Southwest experts???

[ctnurse]

I am guessing southwest will be opening my dates soon. They are SEpt 19-25. I have a question. If I book my flight when the dates open up and sometime down the road i get a ding price can I change my ticket to the ding fare. If I understand right because SW has no fees for changing flights. Is this right or am I misinformed. I hoping that the next window will open Thur. help tia
Melissa

 

[wovenwonder]

Yes - you can change it but they do not give refunds. You will receive a credit for the remaining balance. But watch -- the credit will have an expiration date.

 

[DJNOWICK]

That is correct -- and to best take advantage of Ding! fares you should consider booking your outbound and inbound flights separately (i.e. book 2 one-way tickets) -- if you get a good Ding! one way you can just cancel and rebook that leg; if you were on a R/T fare and you could only get Ding! one way for some reason (lack of capacity, inconvenient times, etc.) it might be more expensive to rebook the non-Ding! leg and you could negate any savings you'd have otherwise had.

Hoping that made sense - Jackie

 

[Nedlo2]

That is good to know. I would have thought I could just cancel one leg and use the ding fare. Guess I will make my R/T into 2 One-way tickets when I book them later (especially since we are booking for 8 in our grouop) ... thanks

That is correct -- and to best take advantage of Ding! fares you should consider booking your outbound and inbound flights separately (i.e. book 2 one-way tickets) -- if you get a good Ding! one way you can just cancel and rebook that leg; if you were on a R/T fare and you could only get Ding! one way for some reason (lack of capacity, inconvenient times, etc.) it might be more expensive to rebook the non-Ding! leg and you could negate any savings you'd have otherwise had.

Hoping that made sense - Jackie

 

[DJNOWICK]

ok, I admit I am a little confused now...the tip about booking one-way segments originally came from flyertalk.com. Then I read this DIS thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1088713 and it seems to imply that you *can* rebook just one leg of a R/T itinerary without risking a higher fare on the untouched leg. Can anyone clarify? I'm thinking I will book one-ways just to be safe but I'd feel bad if I left people with what turns out to be misinformation!

Jackie

 

[Nedlo2]

Here is the quoted section from flyertalk.com Looks like if for some reason a lower fare (not to include a Ding fare) becomes available, you can change your flight oneway. However, if it is due to a ding fare than you must cancel the whole reservation and start new. Hope this helps.

d. (nsx) If you book a round trip and then before the travel date you find a lower fare in one direction, you have three options: (1) Use the Change AIr Reservation option in Travel Center at southwest.com or swabiz.com, an option that does not allow you to book a Ding sale fare, (2) Book the lower fare on a new one-way reservation and have a leftover credit on your original round-trip record locator when your travel is complete, or (3) Cancel the entire round trip and rebook both halves, possibly having to pay a higher fare on the unchanged half.

For maximum flexibility to change plans or book a Ding fare, consider booking all your travel as one-way trips. The downside is that if you are not a frequent Southwest flier, booking one-way trips can increase your chance of drawing secondary screening, which is not too bad except that it blocks you from getting your A boarding pass online.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422264

ok, I admit I am a little confused now...the tip about booking one-way segments originally came from flyertalk.com. Then I read this DIS thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1088713 and it seems to imply that you *can* rebook just one leg of a R/T itinerary without risking a higher fare on the untouched leg. Can anyone clarify? I'm thinking I will book one-ways just to be safe but I'd feel bad if I left people with what turns out to be misinformation!

Jackie

 

[Braque]

except that it blocks you from getting your A boarding pass online.

Hmmm . . . I did not know that and makes me wonder whether saving $20 on a ding fare would be worth it.

 

[Hockeychic]

I hope you don't mind but I wanted to jump in and ask a question cause I am so confused now.

I was planning on booking 1 way flights as we are flying into Orlando but out of Tampa. I am not worried about the secondary screening stuff...I have nothing to hide but I am concerned that I now can not get A boarding passes.

Can someone explain this to me?

Thank you.

Kim

 

[Nedlo2]

I think the theory is that booking 1 way flights open you up to being flagged for secondary screening. If you're flagged, then you cannot get your boarding pass online and have to wait until you get to the airport. By that time the A passes will be gone

Of course the other side is that when you go to get your boarding pass online and it tells you that you cannot because you've been selected for secondary screening,

then you know you are going to have a little bit of an additional hassle at the airport

I hope you don't mind but I wanted to jump in and ask a question cause I am so confused now.

I was planning on booking 1 way flights as we are flying into Orlando but out of Tampa. I am not worried about the secondary screening stuff...I have nothing to hide but I am concerned that I now can not get A boarding passes.

Can someone explain this to me?

Thank you.

Kim