New Southwest Fare Structure

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I booked two flights this morning, one to Oakland, one to Tampa. I'm not sure I like it. I preferred having more cheaper options displayed, which gave me a sense of more choices. Now it jumps from "Wanna get away" cheaper fares to Business and Business Select, really high comparatively, I think more than the previous fully refundable flight costs.
Liz

[madherb]

but you still made the reservation, right.

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

Yes, but only because I was able to find the cheaper fare. The jump to the next fare class is huge, unlike the old system where you might pay $20 more to go up one level in cost.
Liz

[riverdees05]

Even the "Wanna get away" fares are high! Booked and will wait for a sale.

[Luanne]

There are still some internet only fares. Still somewhat higher than what they used to be though.

[tomandrobin]

The new fare system......

SUCKS!

[lll1929]

I reviewed the new fare system since I love to fly southwest due to DING. I also hate the new categories. I don't understand why the onlu have certain flights for a specific date at the low (Web) price but others are higher. So if you call in to book, I wonder if you qualify for the Web pricing?

Maybe this is a way to push more booking to the web.

It still stinks.

[Luanne]

Originally Posted by lll1929

So if you call in to book, I wonder if you qualify for the Web pricing?

I would doubt it. I thought it pretty clearly stated "internet only".

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I fly Southwest a lot and don't (or haven't) even comparision shopped for most flights, because Southwest was cheaper. Now, I will comparision shop.
Liz

[Luanne]

I fly Southwest because not only their fares, but their routes, many times are better for me. I like being able to fly out of Oakland direct to a lot of the places I'm going to. I'm wondering how much of the increase in fares is due to the increase in fuel prices and I'm thinking that will impact all carriers.

[anniemac]

On a semi-related matter. I'm fairly new to Rapid Rewards and have ended up with a reward that I can't use by the Feb expiration date. Is there any way to get any use out of it?

[pointsjunkie]

yes, for $50 they will extend it for a year. call SW to do it.

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I went to the Southwest site to comment on their blog. They are getting flamed right now for these changes, especially the new boarding system, (which I don't understand), but which no longer has families with young children and others needing assistance boarding first. I think Southwest will need to make some changes. They have a ton of upset, usually very loyal, customers.
Liz

[John Cummings]

I just checked the fares from Ontario CA to Las Vegas for next month. What I see is they have just renamed their fares and lumped all the discount fares into a range. In reality the fares themselves are not changed other than renaming them. I know most people don't like change but this is one change that really hasn't affected anything other than make the web page a little neater. The fares are still basically the same as when I checked a few weeks ago.

[geoffb]

I have to agree, sure the old system showed you all those different categories but it seemed silly because unless you wanted the fully refundable fare you were going to pick the cheapest one anyway... so now they just show you the cheapest one automatically.

Southwest is often the cheapest fare available but not always so we comparison shop every flight. In some cases I can find a cheaper fare on another airlines but Southwest has a non-stop for a little more and I am willing to pay extra for that.

[talkamotta]

Originally Posted by Liz Wolf-Spada

I went to the Southwest site to comment on their blog. They are getting flamed right now for these changes, especially the new boarding system, (which I don't understand), but which no longer has families with young children and others needing assistance boarding first. I think Southwest will need to make some changes. They have a ton of upset, usually very loyal, customers.
Liz

Its amusing that the Business Select gets the "A" boarding group (thats an incentive to pay top dollar)

We flew to Tampa a couple of weeks ago standby. On the "TO" flight I was taking my 6 week old grandbaby. I got to use the family boarding. Im sure that when other customers that had already boarded saw me coming down the isle they had wished I was able to board BEFORE them. Alyssa was a doll. Only cried for about 5 minutes the whole trip. The 4 of us were still able to sit together.

They started the A boarding first practice, because so many people were complaining. People were saying they arrived at the airport way early in order to get that A. Yeah right....maybe some...but most just printed the boarding passes at home the night before at midnight.

I like the way it was... I would still get the A boarding pass and I could see my options of where I wanted to sit.

I dont mind a baby or child being fussy if the parents are doing what they can to stop it. I would rather not sit behind a tolder/young child that can sit down and thier feet continually kick my seat. Ive only had that happen on assigned seating.

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by talkamotta

Its amusing that the Business Select gets the "A" boarding group (thats an incentive to pay top dollar)

They are fully refundable/changeable (with no fee) tickets with a price premium for the A boarding group. Looks like they are trying to cater to higher-fare business travelers even from their new descriptions of the gate areas. If you check in online at the right time, can you still get one of the A boarding groups on a cheap fare?

Next thing you know, they will have a business class section on the planes. In that case, there will be a total of two classes of travel on SWA, business class and cattle class.

I played with some pricing of trips between SFO and LAS, and on the return date I picked, they displayed the business select fare of $164, the business fare of $149 and for most of the flights, the web only fare of $49. I wonder which one anybody would pick. (traveling on business or not.)

-David

[geoffb]

Yes, anyone can still get an A group pass. Business Select seats are limited to 15 per flight so A1-A15 are reserved for those tickets. If the select seats don't sell the person with A16 is basically at the front of the line.

I agree that putting family boarding between A and B doesn't make sense, people in the A group who want to avoid sitting near children just have to re-locate. More importantly, having the car seats and other extra stuff come on between A and B ends up blocking the aisles and in my experience slowed down the boarding process. It would make more sense to put them on first (along with adults needing special assistance) and enforce the eligibility strictly.

[Luanne]

We're flying Southwest next week. I'm planning on going in and requesting boarding passes as soon as I can (24 hours ahead, right?). I'll let you know how I do.

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I looked at a flyer we got from SWest. It sounds like if you fly 16 flights in a year (which I don't) you get the super duper selection and can book 36 hours in advance for your boarding pass. I agree that it still makes better sense to put people on who need assistance or are traveling with young children before anyone else. Then everything else is usually really fast.
Liz

[spatenfloot]

Since they are changing their emphasis to business travellers, maybe the policy is designed to discourage travellers with small children. Besides, there are usually plenty of seats towards the back of the plane left after A group boards anyway.

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

One of the concerns expressed on the blog by parents, especially moms with toddlers, was the difficulty of dragging the toddler (or more) and possibly a car seat, carry on, diaper bag etc. to the back of the plane and then off again. I have never really found that those people preboarding take up a lot of space in the front and I don't really mind letting them board first. Traveling with small children is hard enough, Southwest could give them a break.
Liz

[JimIg23]

We just did a flight to Orlando with 3 children and we were afraid of not sitting together because of the A/B boarding, but it was not a problem on one way, but we had to sit a few seats away on one of the flights.


I do have another bone to pick with them. I fly on average of once (to twice) per month with them, and have recieved a good number of free trips. You would think when they give you a free ticket they would put you in the A group. It may be free, but it is free because you are a frequent flier, and they should take care of FFs. They gave me a B card and said they could not change it. I dont know about SW anymore.....

[geoffb]

Well, they have done that with the A-List but they have also set the bar at 32 flights per year to qualify. If you average two roundtrips a month you'd be on the list.

[DianneL]

My friend left Nashville today, flying to Kansas City and on to Albuquerque on Southwest. She was on the computer exactly 24 hours prior to flight time (i.e. 4:40 pm), hit the button to get her boarding pass. Her boarding pass from Nashville to Kansas City was A41 and from Kansas City to Albuquerque was A23. However, she does have a broken foot and was in a walking boot. Southwest did allow her to pre board.