Deal or No Deal from SWA vaca'ns

[ms.ojo]

Southwest Airlines Vacations is offering If you book through them it seems every 2nd person in your party files free. On top of that you can then book the free dining or another deal offering around 38%off room. (Summer Special)

But it doesn't appear to be the case. Other posters are right, the "free" airfare is not happening. The only "deal" is $100.

I spoke w/ a rep last night and the system is only giving one Child's fare for free, a difference of $80! I said SWA doesn't have a child's fare, all seats are the same price other than seniors. The response, well yes, from your end, but not on ours.

Current fares from BDL to MCO are $101 so give or take a bit w/ taxes that's $880 for a family of 4 so I expected this "deal" to cost me $440 for the airfare. NOPE. It's only $80 less and if I want a 2nd child free I'd need to book as 2 separate trips. I said wait a minute, that would mean 2 rooms! That's ridiculous!

The rep was very nice, he took my name/# and "marketing" is going to call me today. He can't do anything about the system...it's only allowing 1 free child's credit on the airfare.

I was very disgusted. But as I told my son, if a deal sounds too good, it usually is.

I looked further into cancellation policies and you need to buy 2 types of trip insurance when you buy a SWA pkg. One allows for cancellations up to your trip, the 2nd to cover you during your trip if you need to come home early. Since we have elderly parents insurance is a must for us. The cost for this double insurance for our family of 4: $260 vs. Disney's very comprehensive insurance at $135

Overall, if they offered the true terms of their deal (free dining, extra $100 credit and 2 ppl fly free for a family of 4) I would net a couple hundred savings over direct w/ Disney....but this is too much effort, and I don't feel comfortable w/ their insurance. Can't wait to hear from "mktg" today!

Has anyone been able to book this deal and truly receive a full free airfare?? One for every 2nd person???

 

[hockeybabe]

Bump...want to hear what marketing says....

 

[turkeymama]

I haven't booked the deal with Southwest, but I priced a vacation using the free airfare for every second person. We already have an August trip planned, but we may have to reschedule depending on softball tournaments (crossing fingers). The dates I plugged in didn't fall within the free dining, so that discount was out the window.

The dates I searched was for August 15 - August 20 for Pop Century. With 6 day park hoppers, the price was coming up at $2380, give or take. I know the regular airfare is $845 for Southwest, the rack rate for a standard room at Pop for those dates is $591, and the 6 day park hoppers are $1096. Once I figured all that out, I would only be saving $152 using the "deal". Obviously that is much less than half of my airfare. In fact, it doesn't look like I would even get one full person free, much less the 2 free that they are advertising.

I'm with you. This "free" airfare doesn't appear to be working out. I'll be checking back to see what marketing tells you.

 

[Trep72]

For kicks, I ran the numbers thru SWA Vacations for Sept 3-8 staying at POP. Everything is the same, but SWA wasn't offering the free dining package for POP. I kept trying to see if I was not adding/clicking on something, but never could figure it out. The free dining package was listed with other resorts. Anyway, long story short, assuming I was doing everything correct, SWA vacations was not a better deal for us.

I haven't booked the deal with Southwest, but I priced a vacation using the free airfare for every second person. We already have an August trip planned, but we may have to reschedule depending on softball tournaments (crossing fingers). The dates I plugged in didn't fall within the free dining, so that discount was out the window.

The dates I searched was for August 15 - August 20 for Pop Century. With 6 day park hoppers, the price was coming up at $2380, give or take. I know the regular airfare is $845 for Southwest, the rack rate for a standard room at Pop for those dates is $591, and the 6 day park hoppers are $1096. Once I figured all that out, I would only be saving $152 using the "deal". Obviously that is much less than half of my airfare. In fact, it doesn't look like I would even get one full person free, much less the 2 free that they are advertising.

I'm with you. This "free" airfare doesn't appear to be working out. I'll be checking back to see what marketing tells you.

 

[ms.ojo]

Bump...want to hear what marketing says....

Surprise surprise, Mktg never called me back. no one called me back! But I think I've pieced the thing together w/ the help of other posters and a little math. it "appears" it wasn't a child's rate...but rather the tickets are of the more expensive class. so if it costs $500 to fly rnd trip for one person and the 2nd free...but only $220pp rnd trip with "wanna get away" pricing or $440 for 2...it is cheaper for me to book the flights separately and the pkg through Disney.

Now if they included the "wanna get away" fares in this pkg...it would win hands down!!! And that's what I was anticipating. For a family of 4 that would be $440 vs. $880! Alas, that's not the case.

So unless you're booking from a city that rarely offers good "wanna get away rates" or you're use to paying for fully refundable tickets...this is no deal.

 

[disnywd]

So, it's not just me!

We fly SWA exclusively, so when I heard about this deal, I wanted to check it out.

Every time I tried, even entering a few different scenarios, my savings was only $100. I was trying to book five people, each time.

I love SWA, but this sounds like a little false advertising to me, doesn't it?:sad2

5 days!