EC Traveler

Hi

I apologize if this is somewhere in the land of posts already. I am hoping you guys can help me with 3 questions, loosely related to each other:

First - the June 23rd schedule opening. While not bookable until I see my nice little DING pop up...does anyone have access to the schedule itself as "read only"...I am trying to find out what the BWI-LAS-BWI flight schedule will look like to see if there are worthwhile Non-Stops.

Second - in the past I have waited and checked right at schedule opening, and the LAS-BWI on Sunday Non-Stops were not "ever" available for Reward. I get this in general and don't blame them...is this basically a "blackout"? I'll wait to see what happens for my random Sunday in November but just curious what I should expect.

Third - if, on June 23, I see RR availability for Sunday, I would want to call and extend my Sept 2009 expiring RR. Is that a "fast" transaction? Do you think I should call ahead of June 23rd since wait times may be high, etc. in hopes that I can use it?

Thanks!!!
EC T

ftnoob

There have been several cases where it would have been very helpful if I could have seen SWA schedules one to several days before the booking window opens. Unfortunately I've never seen schedules viewable before flights were bookable and don't expect to see it this time...but I could be wrong. You can bookmark a link to the BWI schedule page and keep an eye on it just in case.

Note that the DING! notification of schedule opening usually lags the actual magic moment, so don't wait for the DING!

Any answer I might give to a question about a "random" Sunday in November would be about as reliable as asking a Magic 8 ball. There is a dead travel period in early November and a crazy busy travel period in late November. Can you be more specific?

You can reissue awards online and it should be pretty much instantaneous upon payment of the fee. You could spend a fair amount of time waiting on hold if you call.

Do you have other available awards with which to check availability?

EC Traveler

Thanks for the information.

Great question on the future-dated awards to check availability. Very good point...no I don't have one. I might have friends who do - I'll have to ask around or may come back to someone here to help. No point in extending...yet...anyways...if I can't even use it.

Hmmm. As for travel dates - Nov 15 return - should be dead time 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. That's my hope ... I can get out and back on a R/T RR on non-stop each way. Outbound not a big deal but the return with the time change...Nonstop really pays off.

Good tip on the DING notification also. Thanks!!!

SWAVictor

Just an FYI -

The process of distributing DING! headlines to ALL subscribers can take up to 30 minutes. In other words, its not an instant blast to everyone at one moment.

So, your daily DING! headlines are set up well in advance, and distribution starts more than 30 minutes prior to the time that the headline will become active. By doing this, everyone will have received the update before it goes active - and thus, everyone will get the "DING!" at the same time.

With a schedule extension, we know the approximate time that the schedule will be opened but it can take southwest.com 15-20 minutes to update all servers so that all Customers get access the new schedule.

Therefore, we don't schedule the headline until we know that the website is completely updated - but we then set it for immediate distribution and activation.

Depending on when your local DING! app last checked for an update, it could be up to 30 minutes before you will receive the notice.

It wasn't too many years ago that we didn't send a notice at all, and didn't even give the expected extension date out on the website or over the phone. Customers just had to call every day to find out if we had extended yet.

We've come a long way, and are really trying to get notice to you as soon as possible - without frustrating anyone by "jumping the gun" and sending out the notice before the website is capable of booking the new dates.

Hope that sheds some light on why the DING! notice may not be instantaneous.

rove312

Victor,

Do we have any indication of about what time the schedule extension will happen? The usual 10 a.m. Central, or earlier as happened last time to coordinate with a press release about BOS service, as you helpfully explained it? As you explained it last time, the earlier time was not a permanent change.

SWAVictor

I honestly haven't heard yet - I did, however, share all the frustration with the early opening last time, so your concerns have been heard.

SAPMAN

EC Traveler -- If you are going to extend the Award anyway, might as well do it now and be ready to go. After all, available seats could be gone between the time you check schedule and have Award re-established.

I would think early/mid November has a good chance of snagging a seat, espec. since Thanksgiving falls a bit late this year.

SAPMAN

Any more news on when the new schedule will open up tomorrow??

ftnoob

If the OP is definitely going to to extend the award and wants to absolutely maximize the new validity window, he could extend it early in the morning the day the November booking window opens, but before the schedule extension goes live.

OTOH, if this extension is completely contingent on availability for this one date, I'd suggest opening a separate browser tab or window for the award extension page. Have the form completely filled out and be ready to click "Submit" once availability is determined. Of course the OP will have to use a workaround to keep the MySouthwest session from expiring while waiting. (There is no workaround for the hard limit of two hours, however, so don't log in more than, say, 30 to 60 minutes before the schedule is expected to open.)