Southwest opening flights on May 18th.......................

[mousestruck]

Oh my goodness... not a good morning for me! I had already booked PHL-MCO on 11/3, so was waiting for 11/11. I was on-line the minute the schedule opened only to find the flight I wanted was $244 p/p. UGH!!!! That is twice what I typically pay. As I stressed about what to do -- looking at flights the next morning, flights in/out of EWR, and other airlines -- I watched the prices soar even further and several flights completely sell out within minutes. Then I tried to book two other flights, but fares disappeared as I was checking out.

So I wound up booking 7:00 a.m. flights to EWR on 11/12 (Sunday instead of Saturday), and then switching my departing flights to leave from EWR instead of PHL. (My family is sooooo not happy about that 7 a.m. flight!) And to top it off, I have no DVC room for that last night... at least not yet.

Only good news is that we get one extra night in Orlando, though we may just stay at the airport that last night so we can get up at 4:30 a.m. instead of 3:30 a.m. And I did get a $125 credit by switching the first flight. (If only I did that first, I could have used the credit toward the return flight!) And EWR is closer to us than PHL.

Honestly, I've never seen anything like this! I probably shouldn't have booked anything, but I was freaked out by all the sell-outs. I hope the rest of you did better than me!!!

 

[WithASmile&ASong]

1. I got $98 pp each way from DTW for 5. Had to get a 6 am flight on way down. But it saved me $50.00 pp than later flights. Booked a $90 hotel by airport w/ shuttle to make that early departure more palatable. Changed departure day to following day to save $60 pp. I will have to book an extra night at POR or CBR. (So sad I have to spend an extra day ) I had $200.00 in voucher from a previous delayed flight so ended up paying $780 RT for five plus approx 300.00 in extra hotel. Making total $1080.

 

[Vijoge]

I need a flight to FLL on Jan 4 and when I checked this morning one way was right around $200. I'm waiting. Last year I booked my January flights to MCO on opening day and the price went down by half by the time we traveled.

 

[Bete]

Does Southwest add more flights if they get booked and sold out so quickly from a certain airport on a certain day?

I can't convince a friend that she should book today. There's only one flight going from Phoenix to Orlando on 11-27. The price has jumped up already. She just feels there's time to book and Southwest will add another flight in the future.

So, does anyone know how this works?

 

[hsmamato2]

Does Southwest add more flights if they get booked and sold out so quickly from a certain airport on a certain day?

I can't convince a friend that she should book today. There's only one flight going from Phoenix to Orlando on 11-27. The price has jumped up already. She just feels there's time to book and Southwest will add another flight in the future.

So, does anyone know how this works?

I don't think so..... but maybe someone else knows better

 

[GPC0321]

Luckily, I got our flights booked this morning before I left for work (was a tad late, oops!). They did wind up having nonstop both ways, but not at the times I had originally wanted, but honestly these times mind wind up working better anyway.
We depart RDU at 1:00pm and arrive at MCO at 2:40pm.
Return flight departs MCO at 1:55pm and arrives at RDU at 3:30pm.

Had originally hoped for earlier arrival and later departure, but beggars can't be choosers. These times mean we don't have to get up as early on departure day, we're more likely to have a room ready when we arrive at the resort, and we won't be making a late night 2.5 hour drive home from the airport at the end of the trip. Those are all good things. It just cuts into my anticipated arrival day park time, but we'll make due.

And it was all covered by my RR points. I think I have a little over 400 points left. Whew! Glad it's done!

 

[PCFriar80]

I don't think so..... but maybe someone else knows better

They do not add flights. Plus you're in the grips of Thanksgiving weekend travel. If she can defer until Tuesday [11/28] she'll have better luck.

 

[monarchsfan16]

If flights sell out quickly, they will sometimes add flights or use their bigger aircraft (which then puts more of a previously sold out flight on sale, usually for a reasonable price the day they add it). Flying school vacation week, we have, on a couple of occasions been able to take advantage of an additional flight to get to our home airport, rather than Boston, which we will book into if it's cheaper, but then stalk the Southwest site to hopefully avoid having to actually fly into Boston. That being said, for Thanksgiving week, I don't know how likely it'll be that they'll add flights because the entire country is busy, not just one region (as in New England school vacation week).

 

[ColoradoMom12]

I don't know about adding more flights, but I have on one occasion seen SW make more "wanna get away" fares available. This was in late August several years ago. That fare class was showing as sold out the day they released flights for those months. I waited about 6-8 weeks while trying to decide if higher priced tickets were something we could afford. I checked every Tuesday and Wednesday (those are supposedly the days to get the best fares), and one day I was ecstatic to discover SW had made more WGA fares available for my travel dates! I don't know how often that happens, though. Maybe I just got lucky. Right now I want book tickets for TG, but SW has zero wanna get away fares open for day after TG. I'm crossing my fingers and waiting. I use the Skyscanner app to alert me of new lower fares.

 

[MMCD]

I needed to buy 3 one way tix for 3 legged city stops. I was hoping for $150 each. I did see them when it finally came to book. But since I buy each leg separately, it took me awhile to book all 3 cities. I had to change one day cause the price jumped from $180 to $330 and then boom, all the wanna getaway flights were no longer available. I had to buy a 4th one way for one of the legs. I was able to purchase it for $208 for 3 but was $198 earlier. When I bought the 4th tix, it went to $239.

So now I will have to check for price drops and rebook. I hate to do it but I don't want to miss on the days I want to travel.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

We have been going around Thanksgiving for the past few years and I learned to book when the schedule opens. I had to break my party into 4 different confirmations to get the best prices/points. Last year my flight there went down $29 I think but that was it. WGA runs out within hours and over the course of 4 hours today my flight from NY to MCO went up over $300 each.

Flights this year were way up and schedules not as good. I guess the fuel surcharges caught up to them.
I wound up paying around what we paid last year not counting the points I used thanks to my SWA RR card.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

This thread is really freaking me out! I'm wondering if we should just buy the unreasonably priced tickets while those flights still have any availability at all. $900 pp is so high, though! Yikes!

 

[dreamit]

I spent 22,800 in points (approx. $109pp) for four return trips on 12/2 from MCO to MSP. That was at 7:00 this morning, as I completely forgot to look first thing this morning. I watched that flight steadily increase in price throughout the day. At 3:00 this afternoon, I finally pulled the trigger on adjusting the date of our flight down from 11/25 to 11/24, as there was about a $200 pp difference in price between the two days. I booked 4 people for 33,000 points from MSP to MCO on 11/24. I then added a room-only night reservation for 11/24. I'm pretty happy, as I usually spend between 300-350 RT for those flights.

 

[Eeyore's the Best]

I booked this morning too, BUF to MCO, Nov 10-18. Too paranoid to wait, direct flights, perfect times, probably about $160 more return than i have paid in the past. It was $460, usually if I can get them for $300 I consider it a super good deal. I've never too concerned because if they do drop I will just pick up the difference in credits.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

omg PHX-MCO was sold out when I checked, all but one flight bad time and can not spend that much. sadly we have to change it up completely. But now reading this thread I am wondering if Southwest will open flights for that day or... do I buy what I can now..

 

[ColoradoMom12]

omg PHX-MCO was sold out when I checked, all but one flight bad time and can not spend that much. sadly we have to change it up completely. But now reading this thread I am wondering if Southwest will open flights for that day or... do I buy what I can now..

I'm in the same boat. Only one flight 11/26 to DEN is not sold out. It's at a time that would be horrible for my DD. There are higher fares available, but not at prices we can afford. I'm stuck not knowing what to do. Do I cut a day off our trip (we can't leave until the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving due to work) and return on 11/25... or do we wait it out in hopes more WGA fares are released at a later date. I think buying the higher priced tickets is out for us. And I have to commit to something in less than a week when our ADR window opens up!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

Same here. If we buy tomorrow a different company just to make sure we do have a way in. we will arrive super early but be able to have that whole day at the park instead of just the evening. I would spend that at epcot walking and riding some of those longer rides in air. Maybe the hotel will be ready early but I doubt as early as the flight gets in. I did have to borrow from family because the company is different and I have 400 in gift cards for southwest. (lucky that can be used for the return flight.) it has been a roller coaster of emotions.

 

[Minniekins]

Reading how most people's fares have just risen all day. Strange, out of Chicago, all the fares have stayed the same throughout the day, I don't think any of the prices have gone up at all from opening time Thur morning till now!
Happy with our price down of $92(in equivalent pts)! And changed times two times after booking at opening, as DD26 okayed an earlier leaving time finally. Not as happy with return fares at $123 for the last flight of the day at 10:25, that's lowest and we do wanna leave late but he 9 one is $151 and the 8:00 one is $191. I'll watch for prices to go down and maybe move departure an hour or two if possible. I don't mind the departure time but DD26 would rather get home before 12:10 am, though we do want the day in the park.

 

[bdgrbckr13]

[ Plus you're in the grips of Thanksgiving weekend travel. If she can defer until Tuesday [11/28] she'll have better luck. ]

This is what we did.

We were thinking to head down Sunday after Thanksgiving. Driving down and back from Wisconsin runs us about $450 for gas, hotel, and food on the way. We figured if we could get 2 round trip tics for under $500 we would go for it. Sunday and Monday had limited flights and were almost $400 each way (MKE-MCO). But for Tuesday, 11/28, we were able to book both of us round trip, at the times we wanted, for $490. Now we need to find a deal on a room.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Same here. If we buy tomorrow a different company just to make sure we do have a way in. we will arrive super early but be able to have that whole day at the park instead of just the evening. I would spend that at epcot walking and riding some of those longer rides in air. Maybe the hotel will be ready early but I doubt as early as the flight gets in. I did have to borrow from family because the company is different and I have 400 in gift cards for southwest. (lucky that can be used for the return flight.) it has been a roller coaster of emotions.

I just learned that the flights 11/25 are also sold out. So are all connecting flights. It takes the decision making pressure off of me at least. I have to wait and hope the WGA fare makes a reappearance. I like your method of going with two different airlines. We could take SWA there and United home. The fares are similar, but at least we have enough points with United for one ticket. I've never done two airlines in one trip but it might work out for us! Thanks for mentioning it.