Question About SWA Online Booking

[wee-haggis]

When the latest round of dates were announced, the Internet Special rate was immediately Unavailable (minutes after the new set of dates were announced last week). Surely this doesn't mean that the fares were booked right away ...(within these few minutes?)...or does it mean that they were never available but might pop up later?

 

[DebbieB]

I had that happen for one of my trips. They did become available later.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

It was like that with multiple airports in my area. As the day went on, all the funfares and others became sold out as well. I was thinking perhaps many people were just buying any ticket and hoping for Dings down the road.

 

[magicmommy]

Same here. I booked at 11am that day. I was able to get a great fare down to WDW for 4 of us but the return trip alone was 4X more!

 

[Lewisc]

SW is doing a good job, from their prospective, of limiting the number of discounted seats on flights that will sell without the need for deep discounts. DING gives SW to "fine tune" their yield management by offering DING fares closer to the flight if bookings are lighter than anticipated.

It's possible the number of seats was zero or that other passengers booked those seats before you.

My experience is the more fare categories that show as "unavailable" the less likely SW is to offer any further discounted fares on that flight. I'm sure many posters will post experiences to the contrary. There are always exceptions.

 

[NotUrsula]

There was a reported software glitch that day that made it impossible to purchase certain fares that were supposed to have been available. They fixed it later in the day.

 

[wee-haggis]

There was a reported software glitch that day that made it impossible to purchase certain fares that were supposed to have been available. They fixed it later in the day.

I called them about this glitch and they said that it only applied to a few destinations and not the one I was looking at.
I still wonder why they would post an Internet Special box if they have no intention of selling these rates from the get go .?

 

[salmoneous]

I was looking at a flight to Vegas for late March. I checked SW's website less than an hour after fares were posted. There were cheap seats for the flight out, but the flight out had nothing available in any of the 3 cheapest categories. I don't they offered seats and they sold out - they just never offered any.

 

[runwad]

I have a question when you book on SW and then a cheaper rate becomes available how do you get that applied to your existing reservation? Can the difference be credited to your cc or do you get some kind of a travel voucher? Thanks

 

[Lewisc]

still wonder why they would post an Internet Special box if they have no intention of selling these rates from the get go .?

SW shows the same fare boxes for all flights. It is easier to just show a fare category as unavailable rather than having to blank out the field and move everything over, particularly when some flights during the day may have that fare category available. It also makes it a lot easier to read the screen.

Unavailable can mean that fare cateogry is sold out or it could mean that fare category was never available. The difference is academic, the question is what fare is available for you to book now not what fare could you have gotten in the past.

 

[CPer'sMom]

Just keep checking ~~ Four of us are flying back from Orlando to BWI the day after Christmas. When *good* fares were first posted for that date I was able to get 2 of the least expensive. Had to book the other two at a substantially higher fare. I would check SW most every day to see what would come up ~ Two weeks ago I was able to get 1 of the other fares down to the best price; only one seat was available at that price. BUT, the next day one more seat was available so now all four of our fares are the *best* ones and I have a great SW credit for future flights

When I found the 1 seat I did have to call SW and the CS agent separated the reservation for me so that I was able to just get that one seat and then keep checking for the other. Very easy to do and certainly worth it for the price difference.

 

[jjarman]

I say keep checking too. Last week when the March fares opened up I booked 2 tickets for us at $210 each round trip. Then I found out I may not get to make the trip so I got a refund (within 24 hours). I kept an eye on it all week just in case the trip became definite. The prices kept going up and up. Tonight it is looking more definite so I checked again. Tickets were back down to $221 each round trip. Go figure.