Originally Posted by
A-Train
I haven't heard anything that would clue-me-in on specific flights/routes to take or other methods for pinpointing which flights are full.
Probably just common sense. Fly Friday at 3PM, and your flight will be full. Fly Tuesday at 8PM, it probably won't.
Even when I used to get bumped often on AA (and to a lesser extent, UA) and actually had the ability to look at detailed fare buckets, I never could quite figure it out unless I knew ahead of time the flight was showing F0 Y0. A lot of times I'd go to the airport with the flight showing Y9 (perhaps with all other fares at 0) and they'd still be over by 20.
In other words, they were happy to sell another full fare in exchange for giving another guy like me some funny money.
But those days are mostly gone. I've never seen any real pattern with Southwest, even when I fly on Fridays to/from one of their bigger stations.