❤️ For you and your travel buddy (2)

Welcome to the weekend!

We’re like SNL’s famous Weekend Update segment because, well… it’s the weekend.

And we’re updating you 🤷🏻‍♀️

But we don’t mind breaking character 😏. Let’s dive into the best travel hacks, news, and deals from the week.

✅ Catch up on our latest YouTube video about some of the best elevated welcome offers in the credit card world right now

✅ Bless your ears with this week’s podcast that covers an even deeper dive on all the hottest travel credit cards right now

✅ Do you fly with a plus one? Get your paws on the Southwest Companion Pass (and learn more below!)

🥇 Favorite pick of the week: Southwest Companion Pass is BACK, baby

This news is so newsworthy, that we sent out an entire RED ALERT email for it earlier this week.

The most important thing to know is Southwest’s highest level of elite status, the Companion Pass, literally JUST NOW became the easiest perk to earn…

All you have to do is sign-up for one of the airline’s popular credit cards 😮

People seriously drool over this because the Companion Pass allows you to bring a companion with you on EVERY flight you take, free of charge, for an entire year (or longer). 

It’s basically a year’s worth of BOGO coupons for Southwest’s flights. And normally, without this welcome offer, it’s pretty hard to earn 😬

Like flying 100 flights on Southwest or earning a whopping 135,000 qualifying points in a year type of hard.

But fear not because…

🏃🏻‍♀️ Runner-Ups

Best Western promo: Stay 2 nights, get a FREE one

Okay Best Western (can I call you B-Dubs?), this is a royally baller move.

When I initially think of Best Western, I often think of my childhood and the sometimes seedy Best Westerns my family would stay at when going on road trips.

And the smell. Anyone else have a core memory of an indoor, highly-chlorinated pool?

But actually, Best Western is pretty cool nowadays—especially when they run promos like this 👇

• Earn a free night award after staying two nights at Best Western hotels

• You must register for the offer first

• Valid for stays through May 5th, 2024

• Only valid at hotels in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean

And the sweetest thing about this whole situation is you can redeem your free night at any participating Best Western property…

So even if you stayed somewhere and paid $62 a night to earn your free night, you could then turn around and use said free night at a $300 per night hotel 🤯

This is, in fact, baller 😎

So yeah, if you’ve potentially got an upcoming BW stay, go register for the promo, folks. It’ll take just 30 seconds of your life to do so.

Southwest status match

It’s been a BIG week for Southwest, and I’m totally here for it.

We love a good status match. Who’s gonna say no to additional elite benefits and perks on another airline, am I right?

Well, for all you Americans out there, the Southwest Airlines status match program is one of the best.

But first, you need to be eligible… So what’s involved?

This eligibility includes having some sort of elite status with any other U.S. airline (besides Southwest, obvi).

Even the lowest level of elite status from a trash airline like Frontier counts. I said what I said 😬

If you qualify, you must:

• Register for the status match, which will give you Southwest A-List status for 90 days

• If you complete three round-trip flights or six one-way flights during those 90 days, your A-List status will extend for another year

• Only paid flights during those 90 days count

And as a refresher, here’s what you’ll get with A-List status 👇

So if you fly somewhat regularly with Southwest and want these benefits, this status-match opportunity is a solid deal 😎

📣 Quick Callouts

❌ Expired: FareDrop flash sale (50% off Pro Plan)

🎉 Don’t miss: Flying Blue Promo Rewards (Feb. 2024)

✈️ Good to know: Positioning flights—the what’s, why’s, and when’s

🔥 Sizzling deal: American Airlines award flights sale

✅ Quick hack: Earn 500 World of Hyatt bonus points per night

🛂 Clever: Get a last-minute passport FAST

😥 Sad news: Hilton steals the SLH partnership from Hyatt

😭 Sad news x2: Turkish Airlines demolishes its award chart

And just like that, our first week in February comes to a close—and boy was it an exciting one.

If you often travel with a plus one, signing up for this easy Companion Pass deal could be a serious game changer!

Enjoy the rest of your day, and I’ll see you all next weekend 👋

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