poppew

I was trying to reserve a ticket from AUS to OAK a couple weeks ago. Back thn there was an internet special for $108 for AUS-OAK on Wednesday Sept. 12th. Back then I was not sure if to fly back on Wednesday or Thursday, so did not book my flight. I decided to come back on Thursday, but when I look today, both Wednesday and Thursday flights start at $180, the promotional fare. There is no mention of the internet special. Should I just book the promotional fare or wait and see if the internet special pops back up. Does SWA post internet specials intermittently, or do they only post it ones until they sell out?

toomanybooks

You never know for sure with Southwest fares. That's why you should book whenever you see what looks like a decent deal, then watch for better deals down the road, at which point you book the new one and 100% of the money for the old one is usable as a credit for a year.

One of the major benefits to flying Southwest.

Also, it's generally advantageous to book trips as 2 one-ways, not 1 RT, for flexibility if changing. Fare is normally the same.

And install "DING" from the Southwest homepage and watch the fare specials.

SAPMAN

If it is a really good fare (DING or otherwise) and I am quite sure I am going but not positive about the day or time, I will book two flights and then cancel one. Then use the credit from cancellation later. But then I fly quite a bit so know I will be able to use any Credits I get.

Moral of story: If you see a really good deal, book it Danno.

SPort

Would you please go into more detail as to why that is advantageous? Thank you.

gregorygrady

If the price of the return flight goes down and the outbound flight goes up, you're screwed if you have a RT ticket (unless you travel enough that holding up your money in Ticketless Funds doesn't bother you). If they are both one-way tix, then you can just change to the lower priced ticket without affecting the other segment.

SPort

I think I get it...so in this example you couldn't rebook the return flight at the new lower fare while keeping your existing outbound flight? You have to rebook the entire RT and then cancel your original RT? Never had to do this before ...

toomanybooks

That's correct. So far as I know, you can't rebook only half of a round trip if the price of that half goes down.

Also, sometimes you want to change the flight outgoing or coming back, and it's straightforward to just change the one.

I even book all flights as separate one-ways when traveling with spouse and kid if I suspect we individually might have to change itineraries. So for the three of us, we might have 6 confirmation numbers.

SPort

Thanks for the info. Though don't one-ways somewhat increase the likelihood of secondary screening?

curbcrusher

No.

Nevada1K

Actually, I've done this successfully for a co-worker who had purchased a round trip fare. Using the "change air reservation" feature in travel tools I was able to refare only one half of the roundtrip and secure a credit for my co-worker. Note, however, the lower fare on one half of the trip was an Internet Special fare, not a "Ding" fare.

You cannot rebook a regular reservation into a Ding fare if/when a cheaper Ding becomes available; you have to cancel the original PNR. If only half of the R/T fare is now available as a Ding, you don't want to cancel inbound and outbound because the fare you have on the half you will keep may no longer be available. Thus, making changes for lower fares is a lot easier when dealing only with a one way ticket, especially with a Ding fare.

Accordingly, when booking for myself, I routinely book one way flights.

holland

I'm booking a trip for my family of 5; if the fares go down and we re-book to get the remainder in a credit, can I combine the 5 credits and use them on a single reservation? Will they change the names on the credits in the future?

nsx

Yes, but the max number of old credits that can feed into a new reservation is 4. So here's how you do it:

Begin rebooking passenger A. When you get to the screen with the payment information, open another browser window. Use that new window to cancel the old reservation for passenger A. Within 2 seconds the funds should be available to apply to the new reservation in the first browser window. (Twice in the past month this has taken longer, 10 minutes once and 3 hours once, presumably due to server outages.)

You now have $X left over on the original confirmation number for passenger A. Apply those funds on passenger B's reservation, then go to the second browser window and cancel the old reservation for passenger B. Now apply the funds from passenger B's old reservation to passenger B's new reservation. You now have $2X left over on the original confirmation number for passenger B.

Repeat the last paragraph for passenger C, then for passenger D.

You now have $4X on the original confirmation number for passenger D. You may use these funds for anyone at all, or even for more than one person.

I use this same method when rebooking a set of flights for myself. I work with the earliest-expiring funds first, and with the earliest flight dates first. That minimizes the chance of having funds expire unused.

holland

<deleted -- had to re-read the last post several times for it to make sense. I think i've got it now!>