Southwest is driving me crazy!

[Dallas_Lady]

This whole "no change fee" is seriously making me insane. I'm used to booking airfare and that being the end of it. But since I can change it with no penalty, I just keep stalking their website and making changes. New fares, new flight times, ugh! I'm going to need a straight jacket by the time our trip comes around

 

[3rdtimesacharm]

Haha.... I do the same thing! We are in Mckinney and I found cheap airfare flying out of Austin, so we were going to drive there and save $400 but then Dallas flights came down enough for me not to want to drive to Austin anymore so I switched to those flights, then switch to an earlier flight so we can get there around noon. Now i just look so see if I can get a credit

 

[Dziactor]

Yea, we do the same. So far I got a few hundred credit toward a future price. My trip home flight changed for 20 minutes $40 lower which was awesome.

 

[Rpsemont]

New fares, new flight times,

and new airports

But, ya know, I never thought of my SWA checking as an addiction!

I suppose my DH does go a little crazy when sometimes over the course of 4-5 months I've changed flight days, times, airports 3,4,5+ times.
Add to that (and please don't scold me for it) I usually have 3-4 car rental reservations covering all the possible flight options! We're two weeks from departure day (hooray!!!) so this weekend is "clean up the reservations" weekend!

But I gotta say, if SWA didn't allow all those free changes, we'd probably be going to FLA once a year - not 3 times a year

 

[vacationclub]

But I gotta say, if SWA didn't allow all those free changes, we'd probably be going to FLA once a year - not 3 times a year

I'm curious about this. What does free changes have to do with the amount of Fl visits?

 

[GAN]

I was on their site earlier this morning and the flight I was looking at went up $8 while I was looking at other options.

On a separate subject has anyone had luck with getting Dings on the iPhone app? I have no way of checking the Dings for the day when I'm at work other than my phone -so it's difficult to check for better pricing.

 

[ottawamom]

My flights out of Buffalo have gone up $15 each way since I booked just over a month ago. With 5 of us travelling thats $150. I hope flights don't continue to rise at this rate.

 

[jennb529]

On a separate subject has anyone had luck with getting Dings on the iPhone app? I have no way of checking the Dings for the day when I'm at work other than my phone -so it's difficult to check for better pricing.

I haven't had any problems getting the Ding alerts on my Iphone 4 and usually get at least one a day.

 

[GAN]

Thank you Jenn -let me double check the way I have it set up. I might try to un-register, then register again and see what happens.

 

[Rpsemont]

I'm curious about this. What does free changes have to do with the amount of Fl visits?

IMO One of the reason's that we have been able to go so frequently, is that I have frequently been able to get what I consider to be the lowest fare offered from our market (used to be $49 OW, then $69, Now I consider anything under $100 a good deal ) I don't always get that the FIRST time I book a planned trip. FOr instance, say we know we are going during March. I might book best available flights for our schedule and they might be $129 - there's trhee of us. BY watching and changing, maybe I get those to $94 OW (this happened with the trip we have planned in two weeks) I now have $105 in credits available for a future trip (actually $210 if you count both legs) $210 is one ticket for our next trip! Had I booked with less flexible carrier, the change fee would have caused it to not make sense to change, AND I wouldn't have the $210 for the future flight. If we planned to do two trips a year, and ultimately I saved $200 each trip; that's 2/3rd the airfare cost of the 3rd trip.

We're DVC and AP holders, so airfare can be a big portion of our Out of pocket costs each trip. That being said, it was the low fares we got on SWA that helps convince us to ge an AP every year?

 

[Keegansmommy]

I just changed our SW tickets for the 2nd time Friday night. I was a little worried though. We had a $140 credit from the first time I changed our tickets. The new change used that and was an extra $12.80 total. It wouldn't let me book it online and when I called SW, the lady I talked with explained I could only use 4 types of payment and each credit was one payment. She split our reservation into two seperate reservations so I could use the credit. I changed my husband and 4-year-olds flight no problem. Then it wouldn't let me change my flight and our 2-year-old's flight. To say I was worried was an understatement! I called SW back to see what the problem was and the Customer Service rep had no idea what I was talking about. She just kept asking ME why it wasn't working. If I knew, I wouldn't have to call. In the end she ended up just changing the reservation over the phone for me even though the new airfare was an "online only" fare.

 

[mlittig]

I check Southwest multiple times a day to look for lower fares My fares in August are really good, not as good as in past years, but good for what is out there now But my fares for the end of April are totally ridiculous Not sure why as it is not Easter and most spring breaks are over by then

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I check ours usually twice a day too......but I don't expect the fares I got for 4/28-5/6 to go down...when I booked them they were 99 each way with all fees from ISP to mco which I consider a good price......I also booked our 10/24-10/28 trip the day fares were released for 105 each way...these may go down but I don't think by much

 

[ChitterChatter]

If you purchase early check-in with your original booking, then cancel it to repurchase at a cheaper fare, do you lose the early check-in that you paid for? SW's site says early check-in is non-refundable.

If the only way to purchase a cheaper fare is to cancel the original one, are you losing the $10 per early check-in since the credit will only be for the ticket price?