Can I book Southwest Departure and Return seperately?

[mcd531]

We have a trip planned for 10/31 - 11/8

The flights for 10/31 are already released but November flights don't release for another week.

Can/Should I book the departing flight now and then the return next week? Could that cause any problems? Or should I wait and book them together?

I've barely flown at all so I'm not sure how this works. This will also be my first time using SWA points. I should have enough points to cover our 3 flights.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Yes, you can do that if you want. Now I will say I have not used points. Don’t have nearly enough; but, I did book our flights for our upcoming trip separately. Not because the other date wasn’t out yet; but, because it made it easier on me financially.

We are going at the end of this month. I booked our outbound flight in October and booked the return flight a month later. Then I went back in later to add Early Bird Check-In to each flight. Just have 2 different confirmation numbers is all. Whether there was a way to avoid that I don't know. It hasn't bothered me.

 

[mkarizona]

Go ahead and book. If the cost of the flight goes down you just need to change your reservation and the extra points will go back into your account.

 

[DebbieB]

I've done it several times for various reasons, never been a problem. I'm leaving next Sunday, one way points, one way cash.

 

[georgina]

I prefer to book them separately because I find it is easier to make changes to one set of flights if I need to. Never caused any problems. I think if you are using points, each person gets booked separately and will have separate confirmation #'s, which is a bit of a pain for online check-in (I am too cheap usually to pay for early bird checkin).

Booking with points is great because it is so easy to get a lower price if it drops, you don't have to worry about a cash credit to use up within 12 months, you just get points back! If I don't have enough points for everyone, I use my points to book for family members and pay for my own trip, getting more reward points for my account from the trip.

 

[mikehn]

I dont know of any advantage to booking departing and returning flights together, with or without points. Its not like you get any discount for doing so. But there are lots of advantages to booking separately as already stated.

 

[poohbear15]

We also always book our flights separately incase one flight goes down in cost we get our points credit back to our account or is we pay cash we get a credit to use within a year. We make out better this time every flight.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

FYI, you can book your departure and return flights separately on any airline, or even on two different airlines. You just don't want to do it for an international flight, as usually two one way tickets are much more expensive than a round trip ticket.