Southwest boosted up their fares in just 15 minutes!

[BYC]

I was booking online, chose a price and flight, but when i went to finalize, I got the OOPs that everyone else was getting. When I finally got back on, the prices were WAY up! My total for the 3 flights came to about 70 dollars more than if I had gotten through before the site went down.

 

[sah95]

That is horrible. I still can't book due to the Oops error...

 

[Magalex]

I am glad this error is across the board. I guess I have to be patient. Looking for flight info from PIT-MCO for 11/13-11/20

 

[Rags]

I know what you mean. By the time I booked my flight (sunday after t-givng) the flight already went up $28.00!

 

[skiingfast]

Fares have to change at some time. But if you select a fare and fill out the forms and a different fare appears when you try to finalize the sale, SW is libel for defrauding customers. If this is what is happening I would first contact southwest and ask for the fare you first selected. If they can't , contact the better business bureau. Southwest should not be operating in a shady manner like this.

 

[msjprincess]

That doesn't necessarily mean they raised their fares. The cheaper ones may have sold out already.

 

[crashbb]

Fares have to change at some time. But if you select a fare and fill out the forms and a different fare appears when you try to finalize the sale, SW is libel for defrauding customers. If this is what is happening I would first contact southwest and ask for the fare you first selected. If they can't , contact the better business bureau. Southwest should not be operating in a shady manner like this.

Only if you could prove that the fares weren't available when you first started looking. It is entirely possible that the lower fares were purchased in the meantime.

 

[msvlg]

I was booking online, chose a price and flight, but when i went to finalize, I got the OOPs that everyone else was getting. When I finally got back on, the prices were WAY up! My total for the 3 flights came to about 70 dollars more than if I had gotten through before the site went down.

The same thing happened to me this morning. I booked our flights (before they go up anymore!) going to Orlando, but coming home the prices are crazy- I hope they go down.

 

[klc1923]

I am glad this error is across the board. I guess I have to be patient. Looking for flight info from PIT-MCO for 11/13-11/20

I also live in the Pgh area and it took me 20 minutes starting 11:05, and after several ooops errors, I finally got my confirmation for our tickets on Sunday Morning, thanksgiving weekend. The site seems to not be taking reservations for that time right now. While my prices were higher than I anticipated, they were much lower that anything else I'd seen.

 

[Handbag Lady]

Are they high or something?

Our return flight is going to be $300 each. Are you freaking kidding me? I'm not paying that.

Don't get me wrong, I am the poster child for loving Southwest, but to charge a round-trip price for one-way...no.

 

[DisneyFam09]

I got the Oops! message this morning as well AND the price changed!! Boo SW!

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Please don't follow this advice. It wastes everyone's time.

Fares have to change at some time. But if you select a fare and fill out the forms and a different fare appears when you try to finalize the sale, SW is libel for defrauding customers. If this is what is happening I would first contact southwest and ask for the fare you first selected. If they can't , contact the better business bureau. Southwest should not be operating in a shady manner like this.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Ugh - hate when that happens. We had that experience last year. It was right after they started collecting the additional info when you booked (middle name, birthdates) so it took me longer to fill out the form because I was double checking to make sure everyone matched their ID. Got the "oops" message and the fare went up about $30/pp. I felt sick.

 

[thewesterberg]

Ugh - hate when that happens. We had that experience last year. It was right after they started collecting the additional info when you booked (middle name, birthdates) so it took me longer to fill out the form because I was double checking to make sure everyone matched their ID. Got the "oops" message and the fare went up about $30/pp. I felt sick.

This is what happened to me today - I had to book for 7 of us and between typing in everyone's info and not remembering my BIL's birthdate (in my defense my sister's only been married 8 months!) it took me longer than anticipated. It came up that our return fare was no longer available. Grrrr... It went up about $20/person. Not too bad and still way cheaper than everywhere else (especially when you factor in the luggage).

When I selected the new fare, the oops message showed up. I was on the phone with my mom at this point and she got on her computer and was able to get in while I still couldn't. She purchased the tickets (at the $20 more/person) so now we're set in that department for the trip. If we would have been willing to fly home earlier in the day, we could have gotten the cheaper fare, but my Mom wanted us to all be able to enjoy our morning and ME will pick us about noon for our 3pm flight. (BTW - Thanks mom for the great Christmas present of airfare!!!! )

Our first time flying with Southwest... looking forward to experiencing flying with a new carrier.

 

[cccdisney]

Are they high or something?

Our return flight is going to be $300 each. Are you freaking kidding me? I'm not paying that.

Don't get me wrong, I am the poster child for loving Southwest, but to charge a round-trip price for one-way...no.

That's what our return flight is going for! We are willing to fly from Oakland, SFO, Sacramento or San Jose and they are all just outrageous!!

I really don't know what to do. I really would like to wait and hope Virgin America starts flying to Orlando before Nov 18th - but if they don't then I'll be in trouble!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I recall it saying somewhere in the booking process that prices aren't guaranteed until purchase is finalized. Prices are tiered so when the cheaper seats sell out, you get bumped up to the next tier. On an average day, it's not a problem but when there is high volume, like today, those same cheaper seats you're trying to buy get sold out quickly.

It's happened to me too.

 

[mmouse50]

I had an idea that Southwest flights were going to be high - traveling the Monday after Thanksgiving out of Houston but not 100.00 more than waiting until Tuesday, but I can't fly Tuesday - not enough time off. So I can fly Continental and even with the 35.00 bag charge it is still cheaper by 50.00 than flying Southwest. What happened to the being a low fare carrier?

 

[BlakeNJ]

Our flight to MCO from LGA was $144 total with taxes. I waited in hopes that SW would be around $99 on the return. No such luck! I think they were $249 on the date (Saturday after Thanksgiving) we wanted. I ended up booking Delta for $142. I am happy with that. I wanted to keep our flights under $300 R/T and that is what I did. I will say, this is the most I have paid for Thanksgiving week in 5 years! Last year I paid $245 r/t.

 

[RadioFanatic]

From Albany, NY, I was able to get $119 each way, flying down on Thanksgiving and flying back 12/6. It's about $200 less for the three of us to fly than what I'm paying to fly RT in August which really surprised me!