dprocuk

Just last year Southwest started daily nonstops between San Diego (SAN) and Tampa (TPA). We recently booked a trip across the coast, but today was re-routed on return via PHX. While no announcements of discontinued service, once can look based on weekly flight scheduled online that this TPA to SAN nonstop ends effective 1/2/19. There is a lone flight on Sun 1/6, but then nothing else through the remainder of the open bookable calendar.

We were slated to travel back to SAN on Sat 1/5. We have young kids so the nonstop was perfect. Now I've got to figure out what the options are, as a connection is a real drag with kids, carseats, etc.

There are routings via LAX, which we can do. Perhaps SW will allow us to change the airports from SAN to LAX, but need them to adjust both the return AND the outbound, as we can't leave car at one airport but then return to an aiport 100 miles away.... we live in OC so right in between LAX and SAN.

Any thoughts, experience, or recommendations?

LegalTender

Given a TPA-SAN non-stop on 1/6, I'd be tempted to spend an extra day in Florida.

Really depends on whether the hotel bill or PHX connection is the bigger pitfall.

formeraa

Airlines typically do not make public announcements of discontinued flights. What I suggest is to look at the routings and fares available out of LAX on Southwest. If there are nonstop flights, ask to be transferred to those (ask nicely, explain the situation with young children). If not, you could always ask for a refund and find another carrier for your vacation.

CA1900

No, but you can pick up a rental car at one location and return it to another, and this is often very cheap to do in Florida. If a 90-mile drive (from TPA to MCO) is better for you than making a connection, you might consider flying into TPA but back out from MCO, which has a daily nonstop to SAN.

joshua362

Done this many times in FL, TPA>MCO especially, GREAT idear.

jeffandnicole

With Southwest, you can switch your flights at anytime with no change fees. If the flights from a different airport are a different price, they'll either credit you the difference or charge you the difference.

If it's not going to take you any more time to get to LAX, and if everything else is equal, look to see what the fares are from there. You can easily make the flight changes online, or you can call.

You're hardly going to be the first person with kids to have a layover. It sucks, but to be blunt, Southwest (or any airline) isn't going to be concerned. Flight options change fairly regularly; at least you have plenty of advanced notice here.

ehallison

I live in OC also, and am actually booked on the direct flight to/from TPA at the end of Feb. As much as I hate driving to LAX - If I were you I'd rebook. There's no penalty or fees, except for any change in fare. You can easily change your itinerary online, even if you're changing airports. I just did this on another flight because a better price/itinerary showed up out of ONT instead of SNA where I was originally booked.

dprocuk

Thanks for all the input. I was DM'ing with SW and they stated if I wanted the LAX routing, they could only refund me the points I used upon booking for SAN and I can rebook if wanting the nonstop via LAX. The problem is that I booked really low WGA fares when the schedule first came out, and now the prices via LAX are sky high, and many not even offering WGA.

Layovers aren't terrible, but certainly a pain. Worst case we have the layover, but just wanted to avoid the hassle. And while I could fly back via Orlando, it then adds additional cost to the one-way rental and also adds wasted driving time.

And while I'd love to spend an extra day in FL, I can't stay Sunday with late arrival into SD due to school on Monday.

I'll keep calling and trying until I find a rep who may be able to re-route without penalty. As we know, try and try again.

jeffandnicole

When you call back, make sure your terminology is correct. There are no penalties when changing tickets. You're seeking a ticket change without paying the additional fare, which I believe is much harder to accomplish.

NextTrip

dprocuk

Southwest re-instated the non-stops again so we were actually able to cancel the involuntary change and re-book the non-stops.... and since they were just released, they were at even lower points than when we originally booked! So in the end, we were able to get the nonstops and credited points!

Not sure why they removed the flights and then reinstated them nearly 2 months later, but I'm happy with the end result!

formeraa

Excellent! Glad everything worked out!

By the way, schedule cancellations/re-reinstatement can happen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it has to do with fleet availability (perhaps an aircraft became available), sometimes it is a marginally profitable route, sometimes it is a crew/staffing issue (more crew became available(, sometimes it was accidentally deleted by the scheduling algorithm, sometimes enough people write in and complain...