Please explain "Wanna Get Away" for Southwest Airlines

[knlasv]

What does "wanna get away" mean when it comes to SW Airlines? It is by far the cheapest of the 3 options given when choosing a flight.
Will I be sitting with the people I am traveling with?
Am I guaranteed a seat?
I know it is nonrefundable, but what else? I don't mind boarding last as long as I have an assigned seat with family.

Never flown with SW before, but have heard good things.
Thanks!

 

[totallytigger]

What does "wanna get away" mean when it comes to SW Airlines? It is by far the cheapest of the 3 options given when choosing a flight.
Will I be sitting with the people I am traveling with?
Am I guaranteed a seat?
I know it is nonrefundable, but what else? I don't mind boarding last as long as I have an assigned seat with family.

Never flown with SW before, but have heard good things.
Thanks!

There are no assigned seats on southwest. You are assigned a place in a boarding group--A B or C--and you just pick your seat when you get on plane. If it's important for your group to sit together, I would pay for early bird check in. That way SW will automatically check you in and you'll have a great place in line. As far as the wanna get away fares--they are just a basic fare--you still get 2 bags free, and you can change your plans, but no refunds.

 

[goofy4tink]

No booking category insures a specific seat.
The more expensive fares are refundable, if you cancel your trip, your money goes back to your cc. Wanna-get-away fares allow you to change flights and get a credit, toward a future flight.
The best way to get seated with your group is to pay for EBCI. That allows those who have paid for EBCI to get better boarding slots than those who didn't pay for it.
You might want to check out the SW site to see how they board, with an explanation of EBCI.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I would def. check out the Southwest website. They have a pretty good FAQs section. Personally it would be hard to piece together everything from just comments from people here.

You probably need to consider all factors with Southwest before commiting to flying them. It can be quite a change for people used to assigned seating to get used to the way Southwest does things.

Will I be sitting with the people I am traveling with? Depends on your Boarding position, how many people you are traveling with and their ages (i.e. for family boarding), seating configuration of the plane, etc.
Am I guaranteed a seat? Technically Southwest can overbook the plane. That hasn't happened to me though.
I don't mind boarding last as long as I have an assigned seat with family. As others have mentioned there is no assigned seating with Southwest. Instead they using boarding positions.

 

[Minniekins]

There are no assigned seats on southwest. You are assigned a place in a boarding group--A B or C--and you just pick your seat when you get on plane. If it's important for your group to sit together, I would pay for early bird check in. That way SW will automatically check you in and you'll have a great place in line. As far as the wanna get away fares--they are just a basic fare--you still get 2 bags free, and you can change your plans, but no refunds.

Now what about when you book with points? I book with points, but haven't had occasion to cancel only change fights within the day. So, can you cancel a wanna get away flight? Like when you change a flight and get a return of points, you just keep them for future use. So if you cancelled a trip with points, wouldn't you just get the points returned and not be obligated anymore or does it work differently than that?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Yes, if you cancel a flight booked with points, you get the points refunded.

If you have any questions about your airline's policies, the answers are right on the airline's web site.

 

[kamik86]

What does "wanna get away" mean when it comes to SW Airlines? It is by far the cheapest of the 3 options given when choosing a flight.
Will I be sitting with the people I am traveling with?
Am I guaranteed a seat?
I know it is nonrefundable, but what else? I don't mind boarding last as long as I have an assigned seat with family.

Never flown with SW before, but have heard good things.
Thanks!

If you want an assigned seat don't fly SW. They don't assign seats at all as others have said.

Personally I dont' mind this at all but I have only ever flown with adults and although DH is a bit of a nervous flyer no one would have much of an issue if we weren't together.

The main difference between wanna get away and the other fares come in making changes, espeically last minute ones. With wanna get away fares you just get a credit and it has to be used within a year of when you BOOKED the flight. which can be pretty soon after your change.

If your not changing somethign about the flight the middle tier of fares and wanna get away feel exactly the same (I travel last minute for business and have used both). Business class fares get the really early boarding positions (before even the frequent fliers) so they get the best choice of seats and a free drink. There are no classes of seats on SW either.

The biggest risk to the seating on SW is if you arrive late into boarding. The only time I have ever gotten stuck with a middle seat was due to my plane being late in for my connection and although they held the plane for 10 min for us and our luggage to make the flight everyone had already boarded.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The biggest risk to the seating on SW is if you arrive late into boarding. The only time I have ever gotten stuck with a middle seat was due to my plane being late in for my connection and although they held the plane for 10 min for us and our luggage to make the flight everyone had already boarded.

That is def. true for connections but you can get the middle seats for just normal everyday but nearly or completely full flights just depending on your boarding position, how many pre-boarders, how many family boarders, how many people are saving seats and how many seats they are saving and how many A-Listers there are on your flight, etc

 

[Minniekins]

Yes, if you cancel a flight booked with points, you get the points refunded.

If you have any questions about your airline's policies, the answers are right on the airline's web site.

Great, thank you for responding! I was pretty sure that was correct, but suddenly reading the thread, I questioned if what I thought I knew was correct, lol.