Southwest Credits

[BigRedDad]

I am probably going to have to book our flights to MCO soon. Unfortunately, the current prices are quite high. My question is what does it take to book at a lower rate if a sale comes out. I know they will give me a credit towards a future purchase. Do I have to call SW directly to book under the new fare and get a credit for the old fare?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[sassafras]

Last time we flew to Orlando, we flew SW.The rates changed dramatically after we booked online. I called SW and the agent walked me thru the online procedure to lower the price and give us the credit. That made it really easy!I'm looking at SW's prices for May and they're really high! I may just fly NW this time!

[Fangorn]

On Southwest, you generally don't have to call. You can do just about everything from the website. (There are a few atypical things for which you'll still need to call).

If you book a flight at $100 but find they're offering a lower *non-DING* fare fare later, you can make the change easily by going to Travel Tools and clicking on the Change Itinerary button. It will walk you through the steps. Basically, it will appear that you're booking another flight, but when you get to the payment screen, you'll see the funds from your previous purchase and it will show the amount of the credit. When you select that you want to purchase the airfare, the change will be made. Your confirmation number will remain the same.

DING fares are different. For these you actually have to cancel the original flight (or portion thereof) and rebook at the new fares. This can all be done on-line. When you cancel the original flights, your credit will be available immediately. You just then turn around and book at the new fares and pay for it with the credit. The remaining credit can be used for up to 1 year from the date of the original purpose ("used" means the trip has to be completed by this date - not just booked)

For DING fares, I usually open two browsers - 1 for the cancellation and the other to book the DING fare. I set up the cancellation up to the point of pressing the Cancel button, and do the same for the new fare. Once both are ready, I hit cancel, wait for the response and then confirm the new purchase. This isn't necessary, but I just like to minimize the time I don't actuall have my flights booked :blush:.

Hope this helps.

Steve

[BigRedDad]

Thank you for the info. I think I am going to book our flight to MCO today. Prices just have not gone down. I would rather have the seats than not. It is about $100 more than I wanted to spend, but I will get there in the early morning instead of late at night. Then, if a better fare comes around, I can get the credit back. If I can't use the credit, I can sell it on eBay.

[princessjojo]

I booked our SW flights on Jan 9, the day the flights opened, and the rates were still a little high for SW rates, but my concern was seats & flight times. I want first in & last out flights & got 8:20am arrival & 9:55pm departure so I was elated. Hopefully though I will be able to do the same as you mentioned and find a cheaper deal sometime between now & June though.

Thanks for asking this, as I was wondering about the same thing.