Post all SW questions concerns, etc. here...

[eticketplease]

I went ahead and booked at the crazy high rates this morning - I'll be looking forward to getting some of that back if prices come down a bit. Those hurt a little this morning

Hopefully they do come down but when I just checked our flight had gone up $163 on the flight down to MCO and there are no wanna get aways left either.

 

[teawar]

As an A-lister, I made a rookie mistake booking for our spring break Disney cruise from Galveston to San Juan. First I booked the Houston flight at $192 and then I looked for the return flight from San Juan second. That flight was $664! All of the Wanna getaway fares were already gone. I’m hoping something will open up later or prices will adjust. Luckily we have points and a companion pass.

 

[ironz]

As an A-lister, I made a rookie mistake booking for our spring break Disney cruise from Galveston to San Juan. First I booked the Houston flight at $192 and then I looked for the return flight from San Juan second. That flight was $664! All of the Wanna getaway fares were already gone. I’m hoping something will open up later or prices will adjust. Luckily we have points and a companion pass.

SW is not always inexpensive coming from San Juan. We have a trip planned to SJU and ended up choosing AA for better flights. But that doesn't help if you are using the SW companion pass.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

As an A-lister, I made a rookie mistake booking for our spring break Disney cruise from Galveston to San Juan. First I booked the Houston flight at $192 and then I looked for the return flight from San Juan second. That flight was $664! All of the Wanna getaway fares were already gone. I’m hoping something will open up later or prices will adjust. Luckily we have points and a companion pass.

Island airfare is typically expensive in general but it also depends on where you're flying out of too and most especially if you're doing spring break where those destinations are of high desirability. We flew down to San Juan from KC going through Orlando (staying over night due to too tight of a connection for my liking) and did the reverse (outside of staying overnight on the way home) and it wasn't too too bad but it was end of January-early February of last year so more like a winter getaway but well before Spring Break.

I wouldn't say a rookie mistake either. I actually don't think all the WGA and WGA+ fares are gone, it could be just like what they have done for Thanksgiving time period and blocked the initial sale of them. It's the same if I look from my home airport for about 4 or 5 days from March 6th to San Juan. When you're looking may be prime time to fly down there.

 

[focusondisney]

That flight was $664! All of the Wanna getaway fares were already gone.

I agree with @Mackenzie Click-Mickelson, there were probably no WGA fares released this morning. It’s something SW has done many times over the last 7 - 8 years. There have been many posts about it. Eventually all flights had WGA fares released. You have to just keep checking frequently. Sometimes they’ll be released in a few days, sometimes a few weeks.

 

[georgina]

I would gladly take the $149 we had to pay $305 down but SW is one of only ways we can fly direct and I would rather take that hit then have to deal with a layover.

Yeah, we are lucky that many airlines fly from here. I just got a Jet Blue credit card that will give me 80,000 points so I may be using them also. My SW flights in Sept are $37 each way, in December using points the equivalent of $59.

DH is flying to Cabo San Lucas the same time, his flight there was reasonable, but home was 3 times as much (no wanna get away or WGA+ listed at all) so he will go with American also for the flight home.

 

[nlenguyen]

Island airfare is typically expensive in general but it also depends on where you're flying out of too and most especially if you're doing spring break where those destinations are of high desirability. We flew down to San Juan from KC going through Orlando (staying over night due to too tight of a connection for my liking) and did the reverse (outside of staying overnight on the way home) and it wasn't too too bad but it was end of January-early February of last year so more like a winter getaway but well before Spring Break.

I wouldn't say a rookie mistake either. I actually don't think all the WGA and WGA+ fares are gone, it could be just like what they have done for Thanksgiving time period and blocked the initial sale of them. It's the same if I look from my home airport for about 4 or 5 days from March 6th to San Juan. When you're looking may be prime time to fly down there.

I am noticing a lot of the WGA are unavailable. Maybe it is a part of a new strategy to see if people will get to pay those higher prices. Also I believe in February is when they are starting the redeye flights and possibly charging for seats so this could be a possible reason for the lack of availability

 

[teawar]

I am noticing a lot of the WGA are unavailable. Maybe it is a part of a new strategy to see if people will get to pay those higher prices. Also I believe in February is when they are starting the redeye flights and possibly charging for seats so this could be a possible reason for the lack of availability

I paid the higher fare to be sure I had a seat on the flight I was content with, but I will definitely cancel it if something better comes along. I agree with you that I feel that something is in the works.

 

[focusondisney]

I am noticing a lot of the WGA are unavailable. Maybe it is a part of a new strategy to see if people will get to pay those higher prices. Also I believe in February is when they are starting the redeye flights and possibly charging for seats so this could be a possible reason for the lack of availability

It’s really not new. They’ve been doing it for years, since at least 2018 that I noticed it. Not on every route, so maybe you weren’t affected before.

 

[EACarlson]

Also I believe in February is when they are starting the redeye flights and possibly charging for seats so this could be a possible reason for the lack of availability

Almost no chance that assigned seats begins until after this schedule extension has run it's course. It would be a logistical nightmare to try to get that done with people that have already purchased tickets. My guess is that we find out more about it before the next schedule extension and it begins April 8, or the extension after that.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Almost no chance that assigned seats begins until after this schedule extension has run it's course. It would be a logistical nightmare to try to get that done with people that have already purchased tickets. My guess is that we find out more about it before the next schedule extension and it begins April 8, or the extension after that.

For sure. There's no way they're going to half self a flight with old-style boarding group language in the terms and then convert that flight to assigned seeing months later.

 

[keishashadow]

This am while traveling, SWA FA told me she had a meeting yesterday

First 8 rows (46 seats) will be dedicated to seat purchase

Accessible pre boards will still board first but, be directed to back of plane...last to disembark

 

[focusondisney]

Accessible pre boards will still board first but, be directed to back of plane...last to disembark

Well that doesn’t make any sense. They’re gonna make people who have physical limitations go to the back of the plane?? And be the furthest away from emergency exits?? Only 46 seats available for purchase, when the CEO said the majority of their customers surveyed want prebooked seating? Sounds like info we’d get from a bus driver. I’ll wait for the official information to be released.

 

[LoveToDisney]

I wish SWA would announce the full plans rather than leave us guessing

 

[JoJoGirl]

Well that doesn’t make any sense. They’re gonna make people who have physical limitations go to the back of the plane?? And be the furthest away from emergency exits??

Yeah, that was my first thought. And it especially doesn’t make sense from a boarding/deboarding time standpoint.

My son, who has limited ambulation, takes long enough to get into one of the front rows with all his gear. Navigating him all the way down the aisle with all of his stuff would take forever in airline boarding time. Plus it would be really difficult for us.

We always get off last anyway, because we have to wait for his chair to be brought up. So no biggie there. But having to get him and all his stuff back up to the front again would extend deboarding by a couple of minutes too.

Total extra time it would take for us to do this would probably be about five minutes combined - more if we resort to using the aisle chair. Doesn’t seem like much, but SW relies on getting planes in and out of the gate as quickly as possible. This could be troublesome for them.

 

[nlenguyen]

Well that doesn’t make any sense. They’re gonna make people who have physical limitations go to the back of the plane?? And be the furthest away from emergency exits?? Only 46 seats available for purchase, when the CEO said the majority of their customers surveyed want prebooked seating? Sounds like info we’d get from a bus driver. I’ll wait for the official information to be released.

There are a couple issues that I have seen. When we fly from PHX to MCO, and I am sure there are more routes where this happens, but there are at least 10-15 wheelchairs getting onto the plane, but only a couple of them actually stay when the plane lands. Most of them get up just perfectly fine once we arrive at the destination. I think that assigned seating has proven to take longer than the opening seating anyways. I do not think there is a perfect science for these situations and there will be a lot of difficult flights when it first starts

 

[EACarlson]

This am while traveling, SWA FA told me she had a meeting yesterday

First 8 rows (46 seats) will be dedicated to seat purchase

Accessible pre boards will still board first but, be directed to back of plane...last to disembark

There was a post on FlyerTalk about this and this scenario was discussed to be in violation of the Air Carrier Access Act. If the first 8 rows are available for purchase, then the preboards are in row 9 and legally nothing you can do to stop them if it's all an open seating area. Personal belief, the entire plane will be assigned seating, there won't be both an assigned area and open area. We'll find out more next month.

 

[focusondisney]

Personal belief, the entire plane will be assigned seating, there won't be both an assigned area and open area. We'll find out more next month.

I agree. Nothing in the announcements so far has indicated otherwise.

 

[jenmsmith]

I agree. Nothing in the announcements so far has indicated otherwise.

Yes, a friend of mine is a long time FA with SWA and she confirmed all seats will be assigned (available for purchase and assigned are two separate things.) She is thrilled with the change as she said FA who encounter guests with poor behavior have not had a way to identify them. Now, they can see that Mr. Smith is sitting in this seat and gently remind them they know who he is.

 

[georgina]

Isn't there an emergency exit in the back of the plane? At least on the types SW flies?