How do you know if flight is full?

[Shannon G]

In the past I have seen posts on the boards about people checking to see if their flight was full. How do you find this out? Is there any way to find out how full a flight on Southwest is? The specifics are: we will be flying on Southwest from Hartford to Orlando, next Tuesday night, Spet. 23rd, at 7:55 p.m. We are returning on Sun. Sept. 28th on the 8:20 am flight from Orlando to Hartford.

Thanks!

 

[nasmith]

You could call them and ask- or try to make a ressie online -if no tickets are available- then they are full(Ie. Ck. PVD -MCO on Nov. 8 - -- all the morning flights are sold out). September has been really slow- we flew 2 weeks ago, and neither of the flights were half full.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

You can call SWA and ask. They will not give you a specific number of pax, but, they will tell you if there is availability or not.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by nasmith
You could call them and ask- or try to make a ressie online -if no tickets are available- then they are full(Ie. Ck. PVD -MCO on Nov. 8 - -- all the morning flights are sold out). September has been really slow- we flew 2 weeks ago, and neither of the flights were half full.

There is one available on that date, full fare and with stops.

 

[adamak]

http://www.cs.haifa.ac.il/~shuly/flight.html
It's in foreign language, but you can see the map. However sometimes it just doesn't work as well.

 

[erikthewise]

If you attempt to buy a ticket online (just faking) for one person and you can't, it's likely because the flight is full. Also on Delta at least you can view the seating chart, and see that there are no available seats (in coach anyway).

 

[alexturner74]

One misconception many people have is that if they can't find a flight using a search engine or on the airlines website, then it must be full. As vacation travelers, people usually search months in advance, and flights just don't get full that far out (unless there is a major change in schedule and people are shuffled to the remaining flights). If the flight hasn't been removed from the schedule, then it's likely the result of the search inputs.

Most all flight searches automatically look for lowest possible fares. For instance, there may be 3 flights all at the same price, and a 4th $20 more (at a more convienent time), and it may not show up. Usually, you'll need to search using a specific time range to find the flight. If you still can't find it, call the airline directly and ask them if you can get a quote or make a reservation for that flight. They'll let you know what's going on.

 

[DMRick]

I think the best way is to call and ask. We thought our flights were both full, since it showed no more tickets on line (I hoped to change our return...heck there were so few people, we could have each had our own row of seats, coming and going (we got back tonight on SW)

 

[Shannon G]

Thanks for all the replies. It's really no big deal, I was just curious as to how full our flight is since we are flying Southwest, and so we don't have assigned seats. I am one of those people who always get to the airport at least two hours in advance, and I don't think we're flying at the most popular times (flying in to MCO late and out early), so I don't think we'll have a problem getting seats together anyway (it's only DH and I).

 

[erikthewise]

alexturner74,

You make a good point. I was thinking of attempting to book through the airline's own web site rather than through a search engine such as orbitz or travelocity. If their own web site won't sell you a ticket, there is a good chance there is none available in the fare category you asked for. But if you're seriously interested, it always makes sense to call and make sure as web sites often are not completely up-to-date.