SWA and unavailable flights

[ddluvsdisney]

sending pixie dust your way!! If mine could go from unavailable to WGA @ $99 anything is possible...just keep (swimming) checking

Just curious- what airport are you flying out of?

 

[vacationclub]

Sure they don't have to release the lower fares, but the plane will fly with or w/out passengers.

Not necessarily. Planes cancel when there is lack of participation, but that won't happen on this schedule and route

The other categories are so high that people can book on other airlines, with reserved seating and even paying for bags get a comperable or lower fare.

Perhaps they can at the moment you are looking....months before the flight, but that doesn't mean that difference will remain....there's a long time left to fill that plane....and they always do.

I would think the smart move would be to fill the plane sooner (but not at a loss) than later as to not lose the customer to another airline.

No offense, but that's not really the smart thing to do. Southwest isn't the most profitable airline for no reason. Sure, you can feel good that you sold out the plane quickly, but that's not good business. Why would you limit your supply so quickly (sell out the plane) when you have so much demand (months more time to sell seats)????


The "smart move" is to fill the plane for the most amount of money you can get.

 

[pinkerbell]

Not necessarily. Planes cancel when there is lack of participation, but that won't happen on this schedule and route


Perhaps they can at the moment you are looking....months before the flight, but that doesn't mean that difference will remain....there's a long time left to fill that plane....and they always do.



No offense, but that's not really the smart thing to do. Southwest isn't the most profitable airline for no reason. Sure, you can feel good that you sold out the plane quickly, but that's not good business. Why would you limit your supply so quickly (sell out the plane) when you have so much demand (months more time to sell seats)????


The "smart move" is to fill the plane for the most amount of money you can get.

I believe the way most major airlines schedule currently, planes are needed to make almost every flight for the next flight to continue on.

Perhaps you didnt understand my thoughs... as for a long time between now and then, absoloutley! best to get the money now, before you loose the customer and the money to another airline. I'd rather have the seat filled for a bit less and have the money now, than wait 4 months for it and maybe not even get it or any more.

Clearly we could debate the pro's and con's with some validity on both sides for some time. The end result would still be the same, I did get fares for a flight that was previously "unavailable" (for $99) and others have as well, so there is hope for those who didnt get the flights or prices they wanted.

 

[vacationclub]

I believe the way most major airlines schedule currently, planes are needed to make almost every flight for the next flight to continue on.

Yes, but they can cancel a flight by also cancelling it's return back to that airport, as most hub and spoke airlines simply go back and forth between two airports multiple times per day. So if they cancel the entire round trip, a plane is right where it's supposed to be, ready for the trip to the same city.

Flights get cancelled all the time for lack of participation.

Perhaps you didnt understand my thoughs... as for a long time between now and then, absoloutley! best to get the money now, before you loose the customer and the money to another airline. I'd rather have the seat filled for a bit less and have the money now, than wait 4 months for it and maybe not even get it or any more.

Clearly we could debate the pro's and con's with some validity on both sides for some time. The end result would still be the same, I did get fares for a flight that was previously "unavailable" (for $99) and others have as well, so there is hope for those who didnt get the flights or prices they wanted.

We could debate, but the basics are this... Your suggested methods simply make less money, but gets it in hand faster. People don't sell their houses that way unless they are desperate....they hold out for the most they can get. Any entity with fixed amount of supply will do the same unless they are desperate for cash-flow right at that moment. History shows the airlines that they can easily for go the cheapskate early bookers and hold out for the business travelers, etc that will always book later. Even if they don't sell every last seat at those high prices, they've made more than if they sold everything at the cheap price 6 months ago.

When you say the fare for the flight that was previously unavailable, what do you mean exactly? That a new flight popped up, or that the flight that was previously available was now offering seats for a lower price that they were at an earlier time?

 

[pinkerbell]

When you say the fare for the flight that was previously unavailable, what do you mean exactly? That a new flight popped up, or that the flight that was previously available was now offering seats for a lower price that they were at an earlier time?

refer to previous posts

 

[vacationclub]

refer to previous posts

I did. I read all of them. That's why I'm asking. You said....

a more desireable flight (leaving MCO 4 hrs later and cutting out a stop and reducing flight time by an hour) that was previously "unavailable" became available at a $99 fare!!!!

Did you discover a new flight, or did you discoverer seats on a flight that you had looked at before that went down in price? Was the flight unavailable (it didn't exist) or were the cheaper seats unavailable? It seems like, due to the way you wrote it, that you didn't actually see a seat price go down, but you actually discovered a plane route that you hadn't priced before, either bcecause you never saw it, or they just added it. Your use of the words previously "unavailable" (in quotes) makes me wonder what you meant.

Since this thread mostly discusses how airlines prices their seats on a flight, and if seat prices go down, I thought maybe you were saying that you did see a price for a seat go down, but your sentence seems to say that something different happened.

I'm just asking for clarification.

 

[pinkerbell]

since flights opened for April many said "unavailable" in teh wanna get away (cheap) column. There are still fares in the next two higher columns. If noone buys at the higher prices, might they open up fares in the lower price one?

We purchased our fares for other days on nor direct routes to get a good price ($99). I'm hoping if enough people do this, the other fares might come down.

I did. I read all of them. That's why I'm asking. You said....

a more desireable flight (leaving MCO 4 hrs later and cutting out a stop and reducing flight time by an hour) that was previously "unavailable" became available at a $99 fare!!!!

Did you discover a new flight, or did you discoverer seats on a flight that you had looked at before that went down in price? Was the flight unavailable (it didn't exist) or were the cheaper seats unavailable? It seems like, due to the way you wrote it, that you didn't actually see a seat price go down, but you actually discovered a plane route that you hadn't priced before, either bcecause you never saw it, or they just added it. Your use of the words previously "unavailable" (in quotes) makes me wonder what you meant.

Since this thread mostly discusses how airlines prices their seats on a flight, and if seat prices go down, I thought maybe you were saying that you did see a price for a seat go down, but your sentence seems to say that something different happened.

I'm just asking for clarification.

You're reading WAY too much into it. It follows the point of the thread. If you go to SW's site you will see sometimes the word "unavailable" I wanted to know if these flights could open up if people didnt purchase the higher priced seats. In fact they can and did. Very quickly even. The flight I just paid $99 for was at $179 when I first looked, in the WGA fair, then it was unavailable in the WGA fair for a few days then the fair was available for $99. I bet you are now wondering if I am correctly remembering the pricing. The answer is I am not remembering the pricing at all. I did a few print outs of the flights and fares so am CERTAIN of the prices I am quoting you. Y did I do this you might be asking now? Because we are a large group not all going on the same day and the printouts were in a variety of departures and arrivals. I was using the times for co-ordinating our group dining reservations. I also was interested in the flight times for changing my already booked flights for better ones so wanted a copy of the schedule. Looks like SWA uses a variety of techniques when pricing seats and follows no one single rule, which if they are the most profitable airline as you suggested, seems to be working for them. Hope this helps to clairfy.

 

[vacationclub]

You're reading WAY too much into it. It follows the point of the thread. If you go to SW's site you will see sometimes the word "unavailable" I wanted to know if these flights could open up if people didnt purchase the higher priced seats. In fact they can and did. Very quickly even. The flight I just paid $99 for was at $179 when I first looked, in the WGA fair, then it was unavailable in the WGA fair for a few days then the fair was available for $99. I bet you are now wondering if I am correctly remembering the pricing. The answer is I am not remembering the pricing at all. I did a few print outs of the flights and fares so am CERTAIN of the prices I am quoting you. Y did I do this you might be asking now? Because we are a large group not all going on the same day and the printouts were in a variety of departures and arrivals. I was using the times for co-ordinating our group dining reservations. I also was interested in the flight times for changing my already booked flights for better ones so wanted a copy of the schedule. Looks like SWA uses a variety of techniques when pricing seats and follows no one single rule, which if they are the most profitable airline as you suggested, seems to be working for them. Hope this helps to clairfy.

I'm only reading into it what you wrote,(...a more desireable flight... that was previously "unavailable" became available....)What you meant was that a seat on a more desirable flight became available in a lower price class. Thanks for clarifying.

You were lucky due to your persistence in checking and re-checking. Glad it worked out.