scdreamer

Taking our extended family of ten to Puerto Vallarta next February - too early to reserve tickets on SWA right now - but last year they had the best fares by far for a direct flight for our departure airport.

Wondering if anyone knows how their fare structure works - is there a "best" time to look for and buy tickets?

MmePerdu

The best way to be alerted to their lowest fares is to go to the SW website and subscribe to emails announcing sales that include your airport of choice and those nearby.

https://www.southwest.com/html/email...TER-CNS-ENROLL

There's also Airfarewatchdog.com alerts for the rest.

emalloy

You also can click on the "Low Fare Calendar". It shows the fare for every day of the month that you choose to fly. If you see a lower fare for the same flight, you can rebook at the lower fare and bank the difference for a later trip.

DebitNM

The sooner is "usually" the better. There are often sales where the price goes down and if this happens you can re-book your ticket and get either your points back or a credit for the funds to be used within 1 year of original purchase date. The Luv vouchers have 1 glitch - if you have a $20 credit and use it towards a $100 ticket, paying the $80 balance...that entire ticket dates BACK to original date of first ticket since you used the $20 voucher. Be careful on that aspect. But the no fee change is involved.

katybird

Can the credit be used to purchase early bird check-in or just tickets?

DebitNM

I think just tickets.

and IF you have paid for early bird and want to take advantage of lower fare, do a change flight so you will retain early bird. If you cancel and then rebook, it's gone

katybird

Thanks so much Deb..good info!

katybird

I have been looking at tickets for Christmas. Suddenly all the tickets...except maybe 1 or 2 for wanna get away for my dates are sold out. I checked a few days later and some are available again. Do they release only a few at a time?

doug_stallings

I doubt they have released new seats. Instead, it's much more likely that someone released a seat they'd already booked because they changed plans or found a better option. Southwest allows you to rebook without a penalty, so that's why some seats booked very early end up being released for sale again.

And to answer your initial question, the best time to book with Southwest, is the day tickets go on sale or shortly thereafter. That's when the largest number of the cheapest seats are available. Having said that, I don't think you can assume that there will be 10 of the cheapest seats on the same flight. There may be, but that's a lot of seats.

katybird

I am referring to the number of departure time options available for 'wanna get away" not the number of seats per flight. Sorry, I was not clear.

There are 12 departure times listed for my date at the 'wanna get away" rate. Today only 1 departure time is available at the "wanna get away" rate. The 11 others are sold out. However, I have been watching this and have found some of the departure times pop up again as available at this wanna get away rate. ..then will show sold out once again. Thus is why I am wondering if they release only a certain number of seats at certain rates.

I am glad we are booked. This is too nerve wracking!

scdreamer

OP here - yesterday I saw that seats are available for the SWA flights we need for our family trip to PV. The price is pretty darn amazing. I was able to buy all ten seats on the same flight for the "Wanna Get Away" fare - plus paid the tax for the baby to come along on a lap.

Yay! We're all goin' on vacation!

suze

How did you find it? Just by checking back on their website again?

I'm asking because I'm looking at Seattle to Puerto Vallarta for October/November and SW prices are sky high! Way more than Alaska Air.