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Booking a hotel room through the Southwest portal also earns companion pass-enabled Southwest points.
I once had the extremely good fortune to find a hotel room that had a super bonus going on, meaning it earned serious bonus (extra) points.
I managed to get just 1,000 points shy of a companion pass by booking 5 days.
That particular deal for that hotel room is gone, but stalking the hotel deals could theoretically yield similar results.