<p>Classof2015…since I usually fly Southwest, and I don’t usually make changes to my reservations, I think their policy is very good…and easy to do. And it beats buying an inexpensive fare that costs $150 to change…or losing your money entirely.</p>
<p>Last summer, I changed a Southwest reservation THREE times in five days…no problem and no cost to change (the price of the ticket was the same…or i would have had to pay the difference). None at all. I was so thankful I hadn’t flown on United which was my other choice for that trip. </p>
<p>I was supposed to go to Baltimore in May. Plans changed…but I used my Southwest credit for a fare to Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>I find this feature of Southwest terrific! But that is MY opinion.</p>
<p>I also found that website very helpful. After you find a low fare + route that you want to use you then have to go to a travel agent website to buy the ticket, but it is still a great tool.</p>
<p>Start the booking process (select the flight, and start entering passenger names). Then, check fares with other airlines. Once you start the booking process, assuming you do not time out, the quoted fare usually does not change.</p>
<p>BTW: I always start with Kayak and Orbitz, and then check the individual websites of the airline with the lowest fare for the schedule I want.</p>
<p>Southwest is great if they go between the cities you want. Book the fare as soon as you know, and if the fare goes down, you can apply the difference to a future flight (for the same person). Nio baggage fees is another plus. The only downside is seats.</p>
<p>I sure was butthurt at Southwest when they allowed me to rebook my same flight four times, each time dropping my fare by about $20. Also the time I was visiting my parents and rebooked less than 24 hours before my flight to stay an extra day and save $150. Such a shame they only gave me credit (without blackout dates) instead of charging me an arm and a leg each time. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Classof2015- You clearly don’t fly much (as you admitted) or you would not be criticizing Southwest’s method of giving credit. It is a true gift compared to the change fees and hits the other airlines use.</p>
<p>Southwest policies appear a bit corny at first (ding? or bags with wings but I love those now), however they are the best though. No change fees even on the day of departure is the best in the industry. Southwest also allows two checked bags for free. </p>
<p>We use southwest for all of our personal travel if southwest flies that route.</p>
<p>Re: banking money. With the interest rates so low, how many cents do you expect to earn by holding that amount in your own bank account? Southwest incurs some costs associated with your cancellation, so it is fair for them to hold your fare, IMO.</p>
I did the same thing - changed reservations 3 times the day of departure. We were on vacation when DH was rushed to the hospital at 3 AM. We were supposed to be on a 10 AM flight home. Not happening. I went on line and changed to that evening. Then changed to the next day. I booked one flight, liked another better, etc. Then I couldn’t get the flight I wanted, so I called to find out why it wouldn’t let me book it on line. The rep said, “No problem. I’ll cancel you, and you’ll get the credit immediately. Then you can apply it to a new reservation on the flight you want. There are plenty of seats.” We did exactly that.</p>
<p>Did I care that I didn’t get a “refund” of the $20 that the flight had gone done? Nope. But I did care that I didn’t have to pay $150 each time I had to make a change - total $450 for each of us!</p>
<p>Add me to the many who HATE the crazy way airfares bounce around. I have just resigned myself to trying to nail down a decent price as soon as we are POSITIVE about what we want to do.</p>
<p>If I recall correctly (I always take the credit), depending on the type of ticket you buy, some fares are refundable rather than for credit. You can apply for a refund. I think it comes by check and probably takes a while, but the credit is not the only option–unless they’ve changed the policy recently. </p>
<p>S2 recently bought a ticket with Rapid Rewards point. He was trying to make a change and saw that the new flight he wanted was cheaper. He got the extra points he didn’t need to pay credited back. Actually, he had to cancel one ticket and repurchase the other one because he was changing destination cities.</p>
The problem with those sites is that they don’t usually show Southwest and Southwest usually ends up being a better deal and they often fly where I want to fly and I generally like them. It just turned out this time that in the 10 minutes I was checking a few things, including checking with the person who’d be flying, the price went up. I usually don’t get caught like that with them - it was just a timing thing. In this case though it caused me to switch to a different airline (with a more convenient schedule but the $40 cheaper fare on SW initially would have trumped that - but then it went up $40).</p>
<p>I know when I booked my United fare recently there was a 24 hour window to cancel it. Not sure if that was because I booked it through my mileageplus account or just because I booked it on the United web site.</p>
<p>One also has to be very careful to check the fine print on additional charges…want a seat assignment, carry on bag, better place in the boarding line, second bag…plan to use the rest room - will that be with or without a seat protector (well, okay not yet)…these can all add a painful amount to the end cost. </p>
<p>Also, code share partners can have very different prices listed on their native sites…one year Lufthansa was charging $1400 for the same seat listed by United at $790!</p>
<p>I am a big fan of Southwest and hope they get their Hawaii flights in place soon!</p>
<p>Southwest fares have been very high for me over the past year. Add this to the disadvantageous changes to their frequent flier program and I now fly Southwest far less often than in past years.</p>
<p>One thing to watch out for with Southwest re: changes. There are no change fees, but when you have to make last minute changes you do have to do so at the current fare and pay the difference. On my routes, Southwest tends not to have reasonable last minute fares, so I’m better of using the credit for another trip and booking my new return on a different airline.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, United has a hub where I live so they seem to fly everywhere. What I hate about United is that they do not book one way fares. Oh you can book a one way fare with them and it is more expensive than a RT which is such a throw back to when all airlines only booked RT. </p>
<p>I wish Southwest was out here in the east. Jet blue is good but you have to go to JFK which is not so good to fly with them.</p>
<p>I fly from newark or JFK to LAX. South west does go but you to have a stop over and may need to change planes. Jet blue and United go direct non stop. Jet blue even goes to Burbank.</p>
<p>Yeah. United serves HI more than the other airlines so most of my points are with them. When I’ve checked, the SW fares have not been a bargain, other than not charging a penalty for changes. Close to the date, SWFares seem very high.</p>
<p>This hasn’t been my experience at all. I’ve booked several one-ways on United in the past 3 months (PHL->SFO, SFO->IAD, BWI->SFO, SFO->PNS) and have found the one-way to be half the roundtrip fare. I was pretty surprised to find these fares. </p>
<p>I’ve also been flying Southwest which I prefer because there are more options out of San Jose. Bargains can be found if you book well ahead of time, and I love their no change fee policy. It seems like Southwest’s deals are mainly in markets where United doesn’t fly. Where United and SW compete in the same market their fares seem to be very close in price (= expensive). So much for competition!</p>
<p>I flew American in May, also one-way, and found a new (to me) deal where you can pay a bit more to waive the change fee. United has what they call flexible fares but they’re $1000 more than the no-change fare. On American I paid about $40 more for this flexibility.</p>
<p>The worst poker game I’ve played is trying to book Delta international tickets on miles. You put in the request, try to book it…and oops, that fare JUST sold out! Yeah right. It is unbelievable, you can put in the route, push enter, get a mileage quote for 125K miles, re-enter it 5 seconds later, now it’s 80K, 5 seconds later, now it’s 220K. For the same route. It’s like some sort of cruel joke.</p>
<p>On the positive, I booked two international mileage tickets for 120K each, found one available later on for 60K miles…they refunded me the other 60K, and the other one they refunded me 40K miles. 60K miles from Seattle to Rome roundtrip is a fantastic deal, but it took me so much time, and so many tries to get it.</p>