Who Can make sense of SW schedule?

[sandyneck]

I am trying to get tickets for 4/13-4/21. This is two weeks after easter. All the flights are unavailable. The week of Easter, which is supposed to be so busy has all kinds of flights open. I can not understand this and it is very frustrating to me. Did I pick a week there is some huge thing going on I don't know about, or is SW just holding the seats for some reason. The week before my week is wide open to. Thanks for any input

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Sunday and Saturdays are huge travel days. I ran availibilities on a couple of days on both your departure and return and there is some availability. Not a lot but some. SW does not hold back seats, so, my guess is that it is booked.
You could call them and ask if there is a problem (bug) for those days. 1-800-iflyswa.

 

[Disnydad]

That's school vacation time here. I had a devil of a time booking our trip 4/15 to 4/18. I had to back the dates up by a day. (Was supposed to be 4/16 to 4/19)

 

[pbhunt]

We're waiting until tomorrow, Tuesday. The schedule just extended last Thursday, and I'm hoping it will open up a bit more then. Sandyneck, glad to hear that you can view the new schedule. Gail, Southwest is pro at booking full flights, off days are open right now, but I am hoping that Thursday and Sunday dates might become available.

 

[leebee]

Spring vacation for all of New England usually falls around Patriot's Day, which is 4/19 or the preceeding Monday. Don't know where you'll fly from, but that could explain some of your problem getting flights!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

PB, I think what I should have said was that if they are showing unavailable it means they are booked up in those classes/fares that show unavailable. They don't hold seats back like say Delta does for their Frequent Fliers or upgrades.

 

[sandyneck]

Gail, this just may be a coincedence. but I have been watching SW since May, and when the new schedule comes out there are lots of unavailable. When I have checked back a month later, the same dates which were all unavailable are now available. This was before 9/11 also, so it was not about people canceling flights. When the easter week schedule came out that was all unavailable, now it is quite open considering it is such a busy week,some of those may be cancellations, but it is hard to believe they all were. They may not hold seats back intentionally, but there may be some quirk in the way they release seats that they do not all become available when the schedule is first released. At least we can hold out some hope that we will be able to get a seat! I am looking now at going in March and just taking the kids out of school. I will wait like PB said until Tuesday or Wednesday to see what happens.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Sandyneck,
Anything is possible and since you have been watching so carefully and have noticed a trend then I would definitely do what PB suggests.
I would also call SWA and see what is up, perhaps they can give you some insight.
In the meantime I am crossing my fingers and hoping for the best for you.
Good luck!!!

 

[Disnydad]

I called SW and asked about an "unavailible" for any fares on the return flight I wanted. She said there were only 3 seats availible on that flight. I was trying to get 4. I tried again only putting in 3, and fares showed up. Thats when I changed the dates and found lots of seats availible.

 

[pbhunt]

I got up at 2:20 this morning and checked our preferred flights, and some of the unavailables had opened up! Unfortunately I was too tired book anything and I was afraid I would foul it up. So I got up with DH at 5:30 and, of course, the fares were gone. We settled on a $119 OAK to MCO at a little later time than we would like, our return is the flight we have to have, as we're disembarking a cruise, MCO to OAK $265. My fare will be on a reward ticket. At least we're BOOKED! We will be more than happy to accept ticketless travel credit, if anything else opens up. Thanks for all your help, I still need to book FLL to MCO.

 

[sandyneck]

PB, sorry to hear you missed out on the lower fares, but since you are going on a cruise you want to make sure you get there!! I am still watching, but now I am leaning towards changing my dates to March 13-20. I can get RT from RI for only 156.00 and it will probably be less crowded. Thanks for everyones help and support. Hope you all get what you are hoping for.

 

[SNOWBOARDER]

SW is our favorite airline, however, their schedules for Sundays are horrible, at least out of BWI. On our travel dates, in May, there are only a couple of non-stop flights. The rest all layover, or connect in Atlanta. We ended up booking AirTran. $591.00 for 3 of us,(not the best price), but we got the flights we wanted. 6 months to go!!!

 

[sandyneck]

Hi, thanks for all your help guys, I thought I would let you know what I finally did. I changed my dates from April(school Vacation) to March 12-20. At noontime the flights were available and when I came home at 5 they were sold out!! But, I wasn't giving up this time!! Their are five of us flying, when I entered in 4, seats came up available. I booked 4 seats at $156.00 RT and one for $207RT!! Try that if you are getting unavailable. Even if you get two seats at a cheaper price it averages out for you. I guess the kids will be getting out of school, but I have never gone on school vacation so I probably would have been overwhelmed with the crowds. Thanks again, and happy hunting!

 

[pbhunt]

That's wonderful news, sandyneck! I am still very tired from my prior booking experience. I came home from work and decided to book the full fare refundable one ways @$74 each, from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando to make sure we get the Noon departure so we can connect to our most direct flight home (still 7 hours). This trip planning is fun, but rather a lot of work, I thought air would be the EASY part. Best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful vacation.