Is Getting the Southwest Companion Pass for Hawaii Worth It? (+ Bonus!)
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We’re usually not big fans of using points to fly to Hawaii. In the past few years, airfare has been fairly low and hotel costs have been sky high, so we’ve used our points that we’ve earned to book some great hotel stays.
For 2024 we decided to get the Southwest Companion Pass to chip away at our travel spending a little. We fly to Hawaii a lot and we have family scattered around the country who we would love to visit more, so the companion pass makes sense for us.
But it’s not just the Companion Pass that we’re excited about: we’re booking our next two trips to Hawaii for nearly free using Southwest points and that just feels pretty wonderful.
In this article we’ll cover:
- How to fly to Hawaii for free with one sign-up bonus
- Whether the Southwest Companion Pass is worth it for you
Points vs. Dollars to Fly to Hawaii
Southwest does have pretty incredible points and dollar fares when going to Hawaii, especially if you book in advance.
Here are some sample fares that I picked for a one-week trip in April 2024.
Route | Round Trip Price ($) | Round Trip Price (points) |
Oakland to Honolulu (Oahu) | $267 | 17,092 points + $11.60 fee |
Oakland to Kahului (Maui) | $257 | 17,092 points + $11.60 fee |
Los Angeles to Kahului (Maui) | $312 | 21,242 points + $11.60 fee |
Los Angeles to Lihue (Kauai) | $351 | 23,732 points + $11.60 fee |
Portland to Honolulu (Oahu) | $381 | 25,757 points + $11.60 fee |
Yes, those are really the roundtrip prices. It’s a great time to book flights to Hawaii.
And if you decide to go big and earn yourself a companion pass (details on that below), you could potentially fly a family of four round trip to Hawaii twice for free. So plan a 2025 and a 2026 family vacation in Hawaii!
These prices do go up substantially during busier travel times, like summer. So traveling outside of summer will give you the most economical price options.
While I do still prioritize using transferable credit card rewards points to book the expensive hotel stays in Hawaii, this is a good deal that is hard to pass up. We’re getting one of the personal cards, but we’re also adding on a business card to get the Southwest Companion Pass.
Southwest Companion Pass: Hawaii Edition
The Southwest Companion Pass allows you to choose one person to fly with you, free of airline charges (just pay the $5.60 fee) every time you fly. This goes for when you’re both paying for your flight with dollars and with points.
The companion pass is good for the year in which you earn it PLUS the entire next year. So if you earn it in January 2025, it’s good for all of your travels in 2025 AND 2026. That’s just shy of two full years of having a companion travel with you for free.
You can change the person designated as your companion three times in each calendar year that you have Companion Pass status.
The Companion Pass is good for anywhere Southwest flies. So if you are booking a flight to Hawaii and you have earned Companion Pass status, you can bring a companion with you for just $11.20 round trip.

Earning the Southwest Companion Pass
There are two ways you can earn the Southwest Companion Pass:
- Take 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year
- Earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year
We’re going to focus on the second option because you can earn Rapid Rewards points by signing up for a Southwest credit card. Much easier!
Signing up for a personal card usually gets you 50,000 points, but at the time of publishing, they’re offering an elevated sign-up bonus of 75,000 points on all three of their personal cards. As a Southwest Card holder, they also give you 10,000 points towards your companion pass status (those aren’t points that can be used to book travel, unfortunately). That gets you over halfway there!
After opening one card, you just have 47,000 more Rapid Rewards points to earn before you get your Companion Pass. You can do that through traveling, spending with your credit card, or by opening another credit card. Points transferred to Southwest or points purchased from Southwest don’t count toward your Companion Pass points requirement.

But here’s the catch: Southwest doesn’t allow you to hold two personal credit cards at one time.
If you want to earn the Companion Pass quickly and from opening up credit cards, you’ll need to open one personal credit card and one business credit card. You don’t need to have a big business to sign up for a business credit card. A small side hustle (dog walking! babysitting!) can count.
If you’re interested in learning all of the ins and outs of the Southwest Companion Card, our friend Zac at Travel Freely has what you need to know.
Our Southwest Companion Pass Strategy
Jordan is going to open a personal card and a business card. Between those two cards, we’ll definitely hit the points requirement to qualify for the Companion Pass. We probably won’t start spending on them until mid-December, to ensure that we definitely do NOT complete the welcome bonus until January.
Once we’ve earned the Companion Pass, one of our kids will be his companion for the next two years so we can automatically save 25% on all Southwest flights that we take. Plus, the credit card welcome bonus points that we receive will get our family of four two roundtrip flights to Hawaii for free (well, technically we’ll need to pay $44.80 each time, but I’ll take that).
We also have trips across the country to visit grandparents and cousins, so we’ll be putting the Companion Pass to good use.

Is the Southwest Companion Pass Worth it For Hawaii?
If you’re only planning to fly to Hawaii once, this isn’t the deal for you. If I was in this situation, I’d just look for the cheapest fare on my flight and then focus on getting my hotel stays for free. Hotels are extremely expensive and some of our favorite hotels offer exceptional points deals.
If over the next two years you’re planning a lot of other travel where Southwest flies and you will almost always be traveling with another person, it could be a big cost saver!

Want to really master these strategies?
Download our free guide that walks you step by step through our strategy to earn points and book our favorite Hawaii hotels for free.