Here at Go to Travel Gal, I like to show you the simplest ways to travel free, and when it comes to flying two or more people with you, including families with kids, Southwest is hands down the best bang for your buck if you want to fly free or very cheaply.
Here’s why…
5 Reasons Southwest Is the Best Airline for Families Who Want to Fly Free
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1. Flexible Points
Southwest does not have a fixed point system to redeem points for flights.
On the other major airlines, you are restricted to a set amount of points per person per direction depending on how far you want to fly.
For example, it takes 35,000 miles/points per person to fly to Hawaii.
That’s A LOT of points to try to collect, especially for three or more people!
Southwest bases the points required to book a flight on the current fare price, so you can redeem points during a Southwest sale to pay the lowest points.
For example, we’ve paid as few as 7900 points per person, which was for flights from Indianapolis to New York City.
2. Southwest Companion Pass
The biggest savings on flying on Southwest is the ability to earn the Southwest Companion Pass, so one member of your family can always fly free.
Whoever earns the pass, which requires you earn 135,000 qualifying Rapid Rewards points, can bring along one person with them — at no charge — on any flight, only paying the mandatory $5.60 security fee (within the US)
You simply cannot beat that value on any airline, because it completely eliminates the cost of flights for ONE person in your family EVERY time.
That really helps to stretch your points so much further!
So on our New York City trip, for example, we only had to use 23,700 points for four people to fly (79,000 X 3 people)!
That’s quite a difference from 35,000 per person round-trip to Hawaii!
It’s actually quite easy to earn the pass in just a few steps!
3. Southwest Rapid Rewards Points Are Easy to Earn
It’s easy to collect Rapid Rewards points, Southwest’s frequent flyer program, by signing up 1 personal and 1 business Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card when they have bonuses starting at 40,000 points.
Sign up for two, use the cards for every day spending (making sure you pay the full balance monthly), and you’ve got a big collection of points, all of which qualify you to earn the Southwest Companion Pass.
Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve Ultimate Rewards points also transfer on a 1:1 basis to Southwest Rapid Rewards, and these card also regularly offer a 60,000 to 80,000-point bonuses.
You can also earn points through Rapid Rewards Dining, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal and more.
4. Family-Friendly
Southwest is family-friendly!
We love flying Southwest, because they offer many benefits that are ideal for families, such as:
- 2 free checked bags per person
- Free inflight entertainment and Southwest WiFi on your own device
- No change or cancellation fees
- Early boarding for families with small children (between the A and B boarding groups) and more!
We especially appreciate the ability to bring two bags FREE per person.
We rarely do this, but even just bringing ONE bag per person and not have to pay a fee for it is extremely helpful.
We often pack a bag of snack and breakfast items, especially for destinations like Walt Disney World where food can be expensive.
Check out my Disney World dining tips.
5. It’s Simple
Earning the Southwest points and booking flights on Southwest is fairly simple and straightforward.
I find the other major airline frequent flyer mile programs to be much more complicated and time consuming to both collect and redeem.
By focusing on Southwest, we can pretty much fly anywhere we want around the country — and even Mexico and the Caribbean, too — and keep it simple!
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