Anyone Book on SW Today When Schedule Opened Up?

[mdsd8700]

I have been waiting patiently for this day to come; the opening of the SW schedule through the Holiday's. I was hoping for better than I got, but am fine with it, even if it is more than I wanted to pay. We are leaving from Chicago on Thanksgiving and coming back on Monday, so a pretty short trip. We paid $325 per person round trip. Our tickets have already gone up $53 per person, so I am lucky I booked first thing. We are taking 3 guests with us who have never been at the Holiday's so it will be really fun. One is grandma, the other two are our kids best friends and none of the kids know they are going, so I am excited for that as well. :RpS_biggrin:

[josh]

"SW" is Southwest?

[mdsd8700]

"SW" is Southwest?

Sorry about that, yes SW is Southwest. At least my husband will be glad to know that I try to confuse everyone not just him. :RpS_wink:

[Husker Mouse]

Yes, I was up at 4:45 this morning to get ready for the magic hour. I booked with a rep over the phone to use my 2 free round trip airfares. We waited and finally about 5 they were loaded into the system, but I was disappointed. First, SW has cut about 3 morning flights from Omaha on Saturdays and my RR rewards could not be used on our return flights for Sunday. So, I had to completely change everything. Now we are coming in on a Friday at 11:30 at night and leaving on Saturday rather than Sunday. I still had to book two flights online as I was talking to him. I had to get the online discount fare for the rest of us. Man, those prices were rising very fast. I booked quickly and within a half an hour they were up about $50.00! An hour later, about $100.00 more per ticket! I am happy I got my two free flights, but now I have to rethink some touring, etc. When you picture your vacation for so long in your head and then your days along with parks change- well, it is a little hard to wrap my brain around:RpS_unsure: I am sure it will be fine. I just need to rethink some things:RpS_thumbup:

[mdsd8700]

Yes, I was up at 4:45 this morning to get ready for the magic hour. I booked with a rep over the phone to use my 2 free round trip airfares. We waited and finally about 5 they were loaded into the system, but I was disappointed. First, SW has cut about 3 morning flights from Omaha on Saturdays and my RR rewards could not be used on our return flights for Sunday. So, I had to completely change everything. Now we are coming in on a Friday at 11:30 at night and leaving on Saturday rather than Sunday. I still had to book two flights online as I was talking to him. I had to get the online discount fare for the rest of us. Man, those prices were rising very fast. I booked quickly and within a half an hour they were up about $50.00! An hour later, about $100.00 more per ticket! I am happy I got my two free flights, but now I have to rethink some touring, etc. When you picture your vacation for so long in your head and then your days along with parks change- well, it is a little hard to wrap my brain around:RpS_unsure: I am sure it will be fine. I just need to rethink some things:RpS_thumbup:

Holy Cow you certainly had a lot going on this morning! How frustrating that flights have been cut and that you couldn't use your RR on some of the flights. I am sure you had a headache when you were done. I know what you mean when you say you "picture it all in your head" one way and then well reality steps in! However I am sure you will be able to work it out and have a great trip in everyway!!

It took me more than an hour to book 7 flights. I had 2 sets of credits, a SW gift card and then of course a credit card for the rest. I had to book the legs separately intead of round trip because SW only allows for 4 types of payment. Anyway I did the return leg and got an error message that it didn't work and to do it again. So I did. Later I realized it booked twice! :RpS_scared: At first I only noticed in the e-mails and then thought I had somehow made a mistake and booked the return leg twice (without the outbound). So I logged into SW and looked at my "trips" and realized what happened. Still I was a bit paniced as this had never happened to me before and didn't know what the protocal would be. Anyway after 20 mintues on hold I got a customer rep who was very nice and simply cancelled the duplicate and refunded my credit card. No questions asked. I guess that sort of thing must happen often, but I didn't ask. Was just glad it was easy to fix!! :RpS_biggrin:

Enjoy your trip!

[Husker Mouse]

Wow! I thought mine was a pain, but yours takes the cake! I think I would have needed some valium(SP) with my coffee just to make it through! I am doing some adjusting and I think it will all work out!:RpS_wink: I just need to ask for one more day off from school:RpS_unsure:

[mdsd8700]

I think I would have needed some valium(SP) with my coffee just to make it through! I am doing some adjusting and I think it will all work out!:RpS_wink: I just need to ask for one more day off from school:RpS_unsure:

LOL! I will say my initial reaction was to freak out and I called my husband as soon as I figured it out. He calmed me down a bit before I made the call to SW.

Hope you can get your extra day off and that you new plan is just as good or better than the old one! :RpS_biggrin:

[peachygreen]

This makes me very nervous for planning this time next year. I looked earlier today and the least expensive flights were already booked for when I wanted to travel. (looking at next years "dates" this year)

[mdsd8700]

This makes me very nervous for planning this time next year. I looked earlier today and the least expensive flights were already booked for when I wanted to travel. (looking at next years "dates" this year)

I understand exactly what you are saying! Booking the flight was the last thing needed to complete our Thanksgiving trip and I was very worried that the tickets would be too high or the schedule wouldn't work out. We traveled the same week last year from Chicago to Orlando so I already had some experience with the "pricing structure" i.e. which days of the Thanksgiving week seem to have the cheaper flights and which ones sold out most quickly. I made notes of that for planning the trip this year. Our dates were chosen strictly based on that info and it was a gamble for sure. As no guarantees what happened last year would happen again this year. Overall it worked out really well for us, although I am sure that is not the case for everyone who booked with SW yesterday. They do appear to have cut back their non-stop flights. So if you do go next year at this time good luck (a year ahead of time :RpS_wink:). I would say to know your travel plans, choose a dollar amount you can live with for ticket prices (go a bit on the higher side) and book as soon as you can.