Booking In Advance For Uncertain Dates
 

As the saying goes, long time time reader, first time poster. This seemed to be the best place for this thread?

I need to be in Charleston for a wedding on August 16th. My tentative plan is to fly MSP-CHS on Sat. the 15th and CHS-MSP Wed. the 19th. Fares have been pretty steady around $400.00 for Y and $700.00 for F for the last week.

The issue is because of work I won't know the exact times or dates I will be able to depart or return, and won't know my work schedule until a few weeks to a month out.

I have little knowledge on refundable or flexible fares, or the different fare classes and rules. Are there any decent options to book in advance for someone in this position? Or should I just buy a last minute ticket and spend the extra money? Does buying an F ticket help at all? DL, UA, and AA all have very similar prices currently, and I'm not loyal to any airline.

Thanks!

Southwest doesn't have any change fees. You can fly MSP-CHS (I'm assuming you mean Charleston, SC) with one stop via Chicago-Midway

However, Southwest does charge you the difference (increase) in fare when you change the ticket, so purchasing early would only help you if you're eventually able to travel on the dates you originally picked. Otherwise, you're just giving Southwest an interest free loan of some money (the original price) and the total price you pay will be the same if you had purchased the ticket from scratch on the day you finalize the dates.

+1. By booking Southwest when you can get the best fares, you lock in that rate with no penalty. If you have to change, you only end up paying what you would have if you waited anyway, and if you don't have to change, you've got yourself a deal. Furthermore, you can change either the outbound or the return without affecting the fare for the other direction. You also avoid checked bag fees on Southwest. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I didn't know Southwest operated this way. Thanks guys. Always so much to learn on these forums.

And how do the other airlines work?

If you have Southwest points, that's the best way to book these tickets. It is fully refundable if you book with points. You can even make multiple bookings.

On most other airlines, there would genereally be a change fee plus any fare difference to change the dates on cheap tickets. Most legacy airlines have a same day confirmed and same day standby program, but you cannot use it to change dates or to change by more than 24 hours.

I assume that most cheap WN tickets, like those of other airlines, are nonrefundable so that if you cancel, at best you'll have a credit to use on that airline, not a refund of your money to the credit card used to purchase the ticket.

To add, you can usually book award tickets with points then change dates for no cost. Book the ticket with miles. Cancel it. Get miles back. Book another date.

Unless you're an elite, most FF programs charge fees to change or cancel award tickets. For DL, it's $150 per ticket unless the miles came from a PM or DM account, meaning roughly 75,000 or more status miles per year. On DL, you cannot change or cancel an award ticket within three days of departure without forfeiting ALL of the miles used to pay for the ticket, although IIRC taxes and fees are refunded, perhaps in the form of a DL credit. Of course, you can only change dates if award inventory is available for the new flights.

Since this post is off-topic for the Info Desk, the OP has not returned to comment further, and a number of suggestions have been offered, the thread is now closed (see Welcome to the Information Desk! Please READ THIS BEFORE POSTING at the top of the forum for guidance).

Should there be additional questions, please post in the specific airline forum, or try the TravelBuzz forum which is better suited to general travel discussions that do not specifically relate to award programs.

Thanks!