More SOUTHWEST questions about fares

[poohraedopey]

My parents had tickets the were to use to fly to minnesota in Sept. Well with the 11th their trip got cancelled. SO my mom said for Christmas she would transfer them to our names and get our tix to orlando. We are going over the school break in feb. EVen getting a flight was of course a nightmare. But they would not apply any sort of discount for her whatsoever. SHe ended up paying over 700 for 2 round trip tickets. To me thats insane. I know people flying them with familys of 4 round trip under 400$.

What I want to know is what kind of discounts does SW usually offerand will they honor them after you have paid full fare? OR is she pretty much just screwed and way over charged for ticekts that should have been much less?
I should probablya dd that to even gte us there that week she had to add one day to our trip and the lady on the phone said they were the LAST 2 tickets for one of the flights.

 

[Pluto4President]

Well I can tell you that if you're traveling at a peak time and didn't book early, you will probably pay full fare. Which in ISP is 166 each way. The best I have ever gotten for my family of 4 is $480 r/t. That was during a sale and not at a peak travel time.

 

[Jenn]

We fly SW all the time and I have hit years where the prices are ridiculous and others where we luck out and snag great prices. February vacation of course is peak travel time. Last year we flew in mid-March (not spring break in our area but in alot of areas it is) and we paid through the nose - $280 per person.

We booked for this coming March in late October and got $109 per person - I still can't believe it.

The only thing you can do is check the fares every week and see if any sales pop up - then call SW and see if they will give you a credit. It may be tough though given that you are paying for these tickets with a credit that is already outstanding - you may be stuck with the fare that you got.

Will SW just rebate your Mom's money and then you could book your own tickets at whatever fare you find? Of course - with only 2 months notice you may not do much better.

 

[skeezixspud]

Southwest, just like all of the other airlines, generally will not transfer the value of an unused ticket to another person without levying a change fee: it is usually between $75-$100 per ticket. They are actually better than most other airlines about letting a passenger apply the value of the ticket to a later trip without penalty, but a transfer is something else again.

They changed from an unpopular destination in low season to a resort destination in high season; it was bound to be much more expensive. If they got by without a change fee, they should count themselves lucky.