southwest seats

[me4disney]

Is there any way to find out how crowded a flight is? or how many seats are left on a flight? Thanks.

 

[goofy4tink]

Nope, I don't believe so. Because they don't assign seats, there really is no way to know how full the plane is before you get your boarding pass issued.

 

[backyardponder]

You can go to the reservation screen and put in 8 passengers. At least you'll know if there's 8 or more seats available.

 

[goofy4tink]

You can go to the reservation screen and put in 8 passengers. At least you'll know if there's 8 or more seats available.

Yes, you can do that, but it will only show you if there are 8 seats available at that particular price. SW puts x number of seats in each pricing catagory. That's why you sometimes see that the more expensive fares still have seats available but the web fares are all gone.

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

You can go to the reservation screen and put in 8 passengers. At least you'll know if there's 8 or more seats available.

Don't forget - as with all airlines, Southwest will over-sell it's flights!

 

[kaytieeldr]

Not all - JetBlue doesn't oversell.

 

[me4disney]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Claudia Kellenberger]

Ya Know ...... I was thinking of asking this very same question. I can't help myself .... I am just terribly curious how full my flight is going to be.
I will also be flying Southwest, on Dec 8th. I guess I'll wait and see.

 

[cbsnyber1]

I think you can get an idea by the latest prices for the flight, and by how much the flight has gone up since it was posted. We're leaving Dec 12, and our flight started out at $79 and now is $139. I will guess that flight is pretty full. However, they still have a couple flights the same day at $79.

I also noticed that all the return flights for our trip home are very expensive. Again, we booked the first day they were released and paid $79; now is $169. In fact, the cheapest return is $126; the highest $206. Lots of full flights!

 

[backyardponder]

Yes, you can do that, but it will only show you if there are 8 seats available at that particular price. SW puts x number of seats in each pricing catagory. That's why you sometimes see that the more expensive fares still have seats available but the web fares are all gone.

The SW web site will show you if seats are available at all price levels. If you put in 8 passengers, and there are no seats available at any price level, then there are not 8 seats available on the plane.

 

[JennyT2]

Claudia .... where are you flying out of? We are flying out of Buffalo on Dec 8th.

 

[daileyad]

I have a question about SW seating too. If you have a flight that makes a stop but does not change planes does that mean you get to stay on the plane and have first choice at the stop on seats? Or do you have to start over in line with your boarding assignment?

 

[malibuconlee]

I have a question about SW seating too. If you have a flight that makes a stop but does not change planes does that mean you get to stay on the plane and have first choice at the stop on seats? Or do you have to start over in line with your boarding assignment?

In that situation they ask that you stay put until everyone else is off and they can get an accurate headcount of thru-passengers. After that you are welcome to change seats.

I always wonder how full our flights are as well. DD is still a lap baby for now so on flights that aren't full we head to the back of the plane and get window and aisle seats. No one is going to head to the last row of the plane for a middle seat unless it's full, so we get a row to ourselves. If it's full we just take the first window/middle seat we can find so DH can lean against the wall when he and DD nap on the plane.

 

[pjm-guy]

You can call Southwest and they'll tell you how many seats are sold for a particular flight. I did this just yesterday for a flight from PHL to MCO and they told me how many seats were on the flight and what percentage was sold.......

 

[Lewisc]

The exact number of sold seats is a trade secret and CSRs won't generally give you that information.

Try to reserve 8 seats and see what fare is offered. A low fare suggests plenty of seats are available. Only fully refundable ($$$ seats) suggests SW thinks they'll be able to sell out the flight without deep discounts.

 

[Claudia Kellenberger]

Claudia .... where are you flying out of? We are flying out of Buffalo on Dec 8th.

I am flying out of Albany NY on December 8th. I only live 5 miles from the airport. My first night will be at The Dolphin, then I switch over to BWV for 6 more nights. Can't Wait !