PLEASE help: booking each way vs. booking round trip?

[Luv2Travel]

I'm going to book a flight on SWA for a family of 5. The non-stop flight going to MCO only has the refundable fare of $125 available. The return flight has the "fun fare" of $79 available. I'm thinking about booking each leg seperately so that if a Ding happens to come out for either way, then I can just cancel the one leg and rebook without worrying about messing up the other leg. Does this sound like a good idea? Are there advantages or disadvantages to booking each leg seperately instead of roundtrip? Thanks for any advice - I'm a rookie with flying and need loads of help!

 

[mareed]

I book one-ways for this reason for almost all of my Southwest flights. I've heard that there's an increased chance of getting selected for extra security checks if you book one-way, but we've never had this happen, and we travel an average of 3 times a year.

 

[MrsMud]

All of SWs flights are one way. If you mean you are thinking of putting the depart and return trips on separate ressies, there is really no reason to do that. If and when you want to change one of the flights, you are able to do that seperately, it will not mess up the other flight.

edited to add: In the past, it may have been that you could not change one leg independently from the other, but there is a new system now for changes online (not sure how long it has been in effect), and it will not be a problem. I did it myself just a few days ago. Flight down remained the same, but the return flight dropped by $20. I went in and changed the return trip to the new fare, I could also have changed it to a completely different flight if I wanted to. You might take a look at my explanation here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9765874#post9765874

 

[Luv2Travel]

Thanks for the help.

 

[cranbiz]

I do that quite frequently. Often Southwast will not have a low fare available on one leg of my trips and I'll use Song or JetBlue on the expensive leg.

There is a possibility of extra screening, but because all of those airlines sell one way fares, a one way ticket is not unusual.

I allow extra time at the airport "just in case" but have never been subjected to the additional screening.

 

[mareed]

All of SWs flights are one way. If you mean you are thinking of putting the depart and return trips on separate ressies, there is really no reason to do that. If and when you want to change one of the flights, you are able to do that seperately, it will not mess up the other flight.
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I believe if you wanted the option to rebook if a Ding rate was lower, but the lower Ding rate was available for only one leg of the flight, you would need to have booked the original ticket as two one-ways. You'd then cancel one of the one-way tickets and rebook it on Ding. If you'd booked round-trip under one confirmation # and only one way was available on Ding, you'd be stuck. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I just did this for a Jan flight to LAX and would like to learn if there was a different way to go about it.

 

[MrsMud]

I really don't know about DING, as I don't have it. I would think it would work the same way, but I may be wrong. Perhaps someone else can help with that one.
Sorry if I gave the wrong information.

 

[Luv2Travel]

Just to clarify - I did just go through this for tickets that I had booked for October. I booked round-trip tickets at that time and, of course, a Ding came out for one leg of my trip, but not the other leg. I was able to make the changes online, but I had to totally cancel my round-trip and rebook through the Ding. I was terribly worried that I would mess things up and not be able to get the other leg of the trip. Things worked out fine, but I thought booking one-way tickets might be easier this time. I called SW about it the first time when I wanted to change one leg and I was told that currently you must rebook the whole trip - you can not change just one leg with a Ding if you have booked round-trip. The good news is that I was also told they were working on their system and we should be able to just change one leg of a round-trip ticket with a Ding in the near future. Just wanted to be sure booking one way tickets wouldn't be too much of a hassle. Thanks again for the info.

 

[WDWorBUST]

I will be doing one way segments from now on with Southwest. I had booked 9/24-10/2. Well I got dinged for the second segment but not the first - however I had to cancel my entire reservation to book the ding fare and then rebook the first leg and lost the flight I really wanted at the discounted fare and had to change flights to get it. It is working out....but I really would have preferred to stay on the first flight I chose. Of course I have a much bigger travel credit now because I wouldn't take the chance of cancelling before I had the ding fare booked. Which was okay because I already had a small credit - but it wasn't enough to do much with - but it would have been nice to just change that one leg instead of messing with and worrying about the whole thing.

 

[mareed]

I will be doing one way segments from now on with Southwest. Of course I have a much bigger travel credit now because I wouldn't take the chance of cancelling before I had the ding fare booked.

I always open 2 SW sessions, and bring up the window where I'm purchasing tickets right up to the point where you enter traveler's names and payment info. I then cancel the reservation on the other window, and I'm able to immediately use the cancelled conf# funds for payment on the first window. Hope that makes sense. I also always book one-ways and will continue to do so until they make Ding flexible enough to only change one leg of an existing round-trip flight.

I was just glad when you could check in online for multiple people on the same reservation#. I used to book everyone separately so we could check in online.

 

[WDWorBUST]

It makes perfect sense....and I actually did that. But then I was too paranoid to execute it that way because I was so afraid I'd lose the good fare. I admit it - I'm a little paranoid about that. (I worked at a car reservation center too long and have seen first hand how quickly a rate can change.)