Southwest Rapid Rewards - WGA "sold out" months in advance?

Saw someone else post on another forum today that southwest.com is showing all WGA fares as "unavailable" long before they should be. I went ahead and tried a sample booking myself, and see this:

http://i.imgur.com/VxLuK.png

That can't be right, can it? No WGA fares available more than 3 months in advance on all but one flight? It's a random Monday in November, not a holiday weekend.

And here's the one the OP of the forum I was reading actually saw. Not even claiming that the WGA fares are sold out or unavailable, actually saying that "more advance purchase" is required. Really? More than 3.5 months??

http://i.imgur.com/PxlHF.png

All those 50% sale glitch duplicate bookings really deplete the inventory...

I've been finding the same thing, but real hit-or-miss depending on city pairs, today.

All those 50% sale glitch duplicate bookings really deplete the inventory...



That could explain the "unavailable" fare bucket in my first post, but it's hard to understand how that could result in Southwest.com claiming that "more advance purchase" is required for flights in November/December.

Was joking about the inventory depletion.

My guess is whatever fix they did to solve the dup booking problem had some unintended consequences that are now showing up. Or it just could be bad IT in general, with no linkage or causation. Both seem plausible.

Just to make this more confusing, I'm finding that for LAS-BWI on Oct. 22, only a handful of flights show WGA fares - all at what appears to be the same (lowest) bucket. Other flights that previously had higher-priced WGA inventory are now unavailable.

Was joking about the inventory depletion.

Ah, yes, that 'humor' thing I've heard so much about. I must make a note to investigate the concept in the future. :-)

I suspect it actually is the duplicate bookings issue.

MCO-BDL Nov. 12 is now showing WGA availability on all flights.

[It took me a while to figure out the city pairs.]

And here's the one the OP of the forum I was reading actually saw. Not even claiming that the WGA fares are sold out or unavailable, actually saying that "more advance purchase" is required. Really? More than 3.5 months??

For the day before Thanksgiving, yes. Book that one when the schedule opens, because availability won't get any better.

The November 12 display was probably due to a database lock while WGA availability was being updated.

Are you saying that "More Advance Purchase is required" is an expected error message for a situation like this? I took that to mean that the flight in question was less than a week or two away, when SW stops selling WGA fares, not just that SW had already sold as many WGA fares as they were planning on selling for that flight.

Are you saying that "More Advance Purchase is required" is an expected error message for a situation like this? I took that to mean that the flight in question was less than a week or two away, when SW stops selling WGA fares, not just that SW had already sold as many WGA fares as they were planning on selling for that flight.

You are correct that Southwest chose an inaccurate description for "WGA buckets are empty". Perhaps this is the best they can do without having to explain yield management to travel neophytes.

You are correct that Southwest chose an inaccurate description for "WGA buckets are empty". Perhaps this is the best they can do without having to explain yield management to travel neophytes.

The accurate description for "WGA buckets are empty" is "Unavailable".

Displaying "More advance purchase required" when it's actually is not is just (yet another) technical error.

It doesn't have anything to do with yield management.

For the day before Thanksgiving, yes. Book that one when the schedule opens, because availability won't get any better.

The November 12 display was probably due to a database lock while WGA availability was being updated.

Actually, that's the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, which is unlikely to be a huge travel day. (And we _did_ book the day before Thanksgiving on the day the schedule opened, and got some surprisingly good fares.)

The November 12 display was probably due to a database lock while WGA availability was being updated.

Isn't Nov. 12 Veterans Day?

I've seen the "more advance purchase required" thing pop up before and it's most likely an error.

WGA fares sold out way in advance, however, are not uncommon. Sometimes there are conventions that can suck up a lot of cheap fares out of cities. CES is one that comes to mind.

The accurate description for "WGA buckets are empty" is "Unavailable".

Displaying "More advance purchase required" when it's actually is not is just (yet another) technical error.

It doesn't have anything to do with yield management.

Are there actually any advance purchase requirements for WGA fares?

Searching for a flight for tomorrow (OAK-SEA) gives WGA available for all flights:
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/4613/screenshotat20120807223.png

Are there actually any advance purchase requirements for WGA fares?

Searching for a flight for tomorrow (OAK-SEA) gives WGA available for all flights:
It depends on the route. Some routes have 0-day advance purchase WGAs if the plane is not full. But many (most?) do not.

WN used to have a plethora of different fare types including 21-day advance and 7-day advance, These columns would disappear at the appropriate time. The WGA consolidated all of those columns into one and the Fully Refundable was split into Business Select and Anytime. Thus, three types of fares.

There is no longer an official 7-day advance purchase, but on nearly sold out flights, the WGA will no longer be offered under 7 days. They may reinstate the WGA in the last couple of days if there are still open seats. It is all the result of yield management.

It depends on the route. Some routes have 0-day advance purchase WGAs if the plane is not full. But many (most?) do not.

It also depends on competitors' fares. If a competitor has a low 1-day advance or even walk-up fare, Southwest will NOT change the Anytime price to compete. The competitive match is always a WGA fare.