
This weekend my husband and I are taking a quick road trip down to Oklahoma City to celebrate his birthday in a neat city often overlooked (like most of the Midwest). But, this trip is also a part of a bigger mission to finish our 125,000 points needed for the Southwest Companion Pass.
For those who don't know, the Southwest Companion Pass is one of the most powerful tools in budget travel hacking. It gives you BOGO airfare on all cash or point redeemed flights for the year you earn it and the entirety of the following year, too. That means you can fly you and your Companion to let's say, Costa Rica, for half price.
I know what you're thinking. "I want one! How do I do it?" It's pretty simple in theory, you just need to earn 125,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year. January 1, the clock resets. Now, there are a lot of brilliant articles out there on how you can earn the Companion Pass (and even mine) but one underrated way I've found is using SouthwestHotels.com to book hotel rooms for a weekend with huge Rapid Rewards totals.
And that's exactly how we ended up spending my husband's birthday in Oklahoma City. Currently, our Southwest total sits just under 5,000 points shy of the Companion Pass. And instead of spending $5,000 on my Southwest credit card (which is stupid), we're spending two nights at the amazing 21c Oklahoma City with SouthwestHotels.com and earning 11,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards at the end of our stay.
Though there are many ways to earn the Southwest Companion Pass what I like about Southwest Hotels is that you can easily max out your Companion Pass by booking hotels with bonus points for trips you were already planning to take. And, you can pay just a bit more to earn 5,000 to 10,000 more miles on that booking. Plus, the platform is run by Booking.com so the prices are not overly inflated as some other services can be.
Let's run our numbers
I paid $550 for two nights at the 12c Oklahoma City through Southwest Hotels. But I'm earning 11,000 Rapid Rewards valued at $143. That brings the cost of the room down to $407 since the points will be used towards flights I would already be taking. I used my Southwest Priority card for 2x points on Southwest Hotel bookings for another 952 points earned, or $12 towards Southwest flights. Once I use those points, that brings the cost of the room down to $395, or you could look at it as the cost of the room is $550 and I earned $155 in Southwest airfare for free.
Either way, the largest benefit of this quick weekend trip is maxing out my Companion Pass, which means from mid-July through December 31, 2023, we'll be utilizing BOGO airfare for positioning flights, weekend trips, fun travel destinations and who knows what else. I have some big plans for it - but those details will have to wait for another time.
Until then, keep traveling.
Explore on. - K
