Southwest Airlines "unavailable"

when a Wanna Get Away fare is unavailable, will it never be available again? Should I just go ahead and book a higher priced fare? I do realize they will give me a credit if there is a change, but I'd hate to outlay the money for 6 tickets.

Is this far out in the future or travelling in the next 7 days? Far out in the future - I would bet, sold out in that class. Last minute flight - higher last minute prices (unless the plane is empty - which hasn't been happening very often on SWA these days).

JMHO,

Fares on this date were released yesterday. I booked one direction and not the other. The other direction was high and I figured I'd wait. Now its gone.

That specific fare may not be back, but you should be able to snag one of the sale fares which pop up periodically. I also recommend getting Ding! for your PC which will alert you to one-day sales from time to time. It may take some diligence, but unless you are talking about travelling over a holiday, you should still be ok.

Don't know exactly where you are travelling to, but I've seen the cheap fares come back.
What we've also done on occasion is book 1 way with SW and then check Kayak for other airlines and book the other flight on a different airline. Also if you see a decent fare on kayak, go to the specific airlines website. You may also get it even cheaper.

DD and gr d went to Portland Or on SW and I found her a return on Northwest thru Kayak. Since Delta and NW merged, I went to both sites and found the NW site to be cheaper then the Delta fare.

I called to see why and they said "so many seats at a cheaper fare". So apparently Delta sold out cheap fares before NW did.

I learned from this experience to search all options!!!!!!

I've also seen lower fares come back. Between the time I booked my most recent flight from Austin to Orlando around the first of the year (or whenever they came out) and the time I left on May 19, the fare went down from $270 from $222. I went in and made a change each time there was a drop.