Southwest Questions

[DisMomme]

Booked a flight with Southwest. Last week the price dropped $25 per flight so I changed it online. This week it dropped another $20 for the same flight #. How many times can I change a flight before they charge me? Also when I search the flight shows $20 cheaper but when I try to do the change online it won"t pull up that price . It only shows the current price I am paying (which is still a good deal if I am stuck paying that price). If I call will they give me the online new booking price? Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for any advice

 

[Fire14]

you can rebook until cows move in without charge. the name on Ticket just has to USE their credit prior to 1 year from original booking date. The new great price may only be open for lesser number of seats than you need or it's possibly a fare that has special code with it. You could always have new great price open and ready for payment in 1 window and than cancel other flight and use the original flight conf # to apply ticketless travel funds to new greater price. You can call but last time I did they told me how to do it online and talked me thru it.

In future if you need travel/flight help you may get quicker response on transportation board

 

[jls886]

The PP covered most of what you're asking. My only thought on the differences in price is the quantity of seats at that price? How many seats did you book originally and then how many seats are you putting in when you are finding the lower price? I book all 4 of our family members on completely separate reservations so that if even one open seat goes down I can snatch the credit. This past December prices went down for one leg of our flights so I re-booked one person, then a second person, and then the price was back up again. So if I had had all 4 of us on the same reservation I am not sure the lower price would have come up for just those 2 seats because the lower price wasn't available for 4 seats. Does that make sense?

If what I described is your issue, you could cancel your entire reservation and then re-book each person individually using the credit(s) from your cancelled flights.

ETA: It likely won't help you to call as most of the cheap prices are 'online only' prices that they do not honor through the phone.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Actually if you have multiple people on a single confirmation you can pick and chose how many people you want to change their flight in order to get the reduced fare. There is a check box next to everyone name that says "select the passenger".

So there is no need to have multiple reservations numbers which creates a headache if you are doing the 24 hour check in.

I have done this in the past and it works. there was only one seat at the lower fare so I just alter one person on my confirmation number and got the reduced fare. The way to tell how many seats are available is to try and book a reservation. For example if you have 4 people in your party try make a reservation for 4 people. If it comes back and tells you a higher fare then try for 3 people and see what the flight price is and so on and so forth. Then you will know ahead of time how many people on your confirmation you can alter the flights for.

OP if the lower price fare you are trying to book is a "web only" fare. (it will say this at the top of the column for the flight price), customer service can not help you with these fares. These fare can only be booked online hence the title "web only".

 

[Magic2000]

I LOVE flying Southwest! A couple of times when the airfare went down, I had problems re-booking. I'd call them and they'd walk me through it. One time, the agent even cancelled it and rebooked for me. So, if you're having a little bit of a problem, try calling them. I've always had great service with SW!

We're flying down for our next trip, and I used a credit I had from our trip in December to pay for most of my flight!

 

[DisMomme]

you can rebook until cows move in without charge. the name on Ticket just has to USE their credit prior to 1 year from original booking date. The new great price may only be open for lesser number of seats than you need or it's possibly a fare that has special code with it. You could always have new great price open and ready for payment in 1 window and than cancel other flight and use the original flight conf # to apply ticketless travel funds to new greater price. You can call but last time I did they told me how to do it online and talked me thru it.

In future if you need travel/flight help you may get quicker response on transportation board

Thank you. I didn't even think of the Transportation Board. I was just thinking of the cost savings and being budget minded

The PP covered most of what you're asking. My only thought on the differences in price is the quantity of seats at that price? How many seats did you book originally and then how many seats are you putting in when you are finding the lower price? I book all 4 of our family members on completely separate reservations so that if even one open seat goes down I can snatch the credit. This past December prices went down for one leg of our flights so I re-booked one person, then a second person, and then the price was back up again. So if I had had all 4 of us on the same reservation I am not sure the lower price would have come up for just those 2 seats because the lower price wasn't available for 4 seats. Does that make sense?

If what I described is your issue, you could cancel your entire reservation and then re-book each person individually using the credit(s) from your cancelled flights.

ETA: It likely won't help you to call as most of the cheap prices are 'online only' prices that they do not honor through the phone.

Thank you

Actually if you have multiple people on a single confirmation you can pick and chose how many people you want to change their flight in order to get the reduced fare. There is a check box next to everyone name that says "select the passenger".

So there is no need to have multiple reservations numbers which creates a headache if you are doing the 24 hour check in.

I have done this in the past and it works. there was only one seat at the lower fare so I just alter one person on my confirmation number and got the reduced fare. The way to tell how many seats are available is to try and book a reservation. For example if you have 4 people in your party try make a reservation for 4 people. If it comes back and tells you a higher fare then try for 3 people and see what the flight price is and so on and so forth. Then you will know ahead of time how many people on your confirmation you can alter the flights for.

OP if the lower price fare you are trying to book is a "web only" fare. (it will say this at the top of the column for the flight price), customer service can not help you with these fares. These fare can only be booked online hence the title "web only".

Thank you! I will try to alter just one person's ressie. Good to know I can do this for each person without re-booking everything This particular trip, it is just 2 of us. Our adults-only 20th anniversary trip We have a trip for 4 to a family wedding though and I am hoping those prices will go down too.

I LOVE flying Southwest! A couple of times when the airfare went down, I had problems re-booking. I'd call them and they'd walk me through it. One time, the agent even cancelled it and rebooked for me. So, if you're having a little bit of a problem, try calling them. I've always had great service with SW!

We're flying down for our next trip, and I used a credit I had from our trip in December to pay for most of my flight!

Love Southwest too! They usually have the best prices and flight times. It's nice to know I can call if I have trouble trying what PP have offered

THANK YOU ALL