Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

How many Wanna Get Away seats?

cameronlaufer
Explorer B

Concerned that a flight is going to sell out before I can change/add my companion. the flight is sold out of Wanna Get Away fares. Typically, what % of the seats are sold in these fares? Does this mean it is close to selling out? 

8 REPLIES 8

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

dfwskier
Aviator A

Hello. Since this is a customer to customer forum, I don't think that anyone here can answer that question.

 

My suggestion (and what I do) is try to book your flight with 8 passengers. Obviously you would not follow thru with the purchase. If the site comes back and lets you book the flight (as opposed to saying sold out), then you know that there are at least 8 seats available on the flight. If sold out, then you can try to book 4, etc.   8 is the max that the site will let you book.

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

ksbrg
Employee
Employee

@dfwskier wrote:

My suggestion (and what I do) is try to book your flight with 8 passengers. If the site comes back and lets you book the flight (as opposed to saying sold out), then you know that there are at least 8 seats available on the flight. If sold out, then you can try to book 4, etc.   8 is the max that the site will let you book.


This is good

 

via GIPHY

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Even if the flight does sell out don't give up hope. Because of Southwest's friendly change policies people change reservations frequently, often at the very last minute. All you need to add a companion is one available seat so check availability several times a day, even up until 10 minutes prior to departure. 

 

Another option that people have used is to go ahead and purchase a seat for your companion so you at least have a guaranteed seat. Then when you are ready to use the Companion Pass you book the flight as a companion and cancel the purchased ticket. If the flight is sold out when go to do this, canceling the purchased reservation should open up a seat for you to book. I say should because there is certainly no guarantee it becomes available immediately or that someone else doesn't beat you to it. When possible, book the Companion Pass reservation first, then cancel the purchased flight. If you purchase a Business Select fare you can get a cash refund when you cancel it. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

 

 

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

SWDigits
Aviator A

@cameronlaufer wrote:

Concerned that a flight is going to sell out before I can change/add my companion. the flight is sold out of Wanna Get Away fares. Typically, what % of the seats are sold in these fares? Does this mean it is close to selling out? 


Personally, I would use points to book the flight for the second person you plan to take with on a separate reservation number than yours.  I'd do it this now because then you'll know they have a spot so that when they become your companion you can get in touch with Southwest to cancel the points booking and have them immediately added as your Companion on the booking.  Separate reservation numbers will make it easy to cancel the point booking ticket as they'll get a separate reservation number anyway for the Companion ticket.


Customer | Home airport DCA

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

bec102896
Aviator A

@SWDigits wrote:

@cameronlaufer wrote:

Concerned that a flight is going to sell out before I can change/add my companion. the flight is sold out of Wanna Get Away fares. Typically, what % of the seats are sold in these fares? Does this mean it is close to selling out? 


Personally, I would use points to book the flight for the second person you plan to take with on a separate reservation number than yours.  I'd do it this now because then you'll know they have a spot so that when they become your companion you can get in touch with Southwest to cancel the points booking and have them immediately added as your Companion on the booking.  Separate reservation numbers will make it easy to cancel the point booking ticket as they'll get a separate reservation number anyway for the Companion ticket.


Agree with you there on booking the 2nd ticket on points. When my dad was about to earn the companion pass we booked my ticket on points so when he got the companion pass it was an easy cancel and didn't have to take up $400 in CC funds in the meantime. Of course if you don't have enough points then i would buy a anytime/BS ticket if i see there are less than 8 seats left on a flight. 

 

Keep in mind with adding the companion you can add a companion if any seat is for sale so yes you could book a companion if there are only anytime seats left. 

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

jksobonya
Aviator A

I've actually wondering this myself - I don't know how many seats are reserved for each fare type. Would be great to know that information!

 

Considering with Business Select you are 'guaranteed' an A1 - A15 boarding position, the max that tier would have is 15 seats. So, the remaining seats on an airplane are either "Anytime" or "Wanna Get Away" fares. My guess is there are more WGA fares than Anytime, but the percentage of each is anyone's guess. 

 

--Jessica

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

dfwskier
Aviator A

@jksobonya wrote:

I've actually wondering this myself - I don't know how many seats are reserved for each fare type. Would be great to know that information!

 

Considering with Business Select you are 'guaranteed' an A1 - A15 boarding position, the max that tier would have is 15 seats. So, the remaining seats on an airplane are either "Anytime" or "Wanna Get Away" fares. My guess is there are more WGA fares than Anytime, but the percentage of each is anyone's guess. 

 

--Jessica


Jessica, I suspect that there is no real answer to the question as I believe it varies by routing and flight.

 

There are plenty of times that I've seen a schedule extension and found ZERO WGAs available for purchase. So the answer is 0 WGAs at least some of the time. Other times I've seen WGAs available on he date of departure.

 

As I said,I believe there is no fixed % of seats allocated to WGAs.

Re: How many Wanna Get Away seats?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@cameronlaufer wrote:

Concerned that a flight is going to sell out before I can change/add my companion. the flight is sold out of Wanna Get Away fares. Typically, what % of the seats are sold in these fares? Does this mean it is close to selling out? 


In addition to all of the excellent advice above:

 

  • Use points to buy a seat and exchange it later
  • I'm assuming you have booked yourself on the flight and are not waiting?
  • Refundable fare also saves a spot

 

...I have been in the unfortunate position of adding companion to flights in the 1-36 hour timeframe several trips - I'm not recommending you do this necessarily, but since Southwest changed policy not to overbook flights there will almost always be some action at the 24-hour mark when people get their automatic check-ins and many realize either they forgot they booked and cancel, change to another flight, business meetings are canceled, and even closer to the flight time people are standing by on earlier flights or missing their connections.

 

So most likely you can get on, but it may be stressful. I'd go with the advice to book a points ticket to hold a spot if the "penalty" for not having a seat would be major.

 

It doesn't matter if WGA, A, or BS tickets are available, any of these seats would be superseded by a companion booking if available.

 

Another angle of advice tangential to the discussion - many routes have the WGA removed and only Anytime or BS are available - if Southwest has data that last-minute people are going to take these, no reason to offer WGA fares.  So there could be many seats left if Anytime is showing.

 

Now if it is only BS left, then I would estimate fewer than 15 are available, possibly the last few seats.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.