I was browsing the DIS today when I came across another thread discussing a new $49 Internet Fare from PVD to MCO. I jumped onto Southwest.com and checked my flight, only to see that the $49 fares were unavailable. Darn! But something told me to try changing my itinerary. I went to the Travel Center, selected "Change Air Reservation", selected my flight and clicked through to the Flight Prices screen and lo and behold! my flight had a $49 fare available. Woo Hoo!!! I selected the lower fare and clicked on the Next button only to be informed by the system that I had not made any changes to my flight and should go back and try again. AAAAAARGH! I went back and clicked on all of the dates, times, flights, always changing them back to the original values, but the dreaded message kept appearing.
As you can tell by now, I'm not one to let a computer stand in my way when low fares are at stake, so I called Southwest Customer Service. I spoke with a nice lady that told me I'd have to cancel and rebook. Since the original reservation page did not show any $49 fares available for my flight, that was out of the question. I told her that the "Change Air Reservation" screens were showing available $49 fares. She checked, but stuck to her guns that I would have to cancel and rebook to get the fare. (No way!)
Taking the advice of a number of posters in this forum, I hung up with her and then called back, getting another rep. I gave the same information to her and she proceeded to review the web site, looking at the "Change" screens and noting the available flights. She said she saw the differences in the system, but was unable to do anything with it. She asked me to hold and proceeded to escalate my call to Tier 2 Customer Service.
At Tier 2 CS, I spoke with another nice lady there who also noted the discrepancy between the 2 parts of the site and proceeded to contact the Home Office. After asking me if I would mind being on hold for a few minutes (it took 5 minutes or so which is not bad considering that I'd wait for a half hour or more to lower my fare), she said that there was a "glitch" in the system and that she could give me the $49 fare if I'd like it. I quickly said "YES" and she transfered me to the home office rep who had all of the data available.
The Home Office rep was a very nice lady proceeded to change my reservation for 5 and saved me $115.50 which I can now apply to my return flight whenever they get around to opening up the rest of December.
All in all, an excellent experience. The moral of the story; if you don't get anywhere with the first rep, keep trying until you do. Be nice, but also be persistent.
So thanks to all of you who have posted of similar experiences. I would not have thought to check the "Change" screens without your posts.
As you can tell by now, I'm not one to let a computer stand in my way when low fares are at stake, so I called Southwest Customer Service. I spoke with a nice lady that told me I'd have to cancel and rebook. Since the original reservation page did not show any $49 fares available for my flight, that was out of the question. I told her that the "Change Air Reservation" screens were showing available $49 fares. She checked, but stuck to her guns that I would have to cancel and rebook to get the fare. (No way!)
Taking the advice of a number of posters in this forum, I hung up with her and then called back, getting another rep. I gave the same information to her and she proceeded to review the web site, looking at the "Change" screens and noting the available flights. She said she saw the differences in the system, but was unable to do anything with it. She asked me to hold and proceeded to escalate my call to Tier 2 Customer Service.
At Tier 2 CS, I spoke with another nice lady there who also noted the discrepancy between the 2 parts of the site and proceeded to contact the Home Office. After asking me if I would mind being on hold for a few minutes (it took 5 minutes or so which is not bad considering that I'd wait for a half hour or more to lower my fare), she said that there was a "glitch" in the system and that she could give me the $49 fare if I'd like it. I quickly said "YES" and she transfered me to the home office rep who had all of the data available.
The Home Office rep was a very nice lady proceeded to change my reservation for 5 and saved me $115.50 which I can now apply to my return flight whenever they get around to opening up the rest of December.
All in all, an excellent experience. The moral of the story; if you don't get anywhere with the first rep, keep trying until you do. Be nice, but also be persistent.
So thanks to all of you who have posted of similar experiences. I would not have thought to check the "Change" screens without your posts.
