Sudden price change with southwest during check out and higher price for 7 passengers

[kniquy]

Today i went on to book my SW flights for our April trip. I opted to book as soon as the window opened because for my area it is a busy school vacation week. I was rather bothered that as i was entering all the info for my 7 passengers the price went up when i went to finalize my check out - i had to start over because the price of the flights went up. I'm really bothered they can't hold the price for a mear 5 minutes, if that. Or they should have some notification that the seats/price will be held for a couple minutes (something like what ticketmaster does)

My other issue is that i price out a single passenger or even up to booking for 4 people and the price of our return flight is $161, which is less than what i paid ($187) -- I figure great i'll save a little on each person. I go through the steps to rebook at the lower price and it then lists our flight at $187. I played around with this a bit and noticed that if you try to book 4 or less passengers then the price is $161, but if you book 5+ it jumps up the price. The very odd thing is that the only price difference occurs on the direct flight that i am trying to book -- any other flight that day there is no difference in price from booking one person to 7 people.

Is this some sort of glitch in the SW system or do they charge more for the same flight if you are trying to book more people?

I have an email out to SW and i do plan on calling.

 

[leebee]

This is how all airlines book. There are X number of seats in any one pricing category. If you book over that number, everyone on your itinerary is booked at the higher rate. Sometimes there are a lot of seats available at the price point, sometimes there are fewer seats available; either they didn't make a lot of seats available at the lower price, or more people have already purchased that flight. For your return, you could have booked 4 people at the $161 rate on once reservation and the other 3 at the higher rate on another reservation, if you wanted to save that money..

 

[HarperLeigh]

Supply and demand. It isn't a glitch, that is how airline pricing works.

 

[DizMe]

The two ways I know to get around that are to book however many you can at the cheaper rate and then book the rest at the higher one. It means separate bookings, though. The other way is to watch and see if the price goes down between now and your trip and change to the lower rate.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Today i went on to book my SW flights for our April trip. I opted to book as soon as the window opened because for my area it is a busy school vacation week. I was rather bothered that as i was entering all the info for my 7 passengers the price went up when i went to finalize my check out - i had to start over because the price of the flights went up. I'm really bothered they can't hold the price for a mear 5 minutes, if that. Or they should have some notification that the seats/price will be held for a couple minutes (something like what ticketmaster does)

My other issue is that i price out a single passenger or even up to booking for 4 people and the price of our return flight is $161, which is less than what i paid ($187) -- I figure great i'll save a little on each person. I go through the steps to rebook at the lower price and it then lists our flight at $187. I played around with this a bit and noticed that if you try to book 4 or less passengers then the price is $161, but if you book 5+ it jumps up the price. The very odd thing is that the only price difference occurs on the direct flight that i am trying to book -- any other flight that day there is no difference in price from booking one person to 7 people.

Is this some sort of glitch in the SW system or do they charge more for the same flight if you are trying to book more people?

I have an email out to SW and i do plan on calling.

Nope it's not a glitch at all. We've had to split up reservations before. One time we booked 3 people on one reservation because it was cheaper and then the other 2 were booked on another reservation with the price slightly higher (as we are all adults we just averaged the price out and that's what people paid for their ticket).

As far as I understand it they have a certain number of seats sold at a certain price. Once they reach that limit the price can change.

TBH it happens all the time to all sorts of people-you're not alone. To illlustrate this I'll show you how it is for our WDW trip in less than 2 weeks from MCI to MCO:

This is for 7 passengers just like you going to Orlando:

This is for 7 passengers just like you going back to home:



Now let's play around and change this to 5 passengers going to Orlando just like your example:

And again 5 passengers going back home:


Now in my case 6 passengers is the same price as 5. It's when I put 7 passengers that I get $182 per passenger on the way there vs $152 per passenger.

So there's no point in calling or even e-mailing..it's not a glitch and it's working as intended and you're not alone. I don't want that to come off as mean I just want to let you know it's how the pricing structure works.

 

[gottalovepluto]

That's how it works. Prices go up in the middle of booking if you aren't fast enough. Even if you're moving lightspeed if someone else checks out before you- your price goes up. Heck, sometimes if there are too many search hits on the flight the price goes up! As for it being cheaper for just a few people, yep totally normal. If you're not willing to split your group into a couple smaller groups you don't get the savings. Supply & demand at its most basic. Annoying as heck but that's airfare shopping.

 

[dvc at last !]

It has happened to us, too.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

No reason to call.
There is no glitch.
Its called supply and demand.
They only have a certain number of seats set at that lowest possible price.
Once the flight gets closer if not as many seats are sold as they wanted to be sold then they will lower the price again to entice people.
This is how airlines operate.

 

[CouponGirl]

Some airlines will actually tell you how many seats are left at a certain price and then you know that once those remaining seats are booked the price will go up..

 

[Chippy4]

I was also trying to book vacation week seats on Southwest this morning. Prices from when I started to check out to when I was able to accomplish it (I was having all kinds of glitches and error messages trying to apply travel funds) went up > $100 per ticket, but it was still cheaper than any of the competitors for the same dates, so I booked it anyway. And to add insult to injury, I had to split my party up into two reservations because half were cash tickets and half were rewards points tickets; after I checked out with the first reservation, the price went up another $20 per ticket for the second reservation.

 

[kristenrice]

I learned about the "fare buckets" from the good folks here on the Dis back in 2011. That little tidbit of knowledge really helped us out when we were trying to book 15 tickets for 2012 family trip to WDW. My dad paid for all of us to fly on AirTran from Detroit to Orlando (non-stop) and paid about $3000 total and that included upgrading 6 people on the way down and 10 people on the way back, to business class...grandma got to fly BC both ways.

(...I miss AirTran)

 

[kniquy]

Nope it's not a glitch at all. We've had to split up reservations before. One time we booked 3 people on one reservation because it was cheaper and then the other 2 were booked on another reservation with the price slightly higher (as we are all adults we just averaged the price out and that's what people paid for their ticket).

As far as I understand it they have a certain number of seats sold at a certain price. Once they reach that limit the price can change.

TBH it happens all the time to all sorts of people-you're not alone. To illlustrate this I'll show you how it is for our WDW trip in less than 2 weeks from MCI to MCO:

This is for 7 passengers just like you going to Orlando:
View attachment 265328
This is for 7 passengers just like you going back to home:
View attachment 265329


Now let's play around and change this to 5 passengers going to Orlando just like your example:
View attachment 265331
And again 5 passengers going back home:
View attachment 265332

Now in my case 6 passengers is the same price as 5. It's when I put 7 passengers that I get $182 per passenger on the way there vs $152 per passenger.

So there's no point in calling or even e-mailing..it's not a glitch and it's working as intended and you're not alone. I don't want that to come off as mean I just want to let you know it's how the pricing structure works.

Not being mean at all! I totally appreciate your input and at least knowing I'm not going crazy. I guess I just don't have a good handle on all the details of airfare. At least we have tickets. If they go up then I'm good and lower I'll try to change. I really didn't want to book this early for April but with it being a prime school vacation week I know I'd be kicking myself if I waited only to see prices increase. Live and learn I guess

 

[kymom99]

I booked for May this past weekend. I wanted to use miles for 2 tickets and cash for the 3rd. So I called and reserved over the phone. The agent said she cross referenced so that they would know we were all together even though she had to do 2 different reservations. She also suggested I use miles for the other 2 and cash for mine so I would get miles, because I tend to fly more and have more miles. If it had been a simple reservation I would have booked online but sometimes it pays to call.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Not being mean at all! I totally appreciate your input and at least knowing I'm not going crazy. I guess I just don't have a good handle on all the details of airfare. At least we have tickets. If they go up then I'm good and lower I'll try to change. I really didn't want to book this early for April but with it being a prime school vacation week I know I'd be kicking myself if I waited only to see prices increase. Live and learn I guess

When I first saw it happen in action I was real surprised so I totally get how you feel. I don't think the average person even thinks about this when they go looking at airfare. I'd personally rather have tickets early if possible and at least with SWA you can get the difference back to you

 

[hsmamato2]

OP I feel your pain! I have a family group booking for April school vacation...that was (not) fun getting us all up bright and early to be shocked by the prices and have to make some fast decisions as the prices rose steadily in under an hour..... That said, it's all done now and we won't need to think about it at least.I feel bad for my bro and his larger family, he thought (hahaha) he'd have enough points for r/t for his fam,no such luck. He got one way on points, the other way cash- but at east he saved 1/2 of what it would have been on SWA. (other airlines flights were even higher) In fact I helpd a member change an itinerary today and the price changed halfway thru again,so one flight was cheaper than the other!

 

[Schmoove]

Some airlines will actually tell you how many seats are left at a certain price and then you know that once those remaining seats are booked the price will go up..

Southwest does this if you book through the app.

 

[osopecoso]

Is this your first time booking online? This happens with all airlines. Next time just call instead of using online.

 

[DizMe]

Southwest does this if you book through the app.

Thanks! I didn't know that. My friend and I were coordinating a trip and both booked at the same time, but her booking was just after mine, and the price went up for hers. When I changed my flight for the later time, when we could both book for a lower price, the one I cancelled went back to the lower price but only for one person. I toyed around with putting in number of people to see how many were left at the lower price--looking through the app would definitely be easier!

 

[McKelly]

So, if you call, you don't run into the prices increasing while you are trying to type everybody's info in? This happens to me frequently. Ugh.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

So, if you call, you don't run into the prices increasing while you are trying to type everybody's info in? This happens to me frequently. Ugh.

No, it can still happen when you call in as the tickets aren't actually booked until everything is entered by the rep. In addition, when you call in, they will even disclose in their pre-recorded message that the prices on SW.com may be cheaper than those you can get booking via phone.