At about 6 AM Central Time Southwest's schedule opened through September 27, 2013. The travel tools page at
www.southwest.com/html/travel-tools/index.html says: "On March 4, 2013, On March 4, 2013, we will open our schedule for sale through November 1, 2013." (subject to change)
DING! did not announce the opening. Too many outages in the rush to book seem to have curtailed that former practice. The same reason may explain the move to a 6 AM opening time.
In other news:
1. Southwest is now selling empty Business Select boarding slots at the gate for $40. Join the discussion at
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...kets-only.html
Post 61 in that thread links to possible creation of this idea on FlyerTalk almost two years ago.
2. At the same time as commencement of the sale of empty boarding slots, Southwest threw A-Listers a bone: You can now mid-board, after the A's and before family boarding, even if you have a B or C boarding pass due to a flight change or for any other reason. No more middle seats!! See
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...after-a60.html
3. Gary Kelly is beginning to concede that baggage fees could be in our future:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...-bag-fees.html
4. Check if you have old credits which are about to expire unused. You might want to transfer points to rescue them by creating a new standard award:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...ts-awards.html
5. Companion Passes were processed more slowly than usual this year due to high volume. Is this due to blogs' promotion of earning a Companion Pass using two 50k point credit card bonuses? See
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...on-passes.html
6. Club Carlson is now a partner, and you can transfer points from Club Carlson to Southwest. See
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...southwest.html
7. On the light side, Southwest inadvertently used pre-release ad copy in a renewal letter sent to A-List members. It mentioned "Free Drinks" as
an A-List benefit, something which was apparently considered but rejected just prior to introduction of the new Rapid Rewards program. Southwest apologized and sent all these members 4 drink coupons. So in that small sense "free drinks" were an A-List benefit this year. See
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...ee-drinks.html