nsx

13. How do I get the best fares?

a. (nsx) Southwest's customers are more likely to be spending our own money than customers of other airlines, so we typically want to pay the lowest possible fare. Most fares are available either one-way or round-trip. Round-trip purchase requirements have apparently been phased out. You can click on the fare basis code to read the rules for the fare, including whether or not it requires a round-trip purchase.

b. (nsx) On February 28, 2005, Southwest introduced Ding, a real-time fare sale notification application for Windows computers. See question 14 for details on Ding.

c. (nsx) Internet Specials are typically released early Tuesday morning and expire at midnight Pacific Time Thursday. You can sign up for email notification of these sales, but those emails tend to be tardy. If you want to be the early bird you should check your favorite origin-destination pair early Tuesday morning.

d. (nsx) System-wide sales tend to last a month or so, replacing Internet Specials for the duration. These typically provide the lowest cross-country fares. These sales are often accompanied by sales in specific markets, e.g., intra-California, Florida, or Chicago.

e. (nsx) Featured destinations are sometimes accompanied by attractive fares to that destination, but not always. If your connecting city is a Featured Destination or has extensive Internet Special fares, you can often build yourself a two-step trip at the same or lower price than a conventional routing. This allows you to double your Rapid Rewards earnings on the trip. As on the Texas two-step, you may be required to pay more (the difference from full fare) if your inbound flight is delayed too much. Ambitious mileage runners sometimes book three-step trips and fly up to 10 segments per day, but if you can handle that you hardly need this FAQ.

f. (sanFF) As long as you do not break minimum connection time rules, you can check a bag through to your destination on a two-step itinerary for which there is no published service. You will not be able to print a boarding pass for step 2 at your step 1 origin, but you can do so at the step 2 gate with no problem.

g. (nsx) Another reason to book a two-step is that WN's software will not sell you an unpublished connection. You have to standby or buy the two segments separately. You can't even book an unpublished routing on a RR ticket unless it's subject to the Wright Amendment restrictions or unless no published routing exists between those cities. This is annoying, but the reason is to keep costs (agents' time spent building unpublished trips) down. It also simplifies baggage handling and reduces misdirected bags (probably the main reason to limit published connections). I once found that the last connection of the day from OAK to STL via PHX was unpublished, possibly due to chronic delays on the first leg. I booked it as two separate tickets at virtually the same price and saved an hour of time, but I was willing to risk getting stuck overnight in PHX.

h. (nsx) If your outbound flight date is too soon to qualify for the best fare but the return flight would qualify, consider booking the outbound as a one-way at the high fare or using a Rapid Rewards award. Book the return as a round-trip if necessary to get the low fare. After you fly the return, cancel the remaining segment and you will have a travel credit you can use later.

i. (southwest.com) In case you were worried about getting caught breaking the rules, read this. The Customer Service Commitment document posted at southwest.com states "SWA does not prohibit or penalize what is commonly known as 'hidden city' ticketing, nor does it prohibit or penalize what is commonly known as 'back to back' ticketing. 'Hidden city' and 'back to back' reservations and tickets are authorized from travel on SWA." The two-step and similar variants are perfectly OK to 'fess up to on Southwest.

j. (nsx) If you are buying tickets for more than one person and the lowest fare is not available, go back to the initial reservations page and change the number of passengers to 1. If the lower fare shows availability, go back and increase the number of passengers by 1 until the availability disappears. Book the low fare for as many passengers as you can, then book the other passengers at the higher fare. If the lower fare opens up later, you can change that reservation with no penalty.

A more sophisticated strategy is to open two or more browsers at the same time, either on the same computer or different computers. Check availability and select as many seats as you can at the low fare on each browser. Fill in all the billing information but do not click the “I Want to Purchase This Air Travel” button. When you have completed this on all the browsers, click the “I Want to Purchase This Air Travel” button on each browser within a few seconds of each other. If you are lucky, you will get more low fare seats than you could otherwise. Please post your results on the Southwest forum at flyertalk.com.

k. (L Dude 7) Ding fares (see next FAQ item) sometimes show availability only for one person, but I was able to book one ticket then another at the same fare. And Ding still showed availability of a single seat. So availability may not be as limited as it appears at first.

l. (nsx) If you buy a nonrefundable ticket online and change your mind within 24 hours (exactly 24 hours, NOT one calendar day), you can phone Southwest to get a refund, and you can do the same online. This is a Southwest policy to mitigate Internet glitches.