Southwest Question

[huskies90]

I need to buy 5 tickets for out trip in August and would like to buy one ways in case the fare goes down for on direction but up for the other. Is there anything I need to consider when buying so many at once?

 

[ToddyLu]

I would consider the Early Bird Check In (EBCI) so that you get check in by SW automatically at the 36 hour mark. With SW you need to check in at exactly 24 hours prior to your flight leaving. EBCI insures an early check in without you being by the phone....especially on the trip back. Who wants to have to check in 24 hours prior to flight while at WDW. Check in with SW at exactly 24 hours helps your chances of getting an "A" boarding pass...not necessarily guarantees it. DH and I fly SW to Orlando and always purches EBCI for $10 pp each way for piece of mind.

If you knew about EBCI then just disregard the above. I am watching our prices for Oct. Booked the May flights a week ago.

 

[Bobo912]

You don't have to buy one way tickets to rebook at the lower price. You can book a round trip and still modify one leg of your trip to get the lower price. The one thing I would suggest is checking the price for 1 ticket and comparing it to the price you get for 5 tickets. There is a limited number of tickets at each price point and it's possible that there could be fewer than 5 left at the lowest price. If there were only 4 low price tickets left, for instance, and you price 5 tickets you'll get a higher price for all 5. If you check the price for 4 or fewer you'll get the lower price. In which case you would want to book as many of your tickets as possible at the lower price. I hope I'm stating this so it makes sense.

 

[huskies90]

I would consider the Early Bird Check In (EBCI) so that you get check in by SW. If you knew about EBCI then just disregard the above.

Thanks, I knew about EBCI. In this case I was not worried about sitting together. This was more of a financial question.

You don't have to buy one way tickets to rebook at the lower price. You can book a round trip and still modify one leg of your trip to get the lower price.

Perfect, thanks. That is the information I was looking for and yes that makes things easier for me.

The one thing I would suggest is checking the price for 1 ticket and comparing it to the price you get for 5 tickets. There is a limited number of tickets at each price point and it's possible that there could be fewer than 5 left at the lowest price. If there were only 4 low price tickets left, for instance, and you price 5 tickets you'll get a higher price for all 5. If you check the price for 4 or fewer you'll get the lower price. In which case you would want to book as many of your tickets as possible at the lower price. I hope I'm stating this so it makes sense.

Yes, I knew about checking for smaller quantities. Makes perfect sense.

 

[MAYNARDS99]

FYI - Southwest does not price their tickets like other airlines. If 12 seats are available on a particular flight for a trip two weeks away, all 12 seats will be the same price.

As far as check in goes, if you will not be able to use your smartphone or access the internet, have a friend or family member check you in. (Thanks Sis!)

If the total price of your flights drop you can easily rebook online and receive a credit online. Note that Southwest credits are tied to a particular person, you can't transfer credits between people anymore.

 

[huskies90]

As far as check in goes, if you will not be able to use your smartphone or access the internet, have a friend or family member check you in. (Thanks Sis!)

Yes, I did not use EBCI in January and easily got high A or low B boarding passes both ways using my iPhone at the 24 hour mark and we easily found plenty of seats together. [/QUOTE]

If the total price of your flights drop you can easily rebook online and receive a credit online. Note that Southwest credits are tied to a particular person, you can't transfer credits between people anymore.

Hmmmmm, I am buying all the tickets and not all of the people are immediate family. So if I buy the tickets and my daughter's friend, for example, cancels for some reason, I cannot use the credit only she can?

 

[backyardponder]

FYI - Southwest does not price their tickets like other airlines. If 12 seats are available on a particular flight for a trip two weeks away, all 12 seats will be the same price.

Go on line and find a fairly crowded flight. Put in 8 passengers, then put in 1 passenger. You will see that the fare for the 8 people can be higher than the far for the 1 passenger. I've run into this before. I've ended up booking 1 ticket at the lower price and the 2nd ticket at the higher price.

 

[kkandaj]

Go on line and find a fairly crowded flight. Put in 8 passengers, then put in 1 passenger. You will see that the fare for the 8 people can be higher than the far for the 1 passenger. I've run into this before. I've ended up booking 1 ticket at the lower price and the 2nd ticket at the higher price.

I have had this same experience.

OP--your daughter's friend would have the credit in her name, to use on a future flight within 12 months. You personally would not get the money back. The only way YOU would be credited is if you used rapid reward points to purchase the ticket.

 

[LisaS]

OP--your daughter's friend would have the credit in her name, to use on a future flight within 12 months. You personally would not get the money back. The only way YOU would be credited is if you used rapid reward points to purchase the ticket.

And that 12 months begins on the day you purchase the ticket, not the day of departure.

 

[MAYNARDS99]

Backyard... Yes, airlines other than Southwest will charge more for a seat as availability decreases. However that is not currently the case with Southwest. If eight seats are available in a particular fare class (such as wanna get away), the last one sold will be the same price as the first one.

I'm curious, when did you buy those differently priced, same fare class seats on Southwest? You may have been mixing up fare classes; wanna get away and anytime for instance. If you need eight seats and there are only four wanna get away fare class seats available, your eight seats would price out from the anytime or business select fare class. Your tickets would then be more expensive then if you bought four from two different fare classes.

 

[kkandaj]

On 12/28/11 I was purchasing some of our tickets. When I put in 5, it was a higher "wanna get away" fare, by about $20 than when I purchased the single ticket.

I know this because I was using rapid reward points from my account and my husband's account. 5 tickets were purchased with his account first--I had enough time to log into my account and purchase the other 1 with mine--so this all happened within 5 minutes. The 5 tickets together were higher. I thought I was crazy, so once all our tickets were already purchased, I went through and did it again to see if the price was still cheaper for one ticket--and it was, but not for long. I checked about 15 minutes later and all the flights had gone up.

 

[antree]

I get what BAckyardponder is saying. In August I had to buy 7 tickets, but every time I put in 7, I would get a price of $115.00. When I put in 2, I got a price of $89.00 I was buying only 4 tickets that day. I had 3 pc's going that day and all at the same time we put in 2 tickets on 1 PC, 1 ticket ea on the other 2 PC's. Well the one with the 2 tickets went through at the $89.00, my oither 2 PC's went in at $115.00. So I called SW and they said they only had 2 seats left at the $89.00 that's why they went through and the others would not go through for the cheaper price and she could not give it to me for the cheaper price.
I did buy the 2 tickets at $115, but eventually got them cheaper and applied the credit to the return flight home.
Just keep looking at SW every chance you get, the prices jump all over constantly.

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

Backyard... Yes, airlines other than Southwest will charge more for a seat as availability decreases. However that is not currently the case with Southwest. If eight seats are available in a particular fare class (such as wanna get away), the last one sold will be the same price as the first one.

I'm curious, when did you buy those differently priced, same fare class seats on Southwest? You may have been mixing up fare classes; wanna get away and anytime for instance. If you need eight seats and there are only four wanna get away fare class seats available, your eight seats would price out from the anytime or business select fare class. Your tickets would then be more expensive then if you bought four from two different fare classes.

I've had to split up our reservations for our family of 5 many, many times on SW because I could get 1-2 tickets cheaper than when I put in for 5. Last time this happened was just a couple of weeks ago when I booked for our June trip. I got 4 tickets at the lower rate and had to pay about $20 more for the one additioanl ticket. I have had this happen with both cash and RR point purchases and I ONLY look at the Wanna Get Away fares.

 

[lurkernj]

Just an add-on question here...

If I purchased my tickets with rapid rewards and the prices go down, can I get rapid reward credit?

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

Just an add-on question here...

If I purchased my tickets with rapid rewards and the prices go down, can I get rapid reward credit?

Yes, if you cancel or rebook for a lower fare your points just get redeposited back into your RR account. There is no expiration on them like there is for a travel fund credit either!

 

[lurkernj]

Yes, if you cancel or rebook for a lower fare your points just get redeposited back into your RR account. There is no expiration on them like there is for a travel fund credit either!

Awesome! Thanks for the info!