Southwest Experts Help!

[Cmbar]

I have a family of five booked on one reservation for Roundtrip with 79.00 each way. I normally would have booked them one way, but SW decided they would only offer what used to be the regular rate of 79.00 if you book a roundtrip. So I couldn't book separately each side of the trip. Now I want to switch the reservation to one flight earlier. Yesterday I could do that for $145.00 because they still had the 79.00 flight promo up there. Went through the "change reservation" and it was good. But needed to confirm with family if they wanted to take earlier flight for a little more money. So I didn't book!

This morning I go to book and they have taken away the promo fare and given us a new lower $71.00 internet fare (big deal) and now when I try to change one side of my flight they say, nope you can't do that since you no longer have a R/T promo fare available. Have to change BOTH sides of the flight now and of course, both side went up to 108.00 each. So now it is costing me 290.00 to switch the one flight.

OK so here is my question. If I cancel the WHOLE reservation that will open up five seats on each plane. Does anyone know if since we dropped a "r/t promo fare" this will now open up the new "promo" fare for five seats or am I pretty much out of luck. Is there a way someone at SW can see if we cancel our seats if this will allow me to book at the new promo fare. I know slim chance, but wondering is anyone has done this. OR has anyone only changed one side of a R/T ticket that required R/T to get the lower price.


SW is not on my good list right now. Add this mess to the possible seating change and they denied my parents a refund of money that was for a SAME FLight Ding fare. Of course I told my parents to write that letter sooner. They waited until the dreaded changes came out a few weeks ago.

Sorry just ranting!

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't believe you can change one side only of a round trip ticket. You have to cancel the entire trip to rebook. That's why I book one way fares. But you can call them and ask.

Pretty clever of them offering the lower fares on round trips to start with.

 

[Rpsemont]

OK so here is my question. If I cancel the WHOLE reservation that will open up five seats on each plane. Does anyone know if since we dropped a "r/t promo fare" this will now open up the new "promo" fare for five seats or am I pretty much out of luck. Is there a way someone at SW can see if we cancel our seats if this will allow me to book at the new promo fare. I know slim chance, but wondering is anyone has done this. OR has anyone only changed one side of a R/T ticket that required R/T to get the lower price.

I don't think you can count on cancelling the promo fare resulting in opening up of new promo fare rates where they show as unavailable.

I had a similar thing happen a couple years ago. I booked Thurs to Tues Columbus day weekend. To get the $79 fare, I had to book RT. An IOW fare came out for the Tues return. When I tried to change the ticket, the Thursday outbound lowest fare available was now $120. It told me I had to change both (or reselect both) to change the ticket. This meant to save $30it would have cost me $41. Since then, I always book OW (I don't even look at RT fares) You may hear people say this doesn't happen, but on very rare occasions it does. Your only hope is to watch the fares and if theres ever a day that you can completely rebook the itinerary for less money, then open one browser window and go through the whole process until you have to pay, open another browse window and cancel, then return to the first and try and use the funds...wish for pixie dust and keep your fingers crossed

OR Forget about cash flow issues, book a lower fare if its available, pay for it and then cancel your first one. Immediately start planning you NEXT trip to WDW to use up those travel funds

On a possibly hopeful side, I did have a time when I could only book 2 of 3 people at the low IOW fare. SO I booked two at the low fare and the third at a higher fare. About 5 weeks before departure, the IOW opened up again at the lower fare and I was able to change and get a credit.

Good luck!