Southwest Airlines Community

  We are traveling to Disney as a family, my husband and I, our two daughters and son-in-law's and are four grandchildren ages six, five, 4 1/2 and four. I waited for Southwest to release their flights for April and then rather quickly proceeded to book airfare for all 10. As you can only book 8 flights at a time, I chose to book my children and grandchildren and their round-trip fare from Hartford to Orlando was at a cost of $450 per ticket. These were the best prices I could get, utilizing the cheapest fare offered at the time, the 'Wanna Get Away' fare. I then booked 2 tickets for my husband and myself and was able to get them for $400 each. It seems to me that when booking larger groups, you're penalized.  I also paid an additional $15/per person/per trip, at a cost of a total of $300, for the privilege of possibly boarding early.   Because of a family problem, I neede to change the reservations to 2 days later, resulting in an increase for all 10 tickets from $450 and $400 to a whopping $770 - at an additional $3000 cost to me. What bothered me the most was that when those tickets I originally purchased were cancelled, they were not offered as 'wanna get away' fares so that someone else would have reaped the benefit of my misfortune.   In addition to that, a family member who booked a month later than me, on Delta, was able to get a round-trip ticket, with a direct flight, for the same time at a cost of $243.20!! Granted, we are leaving from Hartford, and my nephew will be leaving from NY. But the difference per ticket is $320 and $370, not counting the extra money I shelled out -$15/per person to be able to have the privilege of boarding earlier than the people that did not pay that, for a grand total of an additional $3300.  In addition I lost the $150 I paid for all 10 people to board early on the flight down - because the only flight available was the 'business select' class that boards early anyway.  Southwest does not refund that.  And whereas I was originally leaving at great times for both flights, we will now be traveling late at night.  Otherwise my fares would be even more expensive.   I have flown Southwest with my family for a very long time. I will likely try another airline in the future, because the warm and fuzzy feeling I used to have for this airline has faded.  I look forward to hearing back from Southwest when I email this to them.  Although I look forward to going, I will get on that plane with different feeling.     Happy new new year to all!       ... View more