Good deal from Southwest.

[Bsbllmom]

I won't benefit from this since I am going in February but maybe this will help some of you.

Friends fly and play free

 

[Sammy]

Darn! It ends two days before we arrive in December. Thanks for the heads-up though

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

Be sure to run the numbers. When I checked it out, it seemed like the flights are their higher fares and not the discounted fares. However, they don't itemize the flight and room portion, so you need to familiarize yourself with the room rates and look at the price options for the flights. Regular fares are often twice as expensive as web discounts, thus eliminating the "friend flies free" benefit.

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Ran some numbers and it works for us. Values are filling fast. Hoping it's there for us tomorrow AM.

Early December
2 adults; 5 children
2 standard rooms at POP (may upgrade to preferred) for 7 nights

Air + room w/out promo is about $3080
Air + room w/ promo is $2826
Savings on park passes from UT is $585
Total savings about $840

Drawback SWA travel M - Th. We had hoped to bookend the weekends, but can't with this deal due to some blackout dates for our availability.

Still running some numbers as sis and BIL may get us military companion tickets. Reduces park day by 1 or 2, but nice savings. Off to ponder as they are holding package overnight.

ETA: Forgot to mention that it priced us 4 adult PH tickets for 7 of us. I ended up calling SW Vacations to get help and they couldn't price it with children's tickets. Don't think it's right/fair, but still a nice savings.

 

[heimlichfan]

Can this be too good to be true???? I want to book it, but it works out to be such a good deal, I think something's up!

Currently I just have a package for ASSp, no dining, coming out to about $1,050.

With the SW deal, the same thing with flights and a rental car is $1,256.

Someone please show me where the catch is!

 

[Anonomom]

Is anyone else thoroughly confused by the offer/Southwest's website? I got a quote that seems very low, and I'm considering doing it, but I have some questions:

1. When you pick a package, it adds tickets to your cart, but no kids tickets. Can you change that (and subtract hoppers) at checkout?

2. I assume you can't call Disney and just change an existing ressie to take advantage of this deal?

3. If you do the deal w/o free dining, can you still add dining later, or is it not technically considered a package?

thanks!

 

[heimlichfan]

Yes, it's confusing! I don't need to worry about kid tix so I'm not sure how to help with that...

I checked the different promotions they have going on... ones that can't be combined together. (Not sure why FREE dining can't be just tacked on? ) It seems that no deal is that great, unless you're dealing with expensive airfare.

I looked at my Disney-based ressie, which was only $928 (not the $1,050 I mentioned above). Airfare currently at its cheapest at the times we can go, comes to roughly $500. DH really wants a car this time, and at its cheapest so far, is around $70. That means I would have to add almost $600 dollars to our Disney ressie to do it the way we wanted.

Southwest's deal comes to $1,256. (fly free, play free)

Included in Disney ressie: room, tix w/ park hopping, vacation insurance
Included in Southwest: airfare, car rental, room, tix w/ park hopping

Seems like a good deal to me. I do think that the other SW room discounts and free dining packages are not a good deal.

 

[disnywd]

Running the numbers, we would save $353 by booking the package with Southwest.

I don't like the way Southwest has the hotel selection set up, though. It's confusing.

On Disney's site, I am able to book POR for our family of five (where we always stay), but Southwest's website doesn't offer POR, it's only giving me the family suites at All Star.

 

[figment82]

Heimlichfan, it makes sense that southwest's deal would be good for you if you don't want the dining plan...you're taking away ~$230 for park passes (depending on how many days you're going/base or park hopper/etc) since it's buy 1-get 1. Then you're adding ~$250 for flight for one person (but ONLY one person, as opposed to 2, since it's buy 1-get 1). Those two things pretty much balance and then you're adding a bit more on for the car. So Southwest's deal works well in your situation.

I've been playing around with it and I just can't make it work out for me...but it can be good for some people, depending on the case.

You can change the number of days of the ticket...I don't have it open in front of me right now, but off the top of my head you click "remove" on the park hopper ticket thing, and then it gives you a warning about you need tickets for this deal...tell it to proceed anyways. Then up-top on the price breakdown page there is an icon for "add-ins". Click on that, and then on the drop-down box narrow your results by "Disney tickets". Then you'll be able to select a shorter amount of days, or add on the dining plan, or change from park hopper to base, etc. (Though if you add the dining plan and don't add tickets, you'll get a phone call because you can't do that). Why they made it this complicated to change, I'll never know.

Also, you can't buy less than a 3 day pass, which is why I can't make this deal work for me - I only want a 1-day.

From what I am hearing/reading, there is no reduced rate available for kids - so if you have kids, this probably doesn't work out well. It might, if you have expensive airfare and you don't want the dining plan, since kids park tickets aren't THAT much cheaper than adults...but it would be close.

You also can add trip insurance through southwest if you want it, in this same add-ons section. I find it unlikely that you would be able to modify your existing disney reservation to get this deal, as one is booked through southwest vacations (a travel company, same as if you booked through AAA) and one is booked through disney. You'd have to cancel your disney reservation (but you should still be able to get your deposit back depending on how far away your trip is) and then book a new trip through southwest and hope your room/category is still available.

Also, you CAN get free dining through the southwest deal...but then you can't get the free ticket. (But you can still get the free airfare) So it all depends on how long you are going to be there/how many people are going as to which deal is better - buy 1 park ticket, get 1 park ticket free, or free dining. I think in most situations free dining works out better - but if you book through southwest you can still get one person's airfare free.

Sorry for the ramblings! I've been playing with southwest's website for 3 days trying to make this deal save me some money!