How can I find out how many seats are left?
 

Since SWA doesnt allow you to choose your seats, is there a way I can find out how full my flight will be? If I remember, there was a website that showed how many seats were sold/filled for each flight on the legacy carriers.

Can anyone lead me in the right direction, I already checked the Wiki page and didnt see anything?

Thanks!

I'd like to know this also, but I'm guessing it's not available anywhere...

I do watch the increases in WGA fares, and also once in a while get a "X seats left at this price" message when booking... But otherwise, no real way to know... or is there?

(I often have some free time in the afternoons I return and wouldn't mind getting IDB compensation each time... ;) )

Holy crap, do you really think this has never been asked?

Crazy thing called "search"

Same question, asked just 4 days ago...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...couple-qs.html

Hey Bon, way to read my question! Nice job!

Unfortunately none of those links actually show you how many seats have been sold or are left for sale on a various WN flight.

Stores may be willing to tell you exactly how many items they have in inventory, but airlines will never do this. That information is just too valuable to competitors.

This may seem obvious, but there was a time when it was new information to each of us.

Reading comprehension skills; you don't have any.

You ask about seats sold/left for sale - the same as "load factor" as asked in the thread I linked.

There is no website or place where you can look up the number of seats left on a Southwest flight.

hth

Not true. Southwest apparently is one of the few that doesnt...Thus why I asked.

Here is one of the several sites out there that will show you seat availability by airline.

http://www.seatcounter.com/?

Ding! We have a winner. It's nice to get a straight answer. ;)
Thank you!

If I am curious, I will go up to a not busy gate agent and ask how full the flight is? Responses have included...

Smile, it's wide open
It's booked to xxx
It's oversold and will go out full
Evil eye, why are you asking?

Your mileage will vary by station. AUS is uniformly helpful, LAS is uniformly a roll of the dice in terms of helpfulness.

There was a phone number posted here for Employees to find, in an automated system by saying the flight numbers, how availability was for a flight where they wanted to travel with a pass. They just characterized it as Good, Fair, or Poor, which didn't tell you a whole lot. Some insiders expressed concern here that it had been posted; I just tried it, and it went to regular reservations, with an "all agents are busy" message.

The only way to tell is looking at the fare. The higher the fare, relative to much farther out on the same day/flight, the emptier the buckets (levels of discounted tix) .

To see if the flight is sold out, try buying 8 (the max) tickets for your flight. If it lists as available in any fare, there are at least 8 seats. If there are 8 Wanna get away fares, closer in (under 7 days out) you know there are lots more than 8 seats available.

I guess it is more art than science.

PS Seatcounter doesn't tell you how many seats are left. It tells you how many is left in each fare BUCKET, which does not necessarily relate to how many seats are left. Just like Southwest, if the low fare buckets are sold out, that generally means the flight is more full. But its still not an exact science. Airlines don't post this information publicly because it would give up a competitive edge if USAirways could write a robot script to see where Southwest is selling seats (ah hah! that flight to X is always full, maybe I should start service there). ETC.

And it maxes out at 9...which makes it "accurate" only for F seats.

Joe K
About the only thing I have been able to figure out is when a flight is completely sold out.

You can tell if the flight is sold out if you go to the awards page and see the freedom awards are unavailable (this assumes you are not trying for a blocked out date). Or, if you have a CP, the CP is not available for a given flight.
You can also tell if a flight is sold out if both the BS fares and the anytime fares are unavailable....

However, stuff happens. Passengers could fail to show up at the gate for any given flight. On the other hand, you could have a flight that looks like it has availablity and a crew from United hops on board.... or, a flight has a mechanical and all the passengers get moved over to your flight... et'c.

We ask the GA if we are really curious. :D