A few days ago I read this article from Gary at View from the Wing that Southwest is surveying people about getting rid of the famous Southwest Companion Pass.
Keep in mind that Southwest has a limited route network, an uncompetitive point value for Rapid Rewards, pricing in line with any other carrier, will now charge for bags and seat assignments, and has no First Class (so no matter how much business you give them, you are 100% sitting in a “regular seat” albeit maybe one with extra legroom on the newly retrofitted planes as they roll out).
Their one single remaining Point of Differentiation (Marketing 101 here!) is the Companion Pass. People get the Southwest credit cards to earn Companion Pass. Companion Pass keeps people flying Southwest. It’s a circular marketing tool that is essentially acted as gold for Southwest.
People at Southwest tell me how amazing the Companion Pass as a tool is for driving loyalty to the airline. In fact, they don’t care if you get the credit cards in order to get Companion Pass because they know it will mean you changing airline preferences to them.
According to Gary, the changes possible include only top tier members of Rapid Rewards having access, limiting how many times you can use the Pass in a year, or even no Companion Pass.
Notably, I think it’s a huge swath of casual flyers that truly value Companion Pass – not business travelers that fly Southwest and earn top tier status. Individually this group of travelers may not seem important but I think that in the case of Southwest more than any other airline, this group is incredibly significant. They aren’t selling lie flat seats to Europe. There is no massive delta on seat prices (sure, there is a difference for business fares with flexibility, etc, but no $4,000 seats).
Ever since Elliott Management took control of the airline, they have done everything possible to transform it into “every other airline but worse than all of them” and to me that’s not a great long term strategy.
But am I wrong?
Would you remain loyal to Southwest without a Companion Pass?
Thoughts?
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Our Companion Pass expires Dec 31. If the terms change pretty much at all, our answer is no. As stated this perk is the last thing SW has left that truly moves the needle. We have had the pass for 8yrs..always thru credit card bonus stacks. And had always really liked SW even with whatever limitations they may have, we fly almost all domestic anyway. But Elliott has made us pretty much airline agnostics now. Each trip we look at every option. Maybe it will still be SW but more likely not if no Pass.