Stunningly positive web site change re: Award seat searches
Jul 23, 2013, 1:18 pm
#16
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: South Bend, IN
Programs: Caesars-Diamond Hilton-Diamond IHG-Plat MGM-Gold Wyndham-Diamond Hertz-PresCircle National-Exec
Posts: 658
Wow! Fabulous!
Thanks ftnoob!
And, thanks, Southwest!
Thanks ftnoob!
And, thanks, Southwest!
Jul 23, 2013, 1:27 pm
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475
The Advanced Search page allows you to specify the number of Adult pax.
Jul 23, 2013, 1:38 pm
#18
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SoCal
Programs: AA EXP, HHonors LTDia, Marriott Plat
Posts: 639
It's good that they did it, but it does point out the fact that the standard award availability is extremely limited. I checked a month in advance and some city pairs had zero, some a few, and some a lot. The dividing line? Distance. Cross country, zero. LAX to HOU, a few. BUR to OAK almost all were available.
Jul 23, 2013, 1:47 pm
#19
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SEA
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 2,400
It's good that they did it, but it does point out the fact that the standard award availability is extremely limited. I checked a month in advance and some city pairs had zero, some a few, and some a lot. The dividing line? Distance. Cross country, zero. LAX to HOU, a few. BUR to OAK almost all were available.
Jul 23, 2013, 9:12 pm
#20
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: SOF
Programs: A3 Gold, IHG Platinum, Marriott Silver
Posts: 849
As part of being flexible, I can say that 10 days to a week before requested travel date, WN releases more standard seats, so availability greatly improves. I redeemed 5-6 awards on WN over a month and one of those I literally booked a week before travel date as there was no availability previously. As others have noted, the longer the flight, the less availability you'll find, except for maybe the first/last flight (pair) for the day (if you're lucky). Short haul flights (around an hour) are quite easy to find. 2 flights I had trouble booking were DAL-MDW and MDW-PHX, everything else I had no problem finding.
Jul 23, 2013, 10:08 pm
#21
Join Date: May 2006
Location: TUS/PDX
Programs: WN CP/A-List, AS MVPG75K
Posts: 5,798
It's good that they did it, but it does point out the fact that the standard award availability is extremely limited. I checked a month in advance and some city pairs had zero, some a few, and some a lot. The dividing line? Distance. Cross country, zero. LAX to HOU, a few. BUR to OAK almost all were available.
Jul 23, 2013, 10:18 pm
#22
Used to be 'Travelergcp'
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: New Orleans
Programs: AA Plat, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 2,826
A nice feature to have if a friend is "gifting" you an award.
Jul 23, 2013, 11:22 pm
#23
Moderator, Southwest Airlines and Choice Privileges
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 3,039
The Advanced Search page allows you to specify the number of Adult pax.
If you are logged in and use either the Advanced Search link from the overlay "window" or the link above (either from here or via a bookmark), you can perform a multi-pax Award seat search. As has been the case since the advent of RR 2.0, you cannot proceed to a multi-pax Award booking, but you can see availability. (Pre-RR 2.0 you could book multiple passengers in one transaction, and the system would automatically create multiple single-pax PNRs.)
Jul 24, 2013, 9:10 am
#25
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 751
As was I.
If you are logged in and use either the Advanced Search link from the overlay "window" or the link above (either from here or via a bookmark), you can perform a multi-pax Award seat search. As has been the case since the advent of RR 2.0, you cannot proceed to a multi-pax Award booking, but you can see availability. (Pre-RR 2.0 you could book multiple passengers in one transaction, and the system would automatically create multiple single-pax PNRs.)
If you are logged in and use either the Advanced Search link from the overlay "window" or the link above (either from here or via a bookmark), you can perform a multi-pax Award seat search. As has been the case since the advent of RR 2.0, you cannot proceed to a multi-pax Award booking, but you can see availability. (Pre-RR 2.0 you could book multiple passengers in one transaction, and the system would automatically create multiple single-pax PNRs.)
Jul 24, 2013, 9:19 am
#26
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475
As was I.
If you are logged in and use either the Advanced Search link from the overlay "window" or the link above (either from here or via a bookmark), you can perform a multi-pax Award seat search. As has been the case since the advent of RR 2.0, you cannot proceed to a multi-pax Award booking, but you can see availability. (Pre-RR 2.0 you could book multiple passengers in one transaction, and the system would automatically create multiple single-pax PNRs.)
If you are logged in and use either the Advanced Search link from the overlay "window" or the link above (either from here or via a bookmark), you can perform a multi-pax Award seat search. As has been the case since the advent of RR 2.0, you cannot proceed to a multi-pax Award booking, but you can see availability. (Pre-RR 2.0 you could book multiple passengers in one transaction, and the system would automatically create multiple single-pax PNRs.)
Do I have to have multiple awards available to do this search?
Jul 25, 2013, 2:28 am
#27
Moderator, Southwest Airlines and Choice Privileges
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 3,039
You and qwertyasdfghzxcvbn caught me being a bit hasty (sorry; I'm on the road and nearly sleepless).
You don't have to have multiple Awards available, but the web server does need to be "switched" to Award search mode. If you want to skip the step of going to the certificates page to click the availability link, use this link, which will redirect to the advanced search link after switching the server to Award mode.
There's a bit more but my travel computing device is partially broken, making it so painstaking to use that it took ~45 minutes to work out and post this much; stay tuned for a later update.
You don't have to have multiple Awards available, but the web server does need to be "switched" to Award search mode. If you want to skip the step of going to the certificates page to click the availability link, use this link, which will redirect to the advanced search link after switching the server to Award mode.
There's a bit more but my travel computing device is partially broken, making it so painstaking to use that it took ~45 minutes to work out and post this much; stay tuned for a later update.
Last edited by ftnoob; Jun 19, 2015 at 10:34 am Reason: Insert missing closing quote
Jul 25, 2013, 2:48 am
#28
Moderator, Southwest Airlines and Choice Privileges
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 3,039
While working on the previous post I suddenly started getting some Oops General Error messages. After the errors stopped, the search results in an account with no Award coupons went back to the old customer-hostile hidden availability. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions just yet, but this is worrisome...
What are others seeing?
What are others seeing?
Jul 25, 2013, 3:26 am
#29
Moderator: Southwest Airlines, Capital One
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: California
Programs: WN Companion Pass, A-list preferred, Hyatt Globalist; United Club Lietime (sic) Member
Posts: 21,625
While working on the previous post I suddenly started getting some Oops General Error messages. After the errors stopped, the search results in an account with no Award coupons went back to the old customer-hostile hidden availability. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions just yet, but this is worrisome...
What are others seeing?
What are others seeing?
Jul 25, 2013, 3:47 am
#30
Moderator, Southwest Airlines and Choice Privileges
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 3,039
