Southwest Rapid Rewards - Custom connection paid bookings no longer allowed online?

Every A-B-C custom connection I've tried to price with the new fare and flight display page returns an error message such as: Sorry, we are unable to price your selected itinerary online. Please try again or select a different itinerary. If you continue to receive this message please call a Southwest Airlines Customer Representative at 1-800-I-FLY-SWA (1-800-435-9792) (SW900001) Is this intentional? Is it permanent?

I've tried all three major fare categories; splitting existing published connections into an A-B-C quote request; and pricing routes with no current published service. I haven't found anything that works (meaning results in a merged fare; if the layover exceeds four hours it still prices as two fares, as usual).

Note: custom connections can still be booked for award flights.

Aside to mods: this can perhaps eventually be merged with the "revamp" thread, but it seems worthy of being kept separate initially.

Every A-B-C custom connection I've tried to price with the new fare and flight display page returns: Is this intentional? Is it permanent?

I've had the same problems for the last few weeks. Out of curiosity, how come you don't book two separate flights?

I prefer to pay the lowest fare; if two fares are less than one (or close enough to justify the extra RR credit(s)), I'll book two fares. If the through fare is less than the sum of the two fares, I want to book it that way.

It isn't exactly convenient, but requesting a quote for a too-tight A-B-C itinerary is also the only way I've ever found to discover via southwest.com what SWA considers the minimum connection time at a particular airport. One would think that information would be listed on the generally very good airport information pages on travel.southwest.com, or on a page similar to the airport suggested arrival times page (http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/suggested_arrival.html); if it is, it has thus far escaped detection by my eyes and site-specific searches.

Every A-B-C custom connection I've tried to price with the new fare and flight display page returns an error message such as: Is this intentional? Is it permanent?

I've tried all three major fare categories; splitting existing published connections into an A-B-C quote request; and pricing routes with no current published service. I haven't found anything that works (meaning results in a merged fare; if the layover exceeds four hours it still prices as two fares, as usual).

Note: custom connections can still be booked for award flights.

Aside to mods: this can perhaps eventually be merged with the "revamp" thread, but it seems worthy of being kept separate initially.

I've been pefectly willing to pay the sum of both fares but the website won't let me. With the $25 sale I don't even care if it isn't treated as the sum of both. I'd prefer it to be separate anyway for the extra RR credit.

I've had to resort to booking all one ways, which can be risky to do especially when there is short layover in the winter-like the 25min legal connection in BWI. I'd prefer A-B-C all be on the same ticket, otherwise Southwest is not going to see you as a connecting passenger if there is a delay, they won't hold the last flight of the night for someone they don't know is a connecting passenger, and they will not offer hotel accomodations etc if you are stuck overnight.

Have you tried pricing separate one-ways, e.g. A-B-C with A-B as the outbound & B-C as the return, both on the same dates?

I ended up doing that recently to preserve a dirt cheap fare on one segment that I would have lost otherwise: Originally booked 2 end-on-end RT's, A-B-A & B-C-B; had to divert to FLL on the outbound, so I canceled B-C-B and rebooked the 1st as C-B-A. After volunteering for a bump I ended up on a "direct" C-A flight (same flight # as original B-A) and still received 2 RR credits for it. :D

My wife also received 2 RR credits for a companion fare to/from FLL, but that's a separate story. :p

My wife also received 2 RR credits for a companion fare to/from FLL, but that's a separate story. :p

Man, that's the Holy Grail. How'd you pull that off?

Either that, or being able to pay your mortgage on a rewards credit card (yes, I know, Indymac offered that [for about .25% higher mortgage rate] but soon afterward they went belly up).

I booked an open-end award itin (A-B-C) on-line, plus a companion fare to match for my wife.

Apparently you can book those A-B-C awards on-line, but the web site has issues changing them, which I wanted to do when an earlier "return" (B-C) became available. So I called the 800 # and got the CSR to change the award itin; she also re-sync'd the companion fare for me to match the revised award itin. Apparently in doing so it got flagged as a revenue ticket. :cool:

My first clue was when we returned home and received a "Rapid Rewards Award Notification" to the email for my wife's account.