✈️ Earn Companion Pass from one flight

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 52 seconds

Goooooooooood morning from Manchvegas (it’s what we New Hampshire folk call Manchester).

Get your coffee ready, we’ve got a fun one for you today:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• ✈️ Earn Companion Pass from one flight

• 🪦 R.I.P. Capital One lounge access

• 🏨 50% transfer bonus to Marriott

• 🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The answer is waiting for you just a little farther down… 🚗

✈️ Earn Companion Pass from one flight

The Companion Pass is like Southwest’s top tier of elite status.

Essentially, earning Companion Pass means getting to fly with a free companion on any flight for as long as you have the pass.

Normally, it’s very difficult to earn…

Except for right now.

Because Southwest is letting you earn a “Promotional Companion Pass” for completing just one round-trip flight.

To be clear, this isn’t a full year of companion pass… but still, it’s an extremely generous offer, and quite easy to unlock.

Here are the details:

• You must register for the offer first

• You must then book a round trip or two one-way flights before February 5

• Travel must take place by March 31

• Companion Pass will be valid from August 10 to October 7, 2026

• You can book with either points OR cash

So here’s the best way to look at this:

If you’re planning on traveling with a companion, even just once or twice, between August 10 and October 7, you should run the numbers.

For example, you could book an affordable, round-trip flight like this one, where you return on the same day:

Basically, you’re spending $285 and about six hours of your time to unlock two months of free flights for your companion later in the year.

If you plan to spend $285 flying someone else on trips later in the year, then you should do it.

Of course, if you already have plans to fly Southwest before the end of March, even better.

Just be aware that existing bookings won’t count toward this. So you’ll need to register for the offer, cancel your existing flights, and rebook them – if you want them to count.

Anyway, this is a great offer for Southwest fans, especially those who travel as a couple or with families.

🪦 R.I.P. Capital One lounge access

Last year, Capital One announced some major changes to the lounge access policies for its Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and its business counterpart.

Sadly, those changes are now in effect as of February 1.

We have a full article breaking down the changes in detail, but here’s the quick summary:

• You must now pay for authorized users to have lounge access

• Guest access for Priority Pass lounges is changing

• You must spend a LOT of money on your card to get guest access to Capital One lounges

There’s no sugarcoating it – this is a big negative change. And for most people, I suspect this will really make you consider whether or not to hold onto the card.

In general, the world of lounge access has changed so much over the years. I’ve got some opinions about lounge access (especially as it pertains to credit cards) and how valuable it really is.

Sometime soon, maybe I’ll share my opinions and see how you guys feel about it. 🤷🏼‍♂️

For now, check out our article to make sure you’re fully in the loop about these changes:

🏨 50% transfer bonus to Marriott

Marriott Bonvoy is a program that I have a love/hate relationship with. Have they ruined numerous trips of mine? Yes.

Do I keep coming back time after time? Also yes.

There’s no denying that Marriott has some amazing deals, and, most importantly, a massive footprint of hotels all over the world where we can use points.

That’s why it’s always worth considering as an option when banks offer transfer bonuses to Marriott, like the current 50% bonus from UR points.

Until February 28, you’ll get 50% more points when transferring from UR points. In other words, you can transfer 1,000 UR points, and you’ll end up with 1,500 Marriott Bonvoy points.

So, is this a good deal?

Historically, we’ve seen transfer bonuses up to 70% from UR points. But ultimately, it comes down to the specific use you have in mind.

Fifth-night free makes this much better

When you use points for a 5-night stay at a Marriott property, you’ll get the cheapest of those five nights for free.

You can think of it as “book five, pay for four.”

When you combine that with this transfer bonus, you could unlock some serious savings.

For example, I’m heading to Pittsburgh, PA, tomorrow. This Marriott property downtown costs around 18,000 points per night.

Booking four nights would cost 74,000 points total, which is a good deal already. Throw in this transfer bonus, and you’ll only need to transfer 50,000 UR points, bringing the average cost down to around 12,500 points per night.

12,500 UR points per night is a perfectly good use of points.

Of course, you could transfer those same points to World of Hyatt with no transfer bonus and book hotels in Pittsburgh for 8,000 points per night.

But if you have Marriott status, co-branded cards, or Marriott just offers a better location for you, then I’d still shell out the extra points.

Anyway, run the numbers. There’s no official benchmark of what makes a “good deal.” If it feels good to you, then it’s a good deal.

🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

A few minutes ago, we asked which iconic road trip was named the best in the world for 2026…

If you chose Route 66, you might just be in your road trip era. 😎

RVshare named a 661-mile stretch of Route 66 the 2026 Road Trip of the Year, calling it “The Hidden Side of the West.”

Ooooh. Aaaah.

The route starts in Flagstaff, Arizona, and shows off some of the West’s most beautiful scenery without the usual crowds, which is nice.

Along the way, you’ll see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and the (very) underrated Great Basin National Park, before ending on Route 50… aka “the loneliest road in America.”

The timing is also pretty perfect, since Route 66 turns 100 in 2026.

And… road trips are having a moment thanks to lower gas prices and a renewed love for slow travel. In other words… this might be your sign to start planning one for yourself.

Want to read more about this year’s top road trips? Check out this article.

That’s it for today! It’s already been an exciting week for travel, so I look forward to sharing even more tips and tricks with you tomorrow.

See you then,

42.9956° N, 71.4548° W

With contributions by McKay Moffitt