Alaska Airlines Companion Fare

We award travelers love deals. Whether it is hotel nights for free, award flights for only the cost of taxes and fees, or Buy One, Get One airfare, we love it all. One such perk is the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare. I decided it was time to blow the doors off a Companion Pass, to see what is possible and how far it would go. Here are the results of my craziness. (And I promise no more Boeing jokes. I love Boeing. We all know, if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going).

Explaining the Companion Fare

Unlike the Southwest Companion Pass, which allows you unlimited buy one, get one free tickets for up to 24 months, the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare is a one-time use fare code. For $99, plus taxes and fees ($23+), you can bring a companion along with you for an economy flight, either round-trip, one-way, or multi-city anywhere Alaska Airlines flies. Unfortunately, the Companion Fare is not valid for first class or on any partner airlines. You are, however, eligible for upgrades with miles, elite status, or paid upgrades at check-in.

How to Earn a Companion Fare

There are three ways to earn an Alaska Airlines Companion Fare. These are:

• sign up for an Alaska Airlines personal or business card when the sign up bonus includes a Companion Fare;
• upon card renewal of Alaska Airlines personal card or business card opened before January 18, 2023; or
• spending $6,000+ within an anniversary year on an Alaska Airlines personal card or business card opened on or after January 18, 2023.

Terms & Conditions of a Companion Fare

The terms and conditions of an Alaska Airline Companion Fare are fairly straightforward. The Companion Fare is valid until 11:59 PT on the 365th day after issuance. You can travel after the Companion Fare expires, so it is a “book by” and not a “travel by” date of expiration. The Companion Fare is good for any two people traveling together (i.e. the Companion Fare holder is not required to travel) on an economy ticket on Alaska Airlines. The taxes & fees, however, must be paid with an Alaska Airlines credit card in the Companion Fare holder's name if that person is not traveling.

If you are chasing status, or just want mileage credit, both travelers are eligible for mileage earning on the revenue fare. One frustrating quirk is travelers must remain in the same cabin at all times, so 1 traveler cannot upgrade with miles, cash, or elite status. It is all or nothing with upgrades. More on this below.

Maximizing an Alaska Companion Fare

Okay, so now that we know what an Alaska Airlines Companion Fare is, how we earn it, and all the terms & conditions, how can we maximize it? This is the exact question I asked myself several months ago. The result became our West Coast Swing and meeting with hundreds of ToP Facebook group members at 4 City Socials in 4 cities in 4 days!

The Companion Fare flights are valid on round-trip, one-way, or multi-city bookings. The maximum flights bookable with a multi-city online itinerary is 4 different flights, but these flights can have multiple segments. In theory, you can do 4 stopovers (at destinations, 1, 2, 3 and 4) on one ticket, before flying or driving back home on a different flight. Alternatively, you can book 3 stopovers in cities 1, 2, and 3 and city 4 can be back at your home.

I started playing around with various combinations and settled on a 4 city itinerary, but a 5 segment routing. As booked, we flew Baltimore-Seattle-Tricities-Seattle-San Francisco-San Diego, as shown above. In theory, you can book these flights with multiple segments per city/flight with no maximum allowable number of segments. Our total cost for this itinerary was $853.22 for 2 people. Of this, $589.76 was for passenger 1 and $263.46 was the companion. Overall, the Companion Fare “saved” us $326.30 on this itinerary.

Experience on Companion Fare Ticket

Since we booked this ticket with Sarah's Companion Fare code, I added my American Airlines loyalty info to the booking. My Executive Platinum/Oneworld Emerald status got us premium seats for free at time of booking. We also received access to elite upgrades to First class. Of our 5 flights, we were upgraded to/from Pasco (PSC) 72+ hours in advance and from San Francisco (SFO) to SAN (San Diego) 72+ hours in advance. Unfortunately, the remaining two flights were mostly full in First class and 2 seats were not available. Remember, upgrades on Alaska Airlines Companion Fares are all or nothing. Either we both got upgraded or neither of us were upgraded.

On the earnings side of things, Sarah credited her flights to Alaska Airlines and earned redeemable miles in the amount of the miles flown, with a 500 mile per flight minimum. Overall, she earned 4,513 Alaska miles. If you've been following along, that is enough miles for a future American Airlines flight of 700 miles or less!

As mentioned previously, I credited my flight to American Airlines. I did not earn as many miles as Sarah, even though I was getting a large elite earnings boost. I did, however, earn lots of Loyalty Points in my quest for AA status. Overall, I earned 3,817 redeemable miles and 3,817 Loyalty Points. Not too shabby, especially considering my status got us upgraded on 3 of the 5 segments!

Alaska Airlines Companion Fare: ToP Thoughts

Obviously, not everyone will “maximize” an Alaska Airlines Companion Fare the way we did. Truthfully, it's not really practical for most trips. The beauty is that you can weave together 3-4 stopovers on one companion fare, with no minimum or maximum stopover times. If the schedule is open, you can extend your stopovers as long as you wish. You are only limited by your imagination, the fare schedule, and 4 cities in a multi-city itinerary. Otherwise, let your imagination run wild and see what you can make work. Trust me, you can do much more interesting things than our example, as extreme as it is at first glance!

Have you used an Alaska Airlines Companion Fare? Come over to our Facebook group and let us know.