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Southwest Airlines Community

READY...SET....BOOK!

Bill
Employee
Employee
DING! You are now free to make reservations on Southwest Airlines for travel through August 24, 2007! Thanks everyone for your...ummm...."patience" while we've finalized the Summer 2007 schedule. This has, in all honesty, been quite an eye-opening experience for us in Schedule Planning. While our goal has always been to maintain between 120 and 180 days of bookable inventory, as I explained in my last post, we have on numerous occasions dropped down into the 90's (the last time being for the Summer 2005 schedule) and, frankly, we've never gotten a lot of negative feedback about it. Of course, that was pre-blog! So, because we have heard the opinions of our Customers (man, oh MAN have we heard you!) on this subject, going forward we are going to much more strictly maintain a minimum of 120 days of inventory. I think you'll be happy to know that the blog thread and your replies have spurred a couple of other improvements as well. We're working with our colleagues in Reservations and at southwest.com to find better, more effective ways to communicate the date we anticipate releasing new booking inventory. Of course, and I will warn you right now, these will be planned dates--and they will shift around a bit--but we're learning that even information that may change can be better than no information at all. So, standby for communication improvements! And finally--now that the Summer schedule's out for sale, I'm going to get back to my job, but I want to take the opportunity to thank the folks that actually wrote the Summer, Memorial Day, and July 4th schedules. So--Desiree, Bob, Dan, Matt, trainer superior Kerry Marie, and even you, Friedman--GOOD JOB!!!!!! Happy booking, everyone!
73 Comments
Geraldine_Lunde
Explorer C
About a month ago, a very close friend of mine and I decided to take our daughters and a couple of friends to Palm Springs for a graduation gift of a Spring Break. We searched and we searched and finally found that Southwest Airlines flew from Seattle to LA. We thought what a great idea, to include an over night stay in Seattle (as we live in Vancouver B. C.) and a chance to see LA. We booked the tickets for ourselves, our daughers and two of their girlfriends (6 tickets) and thought we were all set to go. Unforseen circumstances have brought about a change in plans. The 4 girls can no longer make the journey. An investigation by the other mom involved has brought forward the information that we cannot get a refund or even transfer the tickets to any of our other children or individuals. This leaves us in quite a spot as the cost is being born by ourselves. The other mom is a single working mom and this was her special gift to her daughter. A trip of a lifetime... In your Mission Statement is says that "we always try to do the right thing". I do believe that the "right Thing" in this instance is to either allow for transfer of the tickets to another name or to refund the total cost of the ticket to us. This is causing great anxiety as the cost is high to both of our families. We hope and pray that you will follow the words of your mandated Mission statement and "do the right thing". Geraldine, Vancouver Canada
Charles11
Explorer C
Geraldine, You do get a voucher and can use the credit for a different SW flight. No, this is not a refund. But no airline will ever "refund" your money when you have to cancel. It's difficult to get a refund when the airline has to cancel. And even then thats rare, you usually just get "credit" or a free flight.
Dave_Burton
Explorer C
Re: "Ding" bug report. I noticed a small problem with Ding today. It seems that it keeps the \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file open continuously, thus preventing the user from changing his hosts file. Please fix this in the next version of Ding! Thanks, -Dave Burton 1-919-481-0149
Jon1111
Explorer C
Any thoughts on instituting a "premium" award - like allowing a bypass of the capacity control and or blackout dates for a "double" award price? I would easily be fine with using two awards to get back to the no capacity awards of the past (and to throw in blackout date override would be a bonus). Just a thought.... Jon
Miranda
Explorer C
Does anyone know when the schedule for Labor day will be released? I'm dying to book our flights!!!
marvinwilliams
Explorer C
I HAD A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE ON SOUTWEST MARCH 12 FLYING FROM TAMPA TO SACRAMENTO. AFTER I BOARDED AND SAT DOWN, THE LARGEST MAN I EVER SAW IN PERSON SAT DOWN NEXT TO ME WITH HIS FAT LAYING OVER ON ME. I TRIED TO MOVE, BUT ATTENDANT IGNORED ME. .....THE FLIGHT WAS FROM ST.LOUIS TO PHOENIX....THIS GETS WORSE AS SAME THING HAPPENED ON FLIGHT FROM PHOENIX TO L.A. ANOTHER GIANT SAT ON ME....NO MORE FLIGHTS ON SOUTHWEST FOR ME EVER......
Tim_Griffin
Explorer C
I booked a flight to New Orleans in January. I changed the itenerary twice up to March 26. I totally forgot about the paid fare and did not make the trip out. Do I get credit for the unused fare? If so how do i use it in the future? Thanks, Tim Griffin
blusk
Aviator C
Hi Tim Your funds are good for travel for up to a year from their purchase date. The next time you make a reservation, when the web site asks for form of payment, you have the option of using funds from a previous reservation. If you book over the phone, just tell the Reservations Sales Agent that you want to use exchange funds. Keep your confirmation number from the old reservation handy because it will speed up the process. It is very easy. Brian
Vincent_Pellicc
Explorer C
We are traveling in October any ideas when air fare will open and how long? Thanks
Kim_Abell
Explorer C
Only 136 days of booking inventory and still, reservations and southwest.com have no information as to the anticipated release of new inventory. We are dying to book wedding travel over Labor Day Weekend. A release date "projection" would certainly help allay our anxiety. Many thanks.
John4
Explorer C
Any updates or projections when the Labor Day schedule will be released? Thanks.
Jaime1
Explorer C
Just booked with airtran! With no schedule out for September and a really cheap fair with airtran had to go with them. This business of withholding dates and not updating your customers with anticipated release dates is really a turnoff.
bert1
Explorer C
Just over two weeks remaining to maintain the minimum of 120 day bookable inventory. Any chance the schedule will be out before the end of April?
blusk
Aviator C
Hey everyone, we will have a post up from Bill later this week with current news. Blog Boy
Mark19
Explorer C
I need to plan a Disney trip in late October. When will the schedule for October be released?
John4
Explorer C
I was told today by an Agent that the next schedule is tentatively scheduled to be published on 4/26.
joe_tellez
Explorer C
Flying is a word used once a year at our house! Southwest Airlines is known to take my Mom from point A to B safely, can anyone ask for more?
Gene11
Explorer C
Ding! bug report. Environment: Ding V1.05.005, XP Pro SP2, IE7.0.5730.11 Action: Use Ding! to open IE7, then close Ding! to the notification area. Problem: Ding will repeatedly take away focus from the currently active window. ALT-TAB shows Ding! in the task switcher. Exiting and re-launching Ding! resolves the problem.
Michelle_Kocar
Explorer C
THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting the anticipated release date and clarifying the time you anticipate the release of new booking windows! I was feverishly refreshing 4 screens from 9:55 a.m on CST on and was able to score fares for our family of 6 within our price range. I wish I could have booked the lowest fares for both legs of the trip, but having one still kept us in budget for our trip to WDW! THANK YOU- we love SWA even more now! Michelle
Petra_Lynn_Hofm
Explorer C
My first flight experience with and Why I will avoid Southwest at all costs: 1. I hate being insulted and treated as a common animal being loaded into the kill chute. 2. I hate finding out my baggage didn't travel on my plane but an earlier one and then waiting for 45 minutes to discover, on my own, my bags sitting out in the terminal. Basically, what I really hate is "I hate that I had to fly on this cheap airline in the first place."
Petra_Lynn_Hofm
Explorer C
BTW, I forgot to mention, even after joining the ridiculous frequent flyer program I still didn't receive any credit; which is probably OK as I won't fly this airline again. Petra
Kathy_Conner
Explorer C
I am a travel agent and recently there have been several ice storms in my area, with power outages. During this time my co workers in another state, was still issuing ticket in which the fax would have came to me, due to the power outages they did not. There fore I had to call WN and request duplicate faxes which is very time consuming and apparently annoying to the representatives I spoke to. It's time to update you website where I can retrieve these receipt with a ticket number on it or just submit another request; instead of the Stone Age way of calling and wasting you employees valuable time. Thank you for your time,
blusk
Aviator C
Hi Kathy, I have a suggestion. You can also receive intineraries via e-mail. They will be waiting for you whenever you have power to login to the computer. Our Travel Agency Administration folks can change your shell to show an e-mail address instead of the fax number. If by chance you are booking on SWABiz, the e-mail address can be entered at the time of booking. Brian