Southwest is running a new companion fare option until 4/5/23. It is very short notice but it might be beneficial to some people.

You need to purchase a round trip ( or 2 one way) tickets by 4/5/23 and travel by 5/24/23. That will get you a companion fare from 8/15/23 to 9/30/23. Note that the qualifying flight(s) have to be paid flights, not purchased with frequent flier miles.

There is some fine print, so be sure to read that before applying. It does state that reservations made before you opt in for this promotion will not count for this promotion. I don’t know if you cancel the flight and rebook if you can get around this restriction.

There are a lot of hoops to jump through but I can see some value in it. If you book an inexpensive, short flight to qualify, you can then use companion fare on a more expensive flight in the August September time frame. It is unclear if you can use FF miles and get the free companion fare during this period.

Again, lots of things need to line up for this to work. Be sure to check all the rules and see if this is useful for you