Way around Southwest's no standyby policy

[boomhauer]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to buck the system. In fact, the idea I came up with would only benefit Southwest.

As some of you may know, Southwest does not allow for standby travel. Living in the NE, I'm a bit nervous about flying out the end of January due to the possibility of inclement weather and getting delayed. On any other airline, I could check the weather a few days before, and if it said snow, just go standy the day before and probably get out with no problem.

Given Southwest doesn't allow this, how about this:

I already have my airfare down to Orlando. How about, I buy another 1 way fare to Orlando for the previous day, JUST IN CASE the weather calls for snow on my original travel day? Now, if it DOES call for snow, I can fly out the day before with my new ticket. Southwest won't refund me the money for the original ticket, BUT will allow me to use the funds any other time I wish within a year's time. If the weather does NOT call for snow, I fly down on my original flight and simply use the new ticket's amount for another flight.

I plan on flying to Orlando AT LEAST once more this year. Makes sense, doesn't it?

 

[safetymom]

Usually if you don't show up for the first flight your return trip is cancelled. Not sure how that works on Southwest.

BTW, most airlines won't let you fly out a day ahead of a storm unless they are really sure it will hit that area. There was a report here at Christmas of someone trying to fly out the day before and was denied.

 

[bicker]

I believe what the OP suggests could work, and be perfectly permissible, on any airline, reeally, as long as the three legs of the trip (the two outbound and the one homebound) are purchased separately. You can then rest assured that you can choose whichever outbound flight you wish, without concern about losing your homebound flight.

 

[safetymom]

Yes it may work but only with one way tickets. It wouldn't work with a round trip ticket on a airline other than Southwest.

 

[boomhauer]

I believe what the OP suggests could work, and be perfectly permissible, on any airline, reeally, as long as the three legs of the trip (the two outbound and the one homebound) are purchased separately. You can then rest assured that you can choose whichever outbound flight you wish, without concern about losing your homebound flight.

Exactly.

All I would be doing is purchasing a seperate ticket for a day earlier. And Southwest DOES allow you to not fly on a ticket you buy and use the amount at another time. This is one of the tradeoffs of the no-standby rule on Southwest.

I think Southwest's easy, hassle-free, and most of all, no charge change policy, is a MAJOR reason they are so successfull. With such convenience, it really makes flying with them stress free.

 

[boomhauer]

Yes it may work but only with one way tickets. It wouldn't work with a round trip ticket on a airline other than Southwest.

Not sure about any other airline. But with Southwest (and I would guess other airlines as well) the return flight would have nothing to do with it. When you book online anyways, you always book each way seperately. I've changed my outgoing flight MANY times with no problems with the return flight - On Southwest, Song and Jet Blue.

 

[bicker]

Well, in your scenario, if you purchased an outbound leg and a homebound leg together, and then purchased another outbound ticket that you eventually decide to use, you're not "changing" your outbound flight. Rather, you're cancelling the outbound leg of your original purchase. With Song, at least, that would result in your reservation for your return flight being cancelled. I think you're correct, though, about JetBlue and Southwest.

 

[boomhauer]

Yeah, you know, I can't see what the problem would be. It's simply a seperate reservation all together. For all Southwest knows, I could be flying down one day, taking another airline back, then flying back the next day.

Again, not gonna hurt Southwest at all. I'd certainly use the ticket within the year, and if I don't, only one that loses would be me. Given Southwest's travel policy's, there's nothing wrong about it at all.

 

[boomhauer]

Then again - I just checked the home page at Providence Airport. It's snowing pretty heavy right now, and there's about 3-4 inches already on the ground.

They don't have 1 dealy or cancellation yet.

Can't imagine it snowing MUCH worse tha it is right now.

 

[bicker]

I can't see what the problem would be.

Again, I can only speak to the issue with regard to the major airlines like Delta (Song).

The problem is this: The challenge for the major airlines has been to segregate the leisure traveler from the business traveler, since the business traveler is far more willing to pay more than the leisure traveler. If a business can segregate the two markets from each other, they can charge the business traveler more, and the leisure traveler less, and therefore not lose much business travel but sell much more leisure travel, thereby getting closer to making a profit.

So how do you segment this market? Well, the answer has always been to recognize that leisure travelers most often book roundtrip tickets, from one city to another and directly back, and typically stay over a Saturday night. Business travelers, by contrast, most often want to be home over the weekend, so the only time they could structure their airline reservations as a roundtrip with a Saturday night stay-over is if they were going to the same city every week, which happens but is relatively infrequent in business travel.

So by retaining the integrity of roundtrip tickets, and prohibiting tactics such as hidden city, throwaway ticketing, etc., airlines maintain the integrity of their market segmentation.

It's not working very well, of course, which spells disaster for airlines and is bad news for leisure travelers. Once airlines can no longer effectively segregate business travelers from leisure travelers, then the business travelers benefit from lower fares, and there is less money going into the airlines to provide good service. Once artificial constraints on the market are relieved (i.e., federal judges forcing the federal government to take on millions upon millions of dollars of liabilities onto the taxpayers, so that unprofitable airlines can stay afloat), there will be less competition, and prices will rise substantially. This will happen just in time for Southwest, as the airline ages and it begins to encounter costs it never had before, such as that of higher salaries from the seniority system, higher costs of maintenance as their young fleet ages, etc.

 

[madge]

with SWA, I'm "pretty" sure that a no-show does no automatically cancel the return flight. I fly SWA once or twice a year, but I've gotten in the habit of booking each leg separately. According to the SWA folks over at Flyertalk.com:

7. Does no-showing a flight cancel your return reservation?

a. (nsx) No. On Southwest, unlike other airlines, you can no-show the outbound half and still keep your return reservation. Furthermore, if you purchased a round-trip fare, you will be able to fully re-use the funds from the unused outbound half of your trip after you complete the return. Southwest is moving away from fares which require round trip purchase, so there should no longer be any need to book a round-trip when you only plan to fly one direction. After your travel dates have passed any segments that you no-showed remain usable for purchasing future travel. If you want the fastest re-usability of funds, book one-ways instead of round trips.

b. (WN LUVS U) If you want to promptly re-use all the funds from a reservation (see item 8), cancel the reservation before the day of travel. If you wait until less than one hour before departure (and especially if you have checked in and then not phoned to remove yourself from the flight), your funds may be locked until the Help Desk can release them for you.

 

[boomhauer]

Ahhh, yes - Thank you very much for that.

What the heck - Might as well do it.

 

[safetymom]

Nice to hear SW does that but the other airlines don't. For anyone thinking of trying this be aware that if you don't show up for the first flight your return trip will be cancelled.

 

[bicker]

Okay, so we know Southwest won't cancel the homebound leg of a roundtrip if the outbound leg is a no-show, and we know that Delta/Song will. Does anyone know, one way or the other, about JetBlue?

 

[boomhauer]

Don't know about Jet Blue.

I just bought another ticket. So, I have (and plan on using) a ticket from Providence to Orlando on Saturday, January 28. I also bought another ticket, from Manchester to Orlando, for Friday, January 27th at 8:00PM as my backup.

 

[bavaria]

Nice to hear SW does that but the other airlines don't. For anyone thinking of trying this be aware that if you don't show up for the first flight your return trip will be cancelled.

Yes, definitely this won't work on many other airlines. Also I want to comment on 'standby'.

I have never flown SW, nor do I see myself flying them as they don't fit into my travel patterns/habits/destinations. (but never say never!)

Standby as you define it is really referring to 'same day standby'. That means that I have a flight booked for 6pm departure, my meeting ends early, and I arrive at 2pm to try and catch an earlier flight. This is 'same day standby'. (and many airlines now charge, or only allow their frequent fliers to do this at no charge)

If I am due to fly home Friday, but the meeting ends a day early, and I want to fly home Thursday, this is a date change, and involves change fees. (Agan, I don't know how SW treats this - I am talking about the legacy carriers)

As Safetymom said, flying out a day early due to weather can be allowed in rare cases, but the only time I was able to do it with no fee was when the airline actually contacted me and advised that there was bad weather in my connecting city, and offered an earlier flight the night before.

I'm glad that you were able to find a solution for your concerns. Again, I can't comment on SW, but wanted to point out 'same day standby' for anyone reading this who may be flying another airline.

 

[tinkwannabe2]

That sounds like a great plan!

I've learned that with Southwest it's always better to book all one ways. That way if one segment goes down in price and one goes up or is sold out, you can always save the extra money.

 

[PrincessAurora]

Ummmm, you CAN fly standby on Southwest. I am a frequent flyer and I've done it. Now if you don't have a full fare ticket, IF they have room - they will get you on but you have to pay the difference between your ticket and full fare.

I have done it many times.

 

[safetymom]

Flying the day before is not flying standby. SW may handle it differently but on the other airlines consider that changing the date.

 

[boomhauer]

Ummmm, you CAN fly standby on Southwest. I am a frequent flyer and I've done it. Now if you don't have a full fare ticket, IF they have room - they will get you on but you have to pay the difference between your ticket and full fare.

I have done it many times.

That's just the thing - I only pay $49-$59 for my SW one way fares. yes, you CAN go standby, but then, as you said, you get the full price increase. In that case, might as well just refund your ticket and buy a new one.