Anyone know when SW will release April flights?

[KimWDW]

I would like to book a flight for April but SouthWest is only booking through the beginning of March right now. Even though it seems like all the other airlines already have their flights and prices available. Does anyone have any guesses (based on prior info or whatever) about when SW will have their April dates up? Do they release week by week or in big 3 month chunks, etc.?

THANKS!

 

[Jestocost]

That info is posted on the SWA Travel Tools page. The first part of April will open soon.

On September 5, we will open our schedule for sale through April 9, 2012. This date is subject to change! Please check back frequently.

The rest of April likely will be open in October/November. SWA opens its schedule later than the legacy carriers, but they rarely--if ever--make significant changes after opening dates for booking.

 

[DebbieB]

I think with the AirTran integration, they will be slowing up on releases. The next release will only be 1 month.

 

[Jestocost]

I think with the AirTran integration, they will be slowing up on releases. The next release will only be 1 month.

I agree that release dates are likely to more unpredictable as they deal with the AirTran integration, but one-month releases aren't necessarily that unusual. See below for 2010's weird releases as an example. On Sept. 28 they opened a month and a half of dates, then just nine days later they opened another five weeks of dates.

2010

03/23/2010 opened through 11/05/2010
06/15/2010 opened through 01/07/2011
08/17/2010 opened through 03/11/2011
09/28/2010 opened through 04/25/2011
10/07/2010 opened through 06/03/2011
11/16/2010 opened through 08/12/2011

Speculation at the time was they wanted to book additional revenue in their 3Q earnings, so they gave themselves three days of sales (Sept. 28-30) to do that. Bottom line is lots of factors can dictate when they open up dates.

You can see a full list of the last few year's openings here.