Southwest Flight "Unavailable"

[Dani's First Time]

Hi all,

I am not a seasoned flyer - let's just say that upfront. I flew Southwest in October 2010 for a trip to Disney, enjoyed the experience, and would like to repeat it in April 2012.

My travel dates of 4/22 - 4/28 and I would fly from Philadelphia to Orlando. I've been watching the Southwest website daily for flights to be released. I am well past the 180 day mark (and Disney dining ressies are locked down!!). However, I am still waiting on Southwest.

They have all their flights on 4/22 open. However, on 4/28, I would like the 6 pm flight back. It continues to say "Unavailable" every day when I dutifully check. They only have about half the flights that day opened up.

Has anyone experienced this before? What's it mean? Should I start looking elsewhere? Flights are nearly as affordable as I was hoping and I don't want to see them get even higher. Help!!

 

[LWQuestie]

Unavailable usually means that the fare class is sold out.

 

[DebbieB]

Hi all,

I am not a seasoned flyer - let's just say that upfront. I flew Southwest in October 2010 for a trip to Disney, enjoyed the experience, and would like to repeat it in April 2012.

My travel dates of 4/22 - 4/28 and I would fly from Philadelphia to Orlando. I've been watching the Southwest website daily for flights to be released. I am well past the 180 day mark (and Disney dining ressies are locked down!!). However, I am still waiting on Southwest.

They have all their flights on 4/22 open. However, on 4/28, I would like the 6 pm flight back. It continues to say "Unavailable" every day when I dutifully check. They only have about half the flights that day opened up.

Has anyone experienced this before? What's it mean? Should I start looking elsewhere? Flights are nearly as affordable as I was hoping and I don't want to see them get even higher. Help!!

I looked on the website, all 3 fares are showing unavailable, which means it is completely soldout. People may cancel and open up seats but most likely they will only be for the most expensive fare.

 

[Jestocost]

My travel dates of 4/22 - 4/28 and I would fly from Philadelphia to Orlando. I've been watching the Southwest website daily for flights to be released. I am well past the 180 day mark (and Disney dining ressies are locked down!!). However, I am still waiting on Southwest.

As PPs have noted, SWA has opened their schedule up through June 1 at this point and the flights that you see for your dates are the flights they will operate, barring some very unusual developments. SWA almost never adds or removes flights once their schedule is released. That means that the flight you want on April 28 is open for booking, but there currently are no more seats available and likely there only will be seats available if people cancel.

 

[dishguy1977]

I've seen that happen with southwest in the past with flights I've been watching where one fare class is "sold out" and all of a sudden there is a seat sale and they all open up again. However, if all fare classes are sold out you are probably out of luck...

 

[PatMcDuck]

I found the same problem with flights PHL to MCO for the entire week, March 12-16. I went in as soon as the dates became available (well, within the first hour), and ALL fares unavailable for all 5 days for the first 2 flights of the day.

I reluctantly booked the 3rd flight down, which goes into MCO via Tennessee, from Philadelphia. I keep looking, but it has been like this for the last few months. It is just WEIRD to me, that ALL 10 flights were completely booked in the first hour. I sort of thought maybe they were blocked out for groups, like college sports teams or something.

I keep checking, I will still get there, so it will work out in the end. (I have never been to Tennessee but a 30 minute layover means we just will have time to jump from one plane to another).