Southwest Flight Sold Out in an Hour?

[DonaldandGoofy]

You are not alone, we have a flight going but haven't booked coming home yet. The flight times we want are sold out of wanna get away fares and we will not take a connecting flight home since it is only a 2 1/2 hr flight. So we sit and wait for it to open up. if not will will extend our trip or fly into another airport on another airline. It does stink being in limbo right now though. I hope it works out for both of us!! Good Luck!!

Well I still want to fly out of Tampa, as we are spending the last three days of our trip in Clearwater, however an Orlando flight in the late afternoon opened up so I took that. I suppose at least I have a non-stop flight now and don't have to worry about getting something. I will still keep my eyes open to see if the Tampa flight ever opens up. Good luck to you also.

 

[mcd2745]

The drive from our house to JFK or LGA is about 1 hr 15 min without traffic. (We only live about 10 minutes from Islip). Then we'd have to pay to park our car long term which would cost well over $100.00 as we usually go to the World for about 12 days. Logically, the travel time isn't that bad but you can find yourself sitting in traffic forever! If we had absolutely no other choice then we'd consider the other two airports or plan a road trip to Orlando. I am a teacher assistant so I have off in the summers and DH gets plenty of vacation time. It would be easy to add a few travel days if driving.

We also get the best prices flying SWA and we like the non-stop flights. If we take a connecting flight it can almost double our flying time when usually it takes about 2 hrs 40 min.

Funny...I do the opposite drive all the time. Despite living 5-10 minutes from JFK, we almost always fly out of ISP. I usually can leave the car with relatives in the area though, eliminating the parking charge. I love how quick and easy the check-in and security screening prcesses are compared to the big airports. Also, we usually get the best prices with SW. For all of JetBlue's flights out of JFK - and there are a lot daily to MCO - usually the only ones that have decent prices are the nighttime departures. So we stick with SW - we each have our own SW Rapid rewards cc, and participate in all their partner programs (shopping, dining, etc.) all the time to rack up as much points as possible.

 

[helenk]

I was just curious to know if there was a reason your DGD's parents needed her home early. If you are taking the magical express, you'd need to be at the stop about 3 hours earlier. I know when we did this with our DD when she was your DGR's age, she was not a happy camper. The following year, we flew home late; got in about 10 pm and she did just fine. (Just wanted to share an experience with). If mom and dad are worried that their DD would be too tired, she might surprise them!

Well I have been asking for years to take my DGD to Disneyworld, just her and I. My son has been all for it, but my DIL has been hesitant. When she finally said I could take my DGD, they only gave me 4 nights. Taking the latest flight would get us into Philly at 10:45, on a Thursday night, meaning someone would have to pick us up and we would not get home until near midnight. Kind of sucks for the person picking us up and then having to go to work the next day.
I knew getting that 5th night was pushing it. I was considering staying at a hotel at the airport, so we would not have to leave WDW at the crack of dawn. But as luck would have it my son felt that us getting in at 3:00 would work better, he does not work too far from Philly airport and is done at 2:30. I just booked the 12:35 flight home. This works perfectly, we can get our luggage to RAC at about 8:00 grab a quick snack and be ready for ME at around 9:30. We can eat breakfast at the airport. It also saved me 3000 points each. So this is a win win all around.

 

[disneymom1229]

I am having the same issues with SW. I booked my airfare on the morning it was released. We are traveling 8/25-9/4. I was able to get 112 each way on nonstop flights. The problem I'm having is for my parents and DS who is traveling with them. We were all supposed to go down on 8/25 together but they were coming back on 8/29. I was going to book their flights on the same morning with 112 going and 149 coming back, but did not have all the info I needed to book. When I went back to it the next morning, I almost cried!! I cannot believe how the flights jumped up in price!
A couple of days ago I booked a flight down for them on 8/24 in afternoon for 149 nonstop and am waiting and watching for the flight home.

Does anyone else feel like they know you are checking the same time and the fare prices never change??? How do you go about checking, do you clean your search each time or keep up your most recent search? Or do you change devices when you check?? I guess I am looking for a better strategy. Not sure there is one other than being persistent....

 

[mmbl]

I am having the same issues with SW. I booked my airfare on the morning it was released. We are traveling 8/25-9/4. I was able to get 112 each way on nonstop flights. The problem I'm having is for my parents and DS who is traveling with them. We were all supposed to go down on 8/25 together but they were coming back on 8/29. I was going to book their flights on the same morning with 112 going and 149 coming back, but did not have all the info I needed to book. When I went back to it the next morning, I almost cried!! I cannot believe how the flights jumped up in price! A couple of days ago I booked a flight down for them on 8/24 in afternoon for 149 nonstop and am waiting and watching for the flight home. Does anyone else feel like they know you are checking the same time and the fare prices never change??? How do you go about checking, do you clean your search each time or keep up your most recent search? Or do you change devices when you check?? I guess I am looking for a better strategy. Not sure there is one other than being persistent....

The airline websites can and do keep info on your searches, I believe using IP addresses. I use different computers, cell phones, tablets, etc.

 

[mm1971]

The flight didn't sell out; the existing WGA fare bucket did. Wanna Get Away seats are offered based on demand; the more demand there is, the fewer of them there will be.

The fare-bucket system adjusts in real-time, so the lowest-fare bucket to/from resort destinations pretty much always sells out the first day of release, because the initial date of release is a day of temporarily-increased purchase traffic.

Unless the flight TOTALLY sells out (no seats available at ANY price, which is quite unusual except on very busy holiday travel days), then WGA fares will become available again as purchasing slows down.

Wow, a lot of people traveling the end of August!:good vibes

I booked ours the day it opened and had no problems, but the WGA fares are sold out now. Due to the way the computer systems work, the faster the tickets are purchased, the faster the fare prices increase due to demand. For example, if you go on int he morning and 5 other families do the same, then the computer will make adjustments to the higher price as the plane is filling up. The WGA fares will be gone. Once the demand slows down, the system will automatically re-post WGA fares to fill the plane. Not an optimal solution for us buying tickets, but it certainly helps SW make a little extra $$. Hope everyone gets the flights they need. We have only 2 non stop flights per day from our area airports. One in the AM and one PM. We usually fly AM down and PM back to maximize our vacation time. They do fill up quickly and are almost always full both ways.

 

[kandb]

We always fly jetblue and love it. We fly to Orlando from NY area and get great rates. Do any of you ever price out jetblue? PS I am not a stockholder or jetblue employee, it's just that everyone seems so panicked about these flights and we always get great fares with jetblue and get availability.

 

[helenk]

My flight down which showed sold out, is now back up and the price went down. I just went in and used the change flight and I now have 3906 points put back into my account. 1953 x 2 of us. I am happy I keep checking.

 

[3happydancers]

We always fly jetblue and love it. We fly to Orlando from NY area and get great rates. Do any of you ever price out jetblue? PS I am not a stockholder or jetblue employee, it's just that everyone seems so panicked about these flights and we always get great fares with jetblue and get availability.

I have but never had any luck with good fares. We are from Long Island. Each and every time, SWA beats JetBlue's prices. (JFK really isn't convenient for us but SWA keeps taking away non-stop flights so I look as an alternative). I wish JetBlue would just open up at Islip. Over the last few years there has been plenty of talk but then, nothing.

 

[3happydancers]

My flight down which showed sold out, is now back up and the price went down. I just went in and used the change flight and I now have 3906 points put back into my account. 1953 x 2 of us. I am happy I keep checking.

Lucky you!!!! I keep checking but nothing yet. I booked a one way for DSIL which was $306 but had no choice. It was the only non stop with a decent hour. I paid with RR and am hoping they drop the price.

 

[WDW_Diane]

Lucky you!!!! I keep checking but nothing yet. I booked a one way for DSIL which was $306 but had no choice. It was the only non stop with a decent hour. I paid with RR and am hoping they drop the price.

We never get non stops out of OKC, so you're lucky to have them!

 

[3happydancers]

We never get non stops out of OKC, so you're lucky to have them!

 

[mcd2745]

We always fly jetblue and love it. We fly to Orlando from NY area and get great rates. Do any of you ever price out jetblue? PS I am not a stockholder or jetblue employee, it's just that everyone seems so panicked about these flights and we always get great fares with jetblue and get availability.

I find JetBlue's rates out of JFK to Orlando are not that great unless you want to fly down on a 9pm flight and return on a 7am flight. No thanks. I do much better with SW. Now, We seem to do better with JetBlue only when flying to Tampa (DW's sister lives in the Tampa area).

 

[francie57]

We have used JetBlue and SW out of BDL many times. Unfortunately JetBlue has been much more expensive lately and their non-stop times have been awful lately. Our return flight on JetBlue in Aug. changed to 6 hours earlier. Canceled that and are now flying SW. See that JetBlue has readjusted that flight again and now it leaves 3 hours earlier than our original time but still too early for us since we like to take a flight around 7 p.m. to still have the day to do things.