has anyone booked with SW with the assigned seats

[Dznypal]

our trip falls were well be going under the old system open seating yet

coming home under the new assinged seat new system
just wondering how it went
was it easy to see what seats and the amount for the different seats
please any advice or details

prices seems crazy for jan

 

[focusondisney]

Did you look at the last page or 2 of the pinned Southwest thread?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/post-all-sw-questions-concerns-etc-here.2500174/unread

 

[buzzgirls&dad]

our trip falls were well be going under the old system open seating yet

coming home under the new assinged seat new system
just wondering how it went
was it easy to see what seats and the amount for the different seats
please any advice or details

prices seems crazy for jan

We booked yesterday. It was still very easy to book overall. There is just the added step of picking your seat after you enter your travel party. The seats are divided by color and there is a key so you know which seat to pick based off what level of ticket you want to purchase. That's it. And yes the prices were very high!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Yes, I booked yesterday also. And as the PP said, the prices were very high. Like you. I'm going to WDW under the old system of open seating and coming back under the new, assigned seating system. My return flight is costing me about twice as much as going did.
At least for me there's a "silver lining". I was originally going on what is the first day of assigned seating, but the more I thought about it-I decided to book my "going to WDW" flight a day early, and one of the few rooms available was a lake view at VGF. So I guess I just have to stay there and watch the EWP (my corny little favorite). And I'm sure I'm saving money by flying a day earlier.

 

[sponica]

Yes, I booked yesterday also. And as the PP said, the prices were very high. Like you. I'm going to WDW under the old system of open seating and coming back under the new, assigned seating system. My return flight is costing me about twice as much as going did.
At least for me there's a "silver lining". I was originally going on what is the first day of assigned seating, but the more I thought about it-I decided to book my "going to WDW" flight a day early, and one of the few rooms available was a lake view at VGF. So I guess I just have to stay there and watch the EWP (my corny little favorite). And I'm sure I'm saving money by flying a day earlier.

I'm really trying to figure out what the advantage is of SW with baggage fees and assigned seating....the all in one fare with open seating was usually cheaper than a fare

Hit post toon soon! I priced out our February break and wowsa it's almost twice what we paid in 2024. It's not apples to apples because the two cheapest fare buckets are sold out and we were usually able to get a Wanna getaway fare, but still

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm really trying to figure out what the advantage is of SW with baggage fees and assigned seating....the all in one fare with open seating was usually cheaper than a fare

Hit post toon soon! I priced out our February break and wowsa it's almost twice what we paid in 2024. It's not apples to apples because the two cheapest fare buckets are sold out and we were usually able to get a Wanna getaway fare, but still

Even the cheapest fares are not what they used to be - was surprised by how expensive booking was a couple days ago, especially considering the 2 free bags are gone. Overall the process wasn't terrible - similar to booking with other airlines. It's definitely slanted towards customers who own one of the SW credit cards. I'm on our SW CC, but my spouse is the owner. When I logged in as me, no mention of a free bag option unless I booked the top tier. When we logged in with the owner's account to look at booking, 1 free bag was displayed - and the fares were slightly less. Not significantly, but less. These businesses must make a lot of money from these credit cards!

 

[paults]

We go in Nov 2025 and it will most likely be our last With SW. Been using them forever but it's over.

 

[EACarlson]

I'm really trying to figure out what the advantage is of SW with baggage fees and assigned seating....the all in one fare with open seating was usually cheaper than a fare

Hit post toon soon! I priced out our February break and wowsa it's almost twice what we paid in 2024. It's not apples to apples because the two cheapest fare buckets are sold out and we were usually able to get a Wanna getaway fare, but still

Nonstop flights to more destinations is the advantage. In my state, we have six commercial airports and SW is the only one to have nonstop flights to MCO from any of them. There are a couple that have nonstop flights to Sanford but not MCO.

Wait a week and see what prices look like. I fully expected prices to be high when they released and the limited availability of Basic confirmed that. Unless a whole lot of people held their noses and booked just to book this week, prices will come down in the next few weeks. Same thing happens with the legacy airlines. Prices start high with only the upper fare classes available, more are made available as the airlines get a better idea of how popular the flight is going to be and where the line is on what they can charge and still fill the flight.

 

[Craig Larson]

It definitely seems that it no longer is cheapest to book at first drop. For my August trip, when tickets first dropped they were also closer to 2x what I paid in the past. After a few weeks it dropped a little bit and I booked. There were several drops after that (and before the 5/28 change) that I now have $150 in non-expiring credits each for 4 people....

Especially if you have other viable options for flights, I'd just wait and watch prices.

 

[sponica]

Nonstop flights to more destinations is the advantage. In my state, we have six commercial airports and SW is the only one to have nonstop flights to MCO from any of them. There are a couple that have nonstop flights to Sanford but not MCO.

Wait a week and see what prices look like. I fully expected prices to be high when they released and the limited availability of Basic confirmed that. Unless a whole lot of people held their noses and booked just to book this week, prices will come down in the next few weeks. Same thing happens with the legacy airlines. Prices start high with only the upper fare classes available, more are made available as the airlines get a better idea of how popular the flight is going to be and where the line is on what they can charge and still fill the flight.

I fly out of a MHT as it's 15 minutes away and the all in fare on SW had been better the past couple years than flying out of Logan. But now I'll have to compare more actively with Logan (and that's all sorts of ugh). I miss when SW had a more robust schedule out of MHT.

My experience with the school vacation weeks is that fares only go up...

 

[michelleiada]

I fly out of a MHT as it's 15 minutes away and the all in fare on SW had been better the past couple years than flying out of Logan. But now I'll have to compare more actively with Logan (and that's all sorts of ugh). I miss when SW had a more robust schedule out of MHT.

My experience with the school vacation weeks is that fares only go up...

We typically fly MHT to MCO also. However, with the SW changes, we may end up at Logan more often, We have always loved how easy MHT is. But SW used to offer more non-stop flights. Now it's one non-stop flight per day and the times are not always convenient. Ugh..I dislike the changes.

 

[kristenrice]

Can someone explain this? (or perhaps I did something wrong....)

Just to try it out, I did a "dummy" booking for a non-stop, round-trip flight from my local airport to see what type of cost I am looking at now that I will be utilizing the Choice Preferred fares. I need a seat near the front on an aisle, but not necessarily with the extra legroom, just something in front of the wings. When I selected the choice preferred fare, it gave me the option to upgrade to the Choice Extra fare for $50 one-way or $100 round-trip. I did not select the upgrades and continued with the "booking" which took me to the seat selection. Here, it offered me the option to select an "extra legroom" seat for $76-$81 each way! Isn't the "extra legroom" seat INCLUDED in the Choice Extra fare? Wouldn't it be a MUCH better option to upgrade the ticket to Choice Extra for $50-$100 and get all of the added benefits (expedited boarding, free drink, more points, etc) than to just upgrade the seat?? What am I missing??

 

[EACarlson]

Additional charge to add the extra legroom after the initial purchase. I've seen other airlines do this. There are times that the Main Cabin Extra is $20 than Main Cabin but buying the seat is $50 once you already have a ticket. It's also a brand new field for SW that they have no idea how to manage revenue on yet. It'll smooth out some in the next few months.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Can someone explain this? (or perhaps I did something wrong....)

Just to try it out, I did a "dummy" booking for a non-stop, round-trip flight from my local airport to see what type of cost I am looking at now that I will be utilizing the Choice Preferred fares. I need a seat near the front on an aisle, but not necessarily with the extra legroom, just something in front of the wings. When I selected the choice preferred fare, it gave me the option to upgrade to the Choice Extra fare for $50 one-way or $100 round-trip. I did not select the upgrades and continued with the "booking" which took me to the seat selection. Here, it offered me the option to select an "extra legroom" seat for $76-$81 each way! Isn't the "extra legroom" seat INCLUDED in the Choice Extra fare? Wouldn't it be a MUCH better option to upgrade the ticket to Choice Extra for $50-$100 and get all of the added benefits (expedited boarding, free drink, more points, etc) than to just upgrade the seat?? What am I missing??

Wow-am I glad you posted this! I recently booked Choice Extra (one way), on the first day of assigned seating. The only "perk" I really cared about was sitting near the front. But then I got to thinking about the fact that I was paying for perks I didn't really care about, so I considered going back and seeing about downgrading to Choice Preferred and just paying whatever extra to sit near the front. I THINK I saw that with Choice Extra, I also get free luggage (I could have read wrong on that, maybe wishful thinking), so I just decided to leave it as is-I got the seat I wanted and that was the important thing. You just made my day, thinking I really made the right choice.