Get A Free Ticket To Hawaii This Summer With Any Round-Trip

Southwest rolled out its Companion Pass promotion yesterday, valid for Hawaii flights (and others), and this time we’re actually doing it. The booking window is short. Register if you aren’t already a Rapid Rewards member, book one round-trip or two one-way flights by February 5, complete travel by March 31, and you earn a promotional Companion Pass valid from August 10 through October 7. During that window, one designated companion flies with you for just taxes and fees, starting at $5.60 one-way.

The deal mechanics.

You must register before booking, and flights must be booked directly through southwest.com or swabiz.com. Cash fares, points bookings, and Cash plus Points all qualify for this version of the promotion, including Basic fares according to the current terms on Southwest’s registration page.

Southwest has run this promotion several times a year with nearly the same structure every time. There is always a very short booking window, a required travel period within the next month or two, and then a Companion Pass that’s valid for roughly eight weeks later on during Hawaii’s low travel season. The last round ran in August 2025, with travel completed by mid-November and a pass valid from early January through early March 2026. This one follows in much the same way.

This time, the timing finally lines up for us to use it. We plan to be on Oahu later this month and will fly Southwest to qualify. California travel is already on the radar for late summer, which falls squarely into the August 10 through October 7 Companion Pass window. Expect a follow-up once the full cycle plays out, from registration to actually using the companion ticket.

A few operational notes.

After you complete the qualifying travel, Southwest says it will send a confirmation email within about 10 days with instructions to designate your companion. You can change the designated companion up to three times during the promotional period, but you can only hold one Companion Pass at a time.

One meaningful change since the last deal is assigned seating.

As of January 27, Southwest now uses assigned seating. When you add a companion, both passengers are seated together based on the best available boarding benefit between you. The old open-seating scramble is gone, which makes the companion experience far more predictable than it used to be. We’d like two aisle seats, so we’ll see if that works.

The value here is very situation-specific. For travelers who already have trips being planned to Hawaii or other Southwest destinations during shoulder season, this should work well. One round-trip with a companion paying as little as $12 in taxes can easily offset the cost of the qualifying flight, which can be anywhere.

This is not a long-running deal, and there is no extension history to rely on. Registration and booking close Thursday night. If this fits your travel calendar, the window is open.