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

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Definitely interested to hear everyone's reports of how the 48 hour upgrades are working. Obviously we're not all flying this week, but this thread could be a good resource to get a sense of how competitive they are.

My family of 5 has two CPs among us, so we'd have to make changes on 3 confirm numbers to get our upgraded seats. If they're being claimed in a matter of seconds, then that just won't work for us.

I played around with a test flight this morning that was 7 minutes past 48 hours and there were still plenty of extra legroom seats. But, I also noticed that the connecting flight was still showing me having to pay to upgrade. So, the 48 hour upgrades will be per leg of the trip, like upgrading to A1-15 used to be. They will NOT function like EBCI / 24 hour check in, where you're looking at the time of the first leg of the flight and then checked in for both legs. Definitely an annoyance if you're on vacation and have to stop your fun twice to upgrade/select seats for both legs of your flight.

 

[katallo]

I’ll be waiting to see reviews for the new seating regimen. I checked another forum and so far January’s reviews are awful for SW. I received 2 emails today one for a $49 sale and one for a $59 sale. Of course, April flights from BWI to MCO are outrageously expensive (237-599)

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think the only advantage that business or solo (or people who don't care about being split up) in the new SWA rules have is that if there's only one seat upgrade (either from Standard to Preferred or up to Extra Legroom) available in a row it opens up that option at the 48 hour mark whereas those who have more than one in their party and don't want to split up may run into issues. Of course the middle seat would be the least desirable so someone may not take that option if say a window and an aisle are already taken but just thinking out loud here.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’ll be waiting to see reviews for the new seating regimen. I checked another forum and so far January’s reviews are awful for SW. I received 2 emails today one for a $49 sale and one for a $59 sale. Of course, April flights from BWI to MCO are outrageously expensive (237-599)

I always keep in mind what fare class someone is talking about. I'm not meaning that SWA isn't expensive these days because we've all seen the pricing be nutty in the last several years but that without knowing the fare class it's not as big picture.

I normally won't talk about Basic but that will be what SWA is selling more than likely at those sale prices. That was what they would do back when it was called WGA.

 

[SkyGuy]

My husband flew today the last day with open seating. Tomorrow he flies back home the first day with assigned seating.

I'm not entirely certain timing of when you buy a ticket interacts but this is so new so I only can guess. Husband purchased his ticket before his coworker.

For easy format

Husband's ticket
Fare: Choice
Status: A-List Preferred
Seat Type: Extra Legroom (selected at booking)
Location (window, middle, aisle): Aisle
Boarding Group: 2

Husband's Coworker's ticket
Fare: Choice
Status: A-List
Seat Type: Upgraded at 48 hours for free to Extra Legroom
Location (window, middle, aisle): Window
Boarding Group: 1

Using the above information we were thinking it's the window seat location potentially giving the higher boarding group, have no idea again either if there's a cap on the amount of people per group.

Thanks for this. I fly on the 28th and will be looking for experiences from today! I have a window seat, so I’ll try to remember to report what group I get (I’m also A-List with extra legroom).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

General talk here for a moment--If you go into the low fare calendar you can choose to what ticket you want to search for and see the lowest price of that particular fare class. Searching for the Lowest Fare like we used to do more often than not it's just going to show Basic fares, you'd have to know that Basic fares weren't available for that day/flight to get that Lowest Fare to mean something other than Basic fare.

This is an example of when searching Lowest Fare nets you higher fares (I believe most were Choice) instead of Basic for specific days only:
A random Salt Lake City location was chosen to/from my home airport for a random day with Lowest Fare chosen as the search option


If I select Basic instead notice how some dates now show Unavailable either meaning all Basic tickets have been sold for those flight option or they aren't offering that. But also notice how none of the pricing actually changed because the Lowest Fare was reflecting in this exact scenario only Basic Fares since that was the lowest fare option for those days.


So just be careful how you search and how you look at it. I know many of us use the Low Fare Calendar and many probably have already been working with this but for the sake of not feeling like a misleading pricing situation that's why I mentioned this.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thanks for this. I fly on the 28th and will be looking for experiences from today! I have a window seat, so I’ll try to remember to report what group I get (I’m also A-List with extra legroom).

That would be lovely!

If you wouldn't mind and you remember can you also glance around at the overhead bin space when you board/as boarding happens. I'm just interested to see if we find a pattern over time of bin space availability.

 

[katallo]

Thanks. I have been pricing choice fares.

 

[leebee]

I've been reading the new seating documentation on SW's website this morning. There are 30 footnotes; this ought to go well.

 

[AuroraluvsPhillip]

I'd also be interested in seeing how they handle the gate checking of carry ons with the new system. Will they be using the sizer? Will everyone past a certain # boarding group get gate checked or will they still be yelling for volunteers until the last minute.