another southwest question

disneymom15 · #1 08-05-2009, 02:43 PM

I know that southwest does not assign seats. Is there a way to see how many seats are unsold. Planning a trip for late Nov with my parents. Thing is, my moms health is not very good and dad wants to wait a few more weeks to see which directions she's going in.

Strmchsr · #2 08-05-2009, 03:06 PM

About the only way to tell how many seats are unsold is by watching the fares. The "cheap" tickets always sell first with the most expensive selling last. If you see the "cheap" seats sell out then you know the plane is starting to get full. Don't know any other way to find out. Though it costs a little more, your dad could buy a refundable ticket.

NotaGeek · #3 08-05-2009, 03:53 PM

There is no way to really see if any airline has unsold tickets, as many airlines oversell their planes up to 30% at times ... the less seats available the higher the price though, so thats one way to assume status (realize that advance fares don't count towards this, so that's a bit of a wrench). Since Southwest doesn't assign seat's they don't have to do seat count the same way other airlines do ... one person per chair and if the whole seat map is full, you can assume the plane is going to be oversold, Southwest is sneaky and doesn't give that much info.

momofdisneyprincess · #4 08-06-2009, 11:24 AM

IMHO, Southwest customer service is excellent. I would call, explain your situation, and see if they can tell you. Another option, is to buy a seat and take a credit for a future flight should he not go.

AZ Disney · #5 08-06-2009, 06:10 PM

It's very easy for a SWA employee (not sure if they are allowed to for a revenue customer) to check on the availability of seats on a flight in the future. They have a very sophisticated software program that allows employees to check on potential seats so they can make informed decisions on if they'll get a "non rev" seat. It's all based on historical data. I'm guessing that there is a way to do this for a customer as well. There aren't a lot of open seats on SW planes and the longer you wait the less deals there will be. If it turns out that your Mom won't be able to go, you can apply those travel funds to anyone for the next 12 months. Good luck.

Fangorn · #6 08-06-2009, 09:22 PM

If you have a specific flight in mind, you can call the Southwest reservation line and ask how full the flight is. I've done this several times - usually because I wanted to see the likelihood of having an extra seat for a baby. They won't usually tell you the exact number of seats left, but they'll usually give you a rough percentage of available seats. All Southwest planes have 137 seats, so you can do the math and at least get a feel for it.

Other than that, watching prices is the only way you're going to get any sort of idea on how fast a flight is filling up.

Steve