Calling all Southwest Experts, need HELP!

[msr709]

We are planning on going in July 2013, mid-month for 10 days. Would anyone know or can give me a guess as to when they open for July tickets? Our group consists of 10, 6 adults and 4 children. We are planning on staying at the AllStar Vacation homes. No Magical Express for us, . We've never flown by SWA but I think it might be our best (less expensive) bet (either from Newark or Philadephia Int'l). I've been checking out their website and it reads that if you want a "child fare" you have to call a certain no., which is fine but I wanted to get the early bird checkin, do I have to buy it for all the children? I was planning on getting it for all the adults but what about the kids? The kids ages are: 5, 4, 3, and 2. I've never gone to DW with such small children and one of them is my first grandson (he's 2yo). Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I always get great advice from these boards and I hope someone can help me with this and any other insight for traveling with SWA and such young ones!

 

[akclayton]

They usually open the flights up 6 months prior. We are going this June and I was able to order tickets in late December for mid June. Start going on their website each day starting in January. The day you see your flight days open, call the number. We are traveling with kids and had to call. It was a very easy process. Most of their agents are very helpful. FYI.. The child fare isn't much different from the adult fare.

You can get early bird check-in for each person. It is $10 one way for each person. So, $20 round trip for each person. You don't have to purchase early bird at the exact time as the flight tickets. You can call later, or go on their website to add it at a later time. To do it on their website after the fact, from their home page, click on air, find the early bird check-in learn more icon, click it and then type in a passengers name and confirmation number and you can select the early bird flights for each person there and pay for it. If you want everyone in your party to have a closer boarding number, you will need to pay for each person to get the early bird check-in.

For an estimate on how much it will cost, I would go on now and select the dates for this year that you will be flying on next year to get somewhat of an estimate. I did this last year for our trip and the price only changed not even $100 for all 5 of us. Select 10 adults instead of 5 since the kids price isn't much different from the adult.

 

[goofy4tink]

Just a word of caution...those children's fares are based on full price, fully refundable fares. You really don't want to buy them. You are going to find much better fares with the 'wanna get away' fares.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

No airline has their schedule issued more than a year in advance. You'll have to wait until at least December 2012/January 2013 for Southwest. Legacy airlines will have their July 2013 schedules up by early summer.

Forget about "child fares" on WN. You can find a cheaper adult fare.

You really should investigate other airlines, even if you have to pay to check a few pieces of luggage. Southwest is not always the cheapest option by far. Balance that against paying EBCI RT for 10 people - that's a lot of money. You would also have the peace of mind of having assigned seats for the children.

Estimating costs by looking at the fares this year will tell you what fares this year are. Who knows what they will be next summer (except very likely higher)!

 

[partypa]

We love southwest but have found better fares lately with JetBlue out of Newark and AirTran ( bought by southwest of course ) out of Philly
Agree, you will need to wait til December or so for the fares to be released and don't bother with the Kids Fares

 

[rwdavis2]

We love southwest but have found better fares lately with JetBlue out of Newark and AirTran ( bought by southwest of course ) out of Philly
Agree, you will need to wait til December or so for the fares to be released and don't bother with the Kids Fares

Agreed, SW, at least out of Baltimore, is no longer the least expensive way to go. We just paid $180 per person roundtrip on Jet Blue, non-stop, from Reagan National to Orlando while SW was $300+ per person out of BWI.

 

[Jestocost]

The last two years SWA's July dates have gone on sale in mid November. The years prior to that it was December or even January. They should have the date posted by September. See a list of historical SWA release dates here.

 

[DebbieB]

They recently pushed back their next release by 2 weeks. I think you may see a slow down in releases with the integration of AirTran routes into SW schedules.

 

[msr709]

WOW, you guys are GREAT! You've given me a lot of food for thought with all this info. I'm so glad we have these forums, you guys never fail me. I'm going to take the advice of checking out this years' prices to get an estimate since I have to budget for 3 separate families and it would be a big help. Also I appreciate that you all told me about the kid fares. I'd like to know what "wanna get away" fares goofy4tink mentioned? TIA for all your replies, they are ALL very helpful.

 

[LWQuestie]

When you look up fares on Southwest.com, you'll see three price columns for the flights - I think it's Fully Refundable, Business Class and Wanna Get Away. Wanna Get Away is usually the least expensive.

ETA: the columns are Business Select, Anytime and Wanna Get Away.

 

[backyardponder]

Wow, 10 people. This qualifies for group travel on Southwest. I have no idea whether that saves money or not, but it is worth checking out. Their Group Reservations number is 800-433-5368 and is open Monday - Friday, 7 - 10 Central Time.

If you are checking bags, Southwest does not charge. This can run $50 per bag round trip on other airlines. Keep that in mind while you are trying to figure out things.

Next thing to consider: Do you really need EBCI? This will add $10 per person each way. If you check in 24 hours before flight time, chances are you'll all get to sit together. If being separated on the plane for a 2 hour flight is an issue, then you might want to buy it for some of the folks.

Southwest has a certain number of seats available within different pricing categories. Before booking all of your tickets, check the cost of 1 ticket. Make sure the multiples you are booking are the same amount. If they aren't, you may want to book a few tickets at a time to make sure you are grabbing the lowest fare.

Good Luck to you!

 

[StanH]

For those in your group who would be boarding with a child 4 years or younger (sounds like all of you), this is Southwest's policy, which would save you the expense of buying the Early Bird boarding:

An adult traveling with a child four years old or younger may board during Family Boarding, which occurs between the "A" and "B" boarding groups. However, those Customers holding an "A" boarding pass should still board with the "A" boarding group. With an all-jet fleet outfitted with comfortable, leather seats, our families traveling with small children are easily accommodated together.

If you don't get an A group boarding number, this would ensure you good seat choices.

 

[Jestocost]

For those in your group who would be boarding with a child 4 years or younger (sounds like all of you), this is Southwest's policy, which would save you the expense of buying the Early Bird boarding:



If you don't get an A group boarding number, this would ensure you good seat choices.

The challenge is that gate agents can elect not to do family boarding if there are too many people that would qualify, and it is not uncommon for that to happen on flights to and from Orlando. My advice would be to do whatever you can to get the lowest possible boarding number and hope that they do family boarding if you get a number in the B (at least later in the group) or C groups.

 

[msr709]

Thanks to the added advice from Jestocost, StanH, LWQuestie and backyardponder. I will definitely call the Group Reservation # and see if that helps . I did see about the Family boarding thing but I thought that a flight to Orlando during the summer would have a lot families going, I've been on enough flights to DW during the summer months and seen what its like, and considering that most other airlines are charging for the checked bags its still a little cheaper to go with SWA even with the EBCI. I plan on packing light but with the kids its very hard to pack light. Thanks again everyone! Any other suggestions are welcome.