Want to fly for free to Europe? Asia? Africa? within the US? Mexico and Central America? Right now is the time to take advantage of the best travel hack of the year, and I’m here to share how to do it.
The secret is to get a companion pass on Southwest Airlines. Now before you press delete on this article because you may not be a Southwest Airline fan, let’s put that to rest. Most people who don’t like Southwest don’t like it because of its reputation as a cattle call. Without assigned seat locations, people could sit wherever they could find a seat; with or without their traveling companion.
But that’s all changed. Starting next year, Southwest will start assigning seats (and charging for bags.) So if you’ve hated Southwest in the past, take another look. Here is the main reason you should look again:
You can fly for free by getting two Chase Southwest credit cards and spending $6000 over three months on things you’re already buying. You just now have to buy them with your Southwest credit cards.
We’ve got a video about how to do this trick and also a blog post about how to do this trick. So rather than me retyping all of that info, would you do me a favor and just click? Pick either the video or the article. They have the same info.
Video about the Southwest Companion pass travel hack
Article about the Southwest Companion pass travel hack
How to Fly to Europe, Asia, and Africa for Free
If you go to the Southwest website right now, you’ll see that you can use your Companion Pass to fly all over the US, the Carribean, Mexico, Central America and Hawaii. But I started this post with a question. Do you want to fly to Europe and futher afield for free?
Here’s How to Fly to Europe, Asia and Africa for FREE in 2026
Southwest now has partnership with five additional airlines, allowing seamless, single-ticket journeys from U.S. cities to the world, by booking via their partners’ websites or travel agents for those legs.
How it Works (New Partnerships):
Book a Joint Ticket: You book one ticket that includes a Southwest flight within the U.S. and a connecting long-haul flight.
Connect in the U.S.: You’ll fly Southwest to a gateway city in the U.S.
Transfer to International Carriers:
Condor: Connect in Boston (BOS), Las Vegas (LAS) , Los Angeles (LAX), Portland (PDX), San Francisco (SFO), or Seattle (SEA) for flights to Frankfurt (FRA) and beyond started Dec 1 2025.
Icelandair: Connect in Baltimore (BWI), Denver (DEN), or Nashville (BNA) for flights to Iceland (KEF) and onward to Europe.
China Airlines connect through Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Ontario (ONT), and Seattle (SEA) to points in China starting January 19, 2026.
EVA Air connect Taiwan and the broader Asia-Pacific. This new partnership will connect itineraries between North America and Asia through shared gateway airports in Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle-Tacoma (SEA), and Chicago (ORD), starting August 2026.
Philippine Airlines extends to Southeast Asia and Australia. The first shared gateway cities are Honolulu (HNL), Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), and San Francisco (SFO). Started November 4, 2025.
Seamless Travel: Your bags are checked through, and schedules are coordinated for easier connections.
We can’t wait to start booking our travel to the rest of the world through Southwest. On our first date back in 2009, I asked Steve what his favorite airline was. He promptly answered Southwest. Since then, we’ve accumulation hundreds of thousands of points, and now we can’t wait to use them to get to Iceland, South Africa, and China!
See you next week,
Chris
PS Won’t you do us a favor and use our credit card referral to grab the cards you need to complete this hack?