Question about Southwest flights. What is unavailable?

[DisneyFansInLINY]

I wanted to book a wanna get away fare for 8:00am with points but by the time I got the points, the fare was marked unavailable for the wanna get away price. I had to book a later flight but really want to switch. Other flghts are marked sold out so I know they are gone. But with unavailable, does that mean just for now and that I should keep checking because they will become available again? Thank you.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

It means sold out. Unlikely it will become available again, but it doesn't hurt to keep checking.

 

[mdsoccermom]

It means that rate is no longer available for booking. Only a certain number of seats on each flight are available at that rate and when they're gone, they're gone.

 

[Marionnette]

I wanted to book a wanna get away fare for 8:00am with points but by the time I got the points, the fare was marked unavailable for the wanna get away price. I had to book a later flight but really want to switch. Other flghts are marked sold out so I know they are gone. But with unavailable, does that mean just for now and that I should keep checking because they will become available again? Thank you.

According to members of Flyertalk, unavailable can mean that the criteria for advance purchase for your date has not been met for that flight (IOW, you're too late to purchase that flight as a WGA fare). It can also mean that someone else has those seats in their checkout queue but has not purchased them yet. Or it can mean that all of the WGA fares have been sold but that SWA may convert some of their higher fares to WGA seats as your date nears in order to sell the flight out.

Soldout means that there are no seats (any sale category) available for sale on that flight at the time that you are doing your search.

You can always continue checking to see if that flight opens up. If someone cancels, you can grab the seat. But the more people you're trying to get seats for, the less your chances of having someone with the same number of seats to cancel can be.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

According to members of Flyertalk, unavailable can mean that the criteria for advance purchase for your date has not been met for that flight (IOW, you're too late to purchase that flight as a WGA fare). It can also mean that someone else has those seats in their checkout queue but has not purchased them yet. Or it can mean that all of the WGA fares have been sold but that SWA may convert some of their higher fares to WGA seats as your date nears in order to sell the flight out.

Soldout means that there are no seats (any sale category) available for sale on that flight at the time that you are doing your search.

You can always continue checking to see if that flight opens up. If someone cancels, you can grab the seat. But the more people you're trying to get seats for, the less your chances of having someone with the same number of seats to cancel can be.

Thank you so much! That was extremely informative. And you gave me some hope

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

Just wanted to say that my unavailable flights became available today! And I got the flig I wanted for the price points I wanted to pay. My original flight is actually lower now but I would have to call and rebook my original flight then have them book the new flight because I have the companion pass. I felt it was wrong to be such a hassle to the agent to save 4,580 points. I am just so happy to have gotten an earlier flight without having to pay a ridiculous amount of points for it. Plus I think that I would wind up having to the flight fees and early board fees again and it just isn't worth it.

 

[ValpoCory]

My original flight is actually lower now but I would have to call and rebook my original flight then have them book the new flight because I have the companion pass. I felt it was wrong to be such a hassle to the agent to save 4,580 points.

That's $76.33 worth of points. Are you sure you don't want to call back and talk to a fresh unhassled new agent and get those points back? I would.