Anyone wanting a non-official guess about schedule extension can try these two links: http://flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3943308&postcount=20 and http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=527240 (and skip to the most recent post).

Bill, I have one other question. Most schedule extensions happen shortly after 10 AM Central Time on Thursdays. What's magic about Thursday morning?

It is sometimes guess work--predicting how much business you will have a few months in advance. I worked in the hotel business and noticed the same thing. I naturally wonder what it costs to schedule further ahead than five months or so.

Is there some pressing reason for making a reservation further in advance?

This major issue I have is that I've been trying to book tickets since early December as a gift for my husband. The intention is to fly to Houston for his birthday. We would go May 12 - 17. So I've been waiting well over a month for the booking dates to expand a WEEK.... and in that time I have missed out on several deals. At one point I would have been able to get the round trip for roughly $370.00 now it's up to over $400. (i'm figuring this by seeing what it would be to book a week earlier.) So as a couple who isn't swimming in the cash this is getting to be a tidge frustrating. It's either to the point where we go to another airline, greyhound, drive, or don't go at all.

Greetings! Okay....I'm going to try and respond to almost ALL of the replies we get on this thread. So, in order:

Matthew,

We don't mean to keep folks guessing (well....all except our competitors, of course). That was the purpose of my blog post. The problem, and the problem with releasing schedules on specific dates, is that the anticipated "schedule's ready!" dates keep changing. We don't want to promise a date that we have to change later, just as we don't want to promise a schedule that we can't reasonably expect to deliver. And, according to our Technology folks, as of right now we don't send an immediate DING! telling folks that the booking window has increased, nor do we send one to our Rapid Rewards Customers. However, both are good ideas, and I'll run them up the flagpole for you.

nsx--

10 a.m. on Thursdays has to do with the way we distribute schedules. We typically send on a Friday, it "percolates" through the various distribution venues by Monday or Tuesday, then we give everyone until Thursday to get everything correctly loaded before we pull the trigger. It's certainly not set in stone--we've opened on other days of the week. The time of day isn't in concrete, either, but 10:00 a.m. Central time is about as early as we can assume the entire continental United States is awake and open for business.

And by the way--thanks for the link! I'm a flyertalk.com member as well.

francisco:

What saves us money is by **not** having to change people's schedules that have already booked. If we published further out, the chances are significantly greater that we'd have to make changes to their itineraries, then contact the Customers, and look for alternative itineraries--with no guarantees that there would BE alternative itineraries. Dealing with any or all of those itineraries, spread across thousands of Customers that could be impacted by even a slight schedule change, is VERY expensive. We'd rather focus our attention on keeping costs low.

As for SAN-ABQ vs. SAN-BWI fares: I'm not in the Pricing and Revenue Management group, but what you're likely seeing is the difference between trying to fly on a peak day SAN-ABQ vs. an off-peak day SAN-BWI--but without specifics, I wouldn't be able to comment for certain.

Chris:

The only pressing reason for booking waaaay in advance is so folks will be able to know exactly what they've got, what they're paying, and what they can expect. It's because we want to get all three correct, from the get-go, that we don't offer advance bookings any further out than we do!

Joe:

In my post I said we occasionally will dip below 120 days down to as low as 90, and that we're in one of those periods now. The reason why is very technical and would completely bore everyone out there into watching "Oprah!" reruns, but I'll condense it to just say that the schedule's just not done yet. However, unlike previous early summer schedule releases, this one will go all the way out past the middle of August. (Anyone....does that redeem us? Anyone? Bueller?)

Erica,

PLEASE bear with us. To quote the old song from "West Side Story" --

Something' s coming, something good
If I can wait
Something's coming, I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great...

You'll have a GREAT time in Space City!

And Angie,

Refer to my reply to Joe above....I know we're below 120, it happens on rare occasion....but we'd rather have a firm plan to offer our Customers than a "hmmm, that looks right" guess and then have to change things later. Please bear with us!!!!!

Okay--that's all for now. Further replies later tonight. Thanks for caring, guys--I know some of you are frustrated, but I (1) deeply appreciate your wanting to book future travel on Southwest, and (2) and thrilled you're reading the blog!

Bill

Bill,

Thank you for addressing the EXACT topic my Dad emailed me about, only TWO days ago. ;-)

Glad my answer was close to, although not as complete, as yours.

Will

P.S. BTW, did you say we're currently in one of those 'less than 120 periods' right now?? j/k

There is probably going to be some new city pairs. It takes time to add all of these. They are going to have 300 flights out of mdw.
Phx to vegas will go to every half hour and I'll get 3 n/s to phx instead of two.
Joe Friedmann

Not making any sense to me. I need a breakdown. Southwest flies more people then anyother airline. People like to plan in advance, usually we like to stick with our plans. If i need to change my flight, i can do it online, so once again how does this cost you?? either i feel really stupid right now or really smart.... can someone write a book for me... how to read a blog for dummies.... I am going on deployment and i already know when we will be coming home, yet i cannot book the flight ahead of time, yet on other airlines i would be able to. I won't book on other airlines because they will never live up to Southwest Airlines standards.. This blog is intense.... i challenge you to a blogging duel..

francisco

Brent: That sounds like quite the conspiracy theory.

Bill,

I appreciate the explaination. Unfortunately, as somebody who's taking a multi-city trip from May 4 through May 13th, a greater understanding of the situation does not resolve my concerns, nor my satisfaction with Southwest.

Most airlines expand their window in daily increments. I don't think people need such constant updates, but as you've noted, dependibility and schedule predicitibilty are quite valuable to consumers. I could live with 180/120, but not the occasional 90.

If you wanted to switch to May - August instead of June through September, you should have gone peacemeal - introduce the May - June period, and then June through August. There is no valid reason why you can't release May before August. Well, there is--you're trying to turn Southwest Airline tickets into Jimmy Buffett tickets: create a mad rush and increase demand. Southwest (in part b/c of the best ad campaign on tv) has a cult appeal, and markets flying as more of a spontanious good. By building a mass of folks begging for the schedule, buying Southwest tickets becomes a fun, high-paced event. It's a cunning strategy, but you're spin is disingenuous.

Francisco, Airline 'A' publishes their schedule a year in advance. You know you will be coming back from deployment 9 months from now. So you book your reservation with Airline 'A'. While you our underway, the airlines changes the flight scheduling (COSTING them money in additional programming hours) that will change your departure time by several hours. So an representative from Airline 'A' needs to contact you. Costing them money in customer service

Their could be other cost to making changes that I am not aware of but, those were the two that I could think of. Of course, also the inconvenience to the you the passenger who made need to make other arrangements because you're leaving 6 to 12 hours later.Hope this makes it a little clearer for you.

I can confidently state that fares have absolutely nothing to do with the schedule release. Southwest can and does change fares all the time. Furthermore, Southwest is much stingier than other airlines with deep discounts for peak flight times, even when the schedule first opens. In fact, especially when the schedule first opens.

Other airlines tend to offer their best prices far, far ahead, even on flights that are destined to sell out early. That's plane dumb, and Southwest doesn't do it. Southwest does a superb job of sizing the various discount buckets to demand, and I haven't seen a deep discount sell out quickly in years. They tend to stay available for months, precisely because Southwest does not offer the deepest discounts on peak flights.

On Southwest, the best time window to fish for a discount on a peak flight is 12 weeks to 8 weeks before the flight if seats aren't selling as well as expected. Go ahead and book that flight 4 or 5 months ahead. I always do, but I keep looking for lower fares. Since there are no change fees on Southwest, you can pocket the difference as a travel credit. For example last year I saved $30 when the fare dropped for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, in this case 13 weeks before the travel date.

If you're looking for Rapid Rewards seats or planning a trip for which you need to compare Southwest fares to other airlines, then I fully understand the inconvenience. If you want to know what Southwest's fares are likely to be for a given market on a typical non-peak date, just go to http://flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=501 and ask. Someone there will probably be able to give you a good estimate.

On the other hand, if you want to know whether Rapid Rewards seats wlil be available, capacity controls are new to everyone. The award availability outlook for peak flights (e.g., Friday and Sunday to and from Las Vegas and Orlando) is not great. Still, if you have a day or two of flexibility, Southwest award travel is far easier than hunting for saver award seats on other airlines. As an example of the latter, I was unable to book a saver award in November for a mid-January flight. Rapid Rewards seats were available for any date I wanted, but I bought the tickets for $85 each way to earn more credits.

Aw ,shucks! No extra phx n/s :-( Oh well. My Mom, Aunt and Uncle got in to phx from dtw 40 mins early today. So the winds are already changing.
Guess you are not renaming midway airport to southwest airlines continental us airport.
Joe Friedmann

It's getting a little clearer, I'm guessing last year's wind can't be used for this year's schedule for some reason.

I prefer the conspiracy theories - new service to the moon, the gate lease price increases at LAX, new airplanes from the factory having in-flight entertainment, assigned seating, etc., etc. Could be the excess gravitational pull caused by sunspots too.

But - isn't it really cool that Bill has the courage to pipe in here? I mean, talk about class (and guts) - there's not another airline on earth that has this kind of dialog with their customers, and for the chief bottlewasher to step in and respond speaks volumes about *my* airline. Thanks Bill.

I still fail to see why you have to post your ENTIRE summer schedule at the same time. Its not written in stone anyway.
Post just May through June. Surely you have that figured out by now. Then post june thru july etc. That gives you plenty of opportunity to make any changes you want for any reason.
Even if you are adding citys this will work. It will also give you more flexability as changes in the market occur.

Bill:

I think you have completely missed the point.

No one said you had to post your entire year schedule now. But the booking date end date of May 10 is ridiculous. It's not really that far off.

For me I have all these silly Rapid Rewards credits I never seem to be able to use. I acquire them from flights and your credit card. They start to expire because they are only good for 12 months. So we have a trip planned in late May/early June....dates somewhat flexible. I thought, gosh, I can actually use 4 of these rewards for the family. I need to get some finality here. I have a work schedule that I need to maintain. I have other commitments I need to maintain.

Bill, you can pipe in all you want. But your answer is just lip service, plain and simple.

Bottom line is that I just called and cancelled the VISA card. It's clear that its a rip off for me, and I'd do better with a different card. I also am booking Alaska Airlines flights up and down the west coast again. If you want my business then you'll need to compete for my business again. Somewhere Southwest lost its innovative touch and is just a shy above the legacies now.....very, very disappointing.

I've had dinner (mmmm.....crock-pot roast beef! ) so I'm all fueled up for more responses.

Joe--what, not Herbert D. Kelleher Airport?

Brian--great reply. In my previous "life" I worked for a while in that department in Reservations. Many of the calls we made for a schedule change of only a few minutes, but many more were for large, significant changes to passengers' itineraries. Trust me, it was never fun knowing almost every call I was going to make that day carried unexpected, and unappreciated, news.

Jim--sure, last year's data is valid. It was the shift of the summer schedule's duration that makes historical data less than usable for this year. We'll be back on track for next year! And of course I have the "courage" to post here. I ***LUV*** what I do, so explaining it isn't work--it's more like prosletyzing!

Robert--you've got a great point. Let me try and briefly explain why we can't just publish May and June and not the rest of the Summer. We re-analyze our schedule five times a year, which means we look at every single enroute time, departure and arrival time, turn time, through routing, and address operational issues (these are called Base Schedules). After that, our Colleagues in the field get their chance to review and comment on it. After we work through their feedback we finally publish. Each Base Schedule is, for lack of a better phrase, one "piece" of work, which typically takes 10 weeks to complete. So, the May and June schedule-the one lots of folks are waiting on--is really the same piece of work as July and August. And that piece of work's just not done yet. As I've said previously, we shifted the effective/discontinue dates of the summer Base Schedule up by a month, but we couldn't condense the 10 weeks worth of work involved into 6 weeks. To quote President Bush the Former--"ain't gonna happen." Trust me--if we could have, we would!

And finally....CR---Thanks!!! Our Reservations Agents have an EXTREMELY near and dear place in my heart. I started in this insane but wonderful industry in Reservations almost 30 years ago. Few people realize what it takes to be an excellent Res agent--you have to be able to listen, think, type, read, and talk, all at the same time. Southwest's Reservations Agents are the BEST. And, CR, next time you gaze into that crystal ball, ask one question for me--who'll win the Oscar for Best Actor? :)

Keep the replies, questions, and comments about this coming, folks....even though some of us may have to agree to disagree, I want as many of you as possible to at least understand out thinking--and I've got some great ideas from you as well!

Bill

Bill,

First of all, thanks for the post, as scheduling is an obscure science to some of us! :o)

It does seem to me like you have attracted a lot of the frustrations accumulated by airlines across the board rather than just Southwest, and maybe that's because other airlines don't communicate and talk about issues such as these?

Just shows the great spirit of openness and communication at Southwest! Which probably kills off the conspiracy theories... :o)

Scheduling is the bread and butter of all airlines. You make a fair comment that airlines will change over pax who have booked a long time in advance, and inform them of schedule changes.
The reality is that the cost/bad PR of doing so means that in a large number of cases, airlines may just run with a bad schedule till the end of that period.

All airline business models depend on optimising their operations, and running with a less than optimal schedule can really mess up the finances.

I think we'd rather all suffer a few inconveniences and have Southwest flying strong!

Ultimately, customers do have the choice, and Southwest offers them some fantastic choices from an otherwise more or less identical (and much less fun!) range!
:o)

So Bill, OK, the process takes time. Why wasn't it started earlier? I read something about needing 10 weeks to do the schedule. Seems like it was taken on as a last minute effort right smack in the middle of the Christmas season, a high travel period and a period of personal and family obligations, so people were disracted. Maybe if it was started before the holidays we'd have something by now? So again, it seems like the ball has been fumbled somewhere along the line. Southwest used to be innovative, but this is just a legacy carrier move here with the lack of up front time....

Bill - I want some crockpot roast! Next time I'm in Dallas, you'll have to hook me up. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to respond to these issues. You ALL do a great job in Schedule Planning. I bow to greatness! ;-)

Regards,
James
MDW FA

A good Friday morning to all!

Some responses:

Mr. Sheffield,

(Wow...makes me feel kinda like Fran Drescher from "The Nanny!") Thanks for the kind words. "Nuts About Southwest" is, by design, all about open-ness and communication, so thank you for noticing!

Joe,

Probably, but don't tell EITHER of them.

Chris,

Writing a Base Schedule is *never* taken on "at the last second." Our schedule development timelines are planned, and the work assigned, FAR in advance of when the project kicks off. The work actually started before Thanksgiving, so yes, it spanned the entire holiday season. But that's not only irrelevant, it's a good thing. The actual days off for the holdiays themselves are built into the schedule development timeline (i.e., you back up the start date by however many extra days off are in that time period). What's good about doing this kind of work over the holiday period is that, because so many other folks here at HDQ take time off at that time of year, it's actually QUIET and CALM here in Schedule Planning--allowing the Planners to get more work done.

As to why it wasn't started earlier, base schedules come in two kinds: optimized and manually-developed. Optimized schedules can, an are, developed independent of other base schedules. However, we can't completely re-optimize all five annual base schedules (the magnitude of change would be overwhelming), so most schedules, including the Summer '07 one, are of the manually-developed flavor. Manual schedules can't be developed in parallel, because whatever improvements are made in one need to be carried into the next. Example: the March base schedule contained a LARGE number of schedule changes and improvements. We couldn't start the Summer '07 schedule until the March schedule was done--and it went out for sale on November 16th. Work on the Summer '07 schedule began immediately thereafter. Given the constraints we work under and the level of effort involved in one of these projects, I don't think I'd call that "dropping the ball." Instead, I'd use a different sports metaphor--I'd call it a "tag-team marathon."

Kevin,

I can understand your frustration. Yes, we're well below 120 days, which is our usual target, and we're going to "bottom out" at about 90 days of inventory this time. All I can ask for is for a couple more weeks worth of patience from you. Don't bail on us yet! (and are you getting through your lake-effect snow allright?)

Cheers, all!

Bill

We've been waiting for SWA to open up reservations through May for months! We have a cruise booked and if you don't open the the reservations soon, you will force us to go to the competition! How does that help SWA?

If and when you open these flight up, they will be immediately taken. What happens if we're out of town for a week or so? We'll be SOL. I think the Rapid Rewards members should get first chance at the tickets - send us a DING or an email, PLEASE!

Bill,
Me again and I just thought I'd let you know I will be sticking around and waiting for SWA to open the flight I need. This is my first time flying (booking- waiting- any of it) So I suppose I don't have a lot of room to get irrate, and nothing to compare it to. And for now the money I'll spend on tickets is hanging out in my savings account accumulating interst :)

Good afternoon, everyone!

Mary,

Again, as I've asked others--please be patient with us for just a while longer.

Erica,

Thanks, and enjoy your first flight!!! Hopefully you'll be back time and time again.

Francisco,

It's not that we don't want to "force [our] reservations agents to do more work." We don't want them to do needless work, and calling to advise of changed itineraries, to me, is needless, particularly when we can publish a schedule that is much more "solid" by allowing inventory to dip down, temporarily, to 90 days. We may have to agree to disagree on this one, but even if you don't agree, at least you know why we've made the decision that we've made.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Bill

Bill,

If you've gotten this kind of negative feedback regarding the reservations schedule from this blog, just think of the 1000's of SWA customers who have no idea the blog even exists. Once you open it up, the reservations system won't be able to handle the reservations coming in all at once.

Will you reimbuse the extra $$ we'll have to spend because the low fares will be gone by the time we receive notice SW has graciously decided to open more dates?

I can make reservations on other airlines nearly a year in advance, and no, they don't have their reservation agents call if and when there is a schedule change. I'll either get an e-mail or snail-mail advising of any changes.

I'm really trying to be patient, but this is ridiculous!

Mary,

Are you for real? Waiting lists? Reimbursement?

Seriously, relax. And if you can't do that, book on another carrier already and be done with this issue.

Bill,

Thanks for all of the info. As you can tell, some of us can never get enough of the "inside" info. I've got one suggestion and one story.

My suggestion: Why not publish an anticipated date for each new schedule release? OK, I know that you'd feel very bad if you missed the date. So maybe this experience sets a pattern. Two weeks before the date you raise the "get ready" flag. It would relieve a lot of angst.

My story: Several months I ago bought tickets for a July trip on another airline (to a place that you don't fly to...yet). Today I found out that they dropped service to that location and can't (won't) get my family on another carrier. Sure, I'll get my money back but the vacation is now off. All the work setting this up, moving reward points around (for the hotels) and getting time off is now wasted.

So what's worse: Waiting for the schedule to open up or cleaning up after massive schedule changes? Right now I wish that those other guys would use your system. (BTW, please expand the code share with ATA!)

Good evening, all!

Mary,

We haven't thought of a "waiting list" for future reservations. I'm not sure how it would work, but it's an interesting idea--we'll see if we can work our way through it!

Yes, other carriers do have entire departments in their Reservations function whose sole job it is to "call schedule changes." Typically, they notify by snail-mail only if they can't reach anyone by phone. But the point is that by limiting changes to "open" schedules, it's work that doesn't need to be done, by whatever communication method.

I (and a number of us!) am surprised at the "volume" of the frustration that's been posted on this blog over our going down to 90 days of inventory--we've done it before, and frankily we've gotten a few inquiries but no major hew and cry. So I'm not sure there are "thousands of Customers" out there that are as upset about the booking inventory levels as you and some of the other posters here seem to be. All I can do at this point is apologize, as the schedule will not be open for a week and a half or so. However, consider this: when the schedule is extended, everyone will have the same opportunity to book seats as everyone else. Trust me, our Reservations system can handle the load! I doubt that I'm going to bring you over to "our" side on this issue, so let's just agree to disagree. And again, I apologize that we've not been able to allow you to book as far in advance as you want to for your Summer 2007 travels.

Kathy,

Our booking inventory process actually doesn't have anything to do with Sept. 11, and has been the same for at least the past 17 years. As I've said earlier in this thread, we try to keep between 120 and 180 days of inventory available--with occasional "dips" down to 90 days. However, we're never averse to change, and we will look at this policy again, just as we've done periodically for the entire time I've been involved.

You bring up an interesting point with cruise lines and Disney packages, as I know (from personal experience) they do book up in advance. Short of going to a rolling 330-day booking inventory the way many other carriers do, I"m not sure how we can address the issue, but I am SURE that this blog thread will certainly spark discussions with the appropriate Departments about it.

Chris,

Finally--something we agree on! Yes, we have treated this issue more or less the same for a long, long time. (Not sure it's been 30 years, but at least for 17) But that fact proves my thesis that we're not doing anything outrageously out-of-character in dropping to 90 days of inventory, as we've done this many times in the past. No, it's not a FREQUENT occurrence, but it's by no means unprecedented.

And seriously....let the conspiracy thing go. :) The 90-day inventory issue has nothing to do with ANYTHING other than the fact that we moved the effective date of the Summer schedule up to May from June. I've been over that before.

I think I've probably beaten this subject to death many times over, but if there are more comments or questions, I'll be logging on periodically over the weekend to answer them. Thanks, everyone, for a LIVELY discussion!

Bill

you people should be ashamed. it's not in your hands. nothing's going to change. they're doing the best they can. there's things about it that can get complicated and you all just don't understand and you're all putting yourself first. go to other airlines. spend the extra money. you all are saying you''ll have to spend extra money elsewhere on a different airline and then you want southwest to refund the difference? are you all out of your mind? that's acknowleging that southwest is going to still have the lower prices but you're going to go ahead and go with a deal somewhere else anyways just because you're all stubbern to wait a little longer. i agree southwest should have their summer schedule out already but what bill is talking about is correct. i'm sure some of you know it is. southwest is going to continue to serve the places they have served, if not more. they will have the flights that you need. so why is it so hard to wait for them? bill doesnt deserve all this. and everyone who's complaining here might just be keeping him from doing his job and frusterating everyone. they don't want to dissapoint their customers, especially those who are most loyal, however they don't have a choice in this instance and you all need to just understand.

ps- forgive me not capitalizing... :D

Thanks Bill. I hope you never have to go through this again. Likewise to all of us Southwest customers!!

I surprised how mad some people are getting over this. The schedule would normally have come out around January 25th and now were looking at possibly February 8th. It's only a two week difference. I have a LUV voucher that is expiring on May 31 and I'm looking for Memorial Day weekend flights, so it's not like I don't need flights in May. Thanks for the updates.

Lori

Bill.
As a res agent, I appreciate your explanation to the public about this question that we get hit with every day. It is FULLY understandable to those of us who WANT/ARE WILLING TO understaand. It is very simple. We appreciate your willingness to take this on to further questioning. Thank You, Bill. Ã

I'm a res agent and luv helping our customers get to and from the places they want/need to go. As you can imagine, we've been hearing the scheduling opening question very frequently as of late. It is very frustrating for us to have to say, "no we don't know when the schedule will open, "they" don't give us that information in advance". As a person who likes to travel, I can understand why our customers, especially our loyal customers, get exasperated, but the truth is, WE REALLY DON'T KNOW WHEN THE SCHEDULE WILL OPEN UP - UNTIL IT HAPPENS. Until Bill's blog, I didn't know about the scheduling department's 180/120 day deal. That's really good information, but it doesn't alleviate the customer's frustration in wanting to complete their booking right then and there. The thing is, we at Southwest bend over backwards to give the absolute best customer service we possibly can for every individual customer, internal and external. We value and appreciate every single one of our passengers and would never want them to feel like they had to fly "someone else". The flying pubic doesn't know the ins and outs of operating a successful, profitable airline. We are not now nor have we ever been the same as "the others". Our customers enjoy our low-fares and can ALWAYS talk to a live person to answer questions or accomodate them as best as we can within our limits. AND the current system has been working succesfully for us and the flying public for over 17 years and I don't think we should look at re-inventing the wheel. Once we've confirmed a persons flight plans, they can depend on it (barring unforseen events). There are too many iff's out there to open up the schedule too far in advance and even tho it's oftentimes painful to have to keep repeating the same thing over and over, I understand the why behind it and can explain it a little better now. Thanks Bill!

Bill,

I completely understand your point of not putting too much inventory in the pipeline as every time a change is made, its like throwing cash out of the window, from 37,000 feet. I think the 120/180 rule makes total sense. But what stumps me is why you would ever let it slip below 120 days. As of today, you're at 103 days and if it gets to 90 days, I'm off to another airline. Customers need to plan more than 3 months in advance. If you have any say-so in the matter, you should be pounding your fist on the right person's desk to NEVER drop below 120 days. Thanks for commenting on the blog, information and communication is never a bad thing.

Good Saturday afternoon, everyone.

Some additional replies:

nsx---a Revenue Management post might be interesting. I haven't worked in that departrment since 1994, so I don't feel qualified anymore to speak for them, nor do I know enough about the new Rapid Rewards booking procedures to comment. I'll make that suggestion, though!

James, thanks. But honestly, I'm enjoying the exchange, the banter, and seeing what everyone is thinks about this (and other!) issues. I understand the frustration about this issue is running "in the red" so I am not taking it personally. One thing I can ALWAYS talk about, explain, and defend, is my job. I guess that's the result of the fact that I LUV what I do!

Joe--I guess we'll see. :)

Lori, hopefully you're going somewhere GREAT for Memorial Day! Please bear with us just a little longer.

Jim, I think you're exactly right--this blog is a very easy way to vent frustrations. It's a new communication venue (well, relatively, anyway), and we're all still looking to see what kind of response to issue such as this that we get. However, we're not running away from it, in fact far from it. This has been fascinating, and I've enjoyed it. I'd have to--I've spent most of the past 2 evenings AND my Saturday reading and responding! :)

And for those who think this thread hasn't made any difference, at the very least, I bet we'll need a MUCH tougher reason in the future to go below 120 days of inventory!

Donna, thankks for the kind words. Hopefully, the blog post as well as this whole thread will be of interest to your Agents, as well as informative!

Doug--see above...hopefully this post will enable out Agents to answer the "when can I book" question better. However, I have to admit that when we set the schedule transition for the weekend of May 11th I don't think any of us realized it was Mother's Day weekend. That's not one of the holidays we really track, so in that aspect we might have chosen better. Still, hopefully we'll be able to accomodate you when the schedule opens for sale! Bear with us, and thanks for replying!

Have a GREAT evening, everyone!

Evening, everone....thought I would post replies one last time tonight.

Claretta, Dacia, and Mary J--as I said, you guys ROCK, and I appreciate the support on this blog. I know the current 90-day inventory thing has things a little off-kilter, but I hope in the future you and your fellow Agents can use the 120/180 guideline to help answer our Customer's questions!

Steve,

Point taken, and apologized for. I can only hope that, between our market-leading fares, our convenient schedules, and our incredible Employees...that you give us a try again in the future. If so--I hope we win you back for good!

Hope everyone has a safe Saturday night, stays nice and toasty warm...and thanks for all the comments!

Bill

I am another customer who has been checking the website daily to book flights for the end of May. I've been doing this for about a month now. I understand the reason after reading this blog however it still is frustrating.

I have been looking to book a trip to Vegas for May 21st since Mid December. I keep thinking since I'm looking for a week later, it should be out soon. Well almost 2 months later, it's not out. Hotel rooms in Vegas that day are skyrocketing and the hotels can't tell me why. I will not book a room without a flight so in the next couple days, I'll book what should be a very simlarly priced flight with another Airline. I was hoping to get a charter flight form SWA. With all the people I see writing here that they can't wait anymore, I'd say you lost a lot more money than you will save by this delay

Mike,

I'm not sure why you didn't book your hotel room months ago. While most hotels in Vegas require a one-night deposit, they are almost always fully refundable provided you cancel your reservation within 72 hours of arrival.

Bill,

I'm guessing that the number of aggrieved comments you are getting may be down to a timing issue... as the block of schedules that you are working on to release is the summer block.

had you gone down to 90 days over the summer, I presume it would have caused less pain, as most people don't book flights for september until quite close to the date...

unfortunate!

It may be interesting to see at what times of year you went down to 90 days inventory previously...

I don't know if this is the right place to post this question but anyways under this topic subject , I was wondering what are the southwest plans for Dulles airport are they going to expand add more city's to/ from dulles. I just don't get the SWA idea of dulles airport?. I know they just started in october but when will we have a clear picture on the what the heck they are doing with dulles the newest city. ???

Bill, I think you are missing the point entirely here. You said that everyone will be happy when the new schedule comes out because you will be opening up May, June, July and August and possibly September and the fares will be great. Well guess what? I only care about May! That is when I am flying. So the fact that you will open up for the next 4 or 5 months means absolute 0 to me. You should re-do your schedule on an even pace so there are no lags like this one. Maybe when you get August posted you can slip September in a month later, then October a month later and November a month later. Do you get the picture? Make up your schedule 4 or 5 months in advance and then post a new month each month. WOW, what a concept. Keep it moving and you will never hear from us again.

I don't mind waiting for the schedule to open because I know that southwest will have better service, more availability at a lower price and more frequent service than all of the other carriers. Southwest is the mvp of all domestic airlines. (Just like kobe is the mvp of the nba) Go southwest and go lakers!!!!

Rich Beck-
While I am very frustrated with this delay and probably going to end up purchasing my tickets on another airline, I think it is entirely unfair to say that SWA doesn't reply. Bill is replying to us almost daily and his replies show that he actually read and comprehended (therefore "listened") to what we have said. Just because he can't personally change what is going on doesn't mean he isn't "listening".

Bill-
I've never flown SW and I'm looking to travel to my best friends wedding from Chicago to California in late May. My parents, my wife and I are very patient people and believe me as long as the fares are more competative then I've seen, you may have a lifetime customer in the very near future. I look forward to experiencing the airline and hope the experiences of other friends/family members have reported to me. With that said, hoping to see that schedule soon!
Thanks for listening

I just saw some sale fares at AA.com, unfortunately they were not for my destination. The strange thing about those fares though-you had to complete travel by-----May 10!! What does AA know that we dont?

Greetings, everyone!

Sorry I haven't responded since Saturday...my Dell motherboard has bit the dust (AGAIN). Ah, well, hopefully the third time WILL be the charm.

Instead of going person by person on this one, I'm going to respond this time en masse. Make no mistake: I have heard you, ALL of you, loud and clear, that waiting to open the Summer schedule was not a good idea. Once again, I apologize, but just so you'll know that we do listen and adapt, going foward Schedule Planning is going to do everything within our power to not allow the booking inventory to drop below 120 days again. Note that I'm not absolutely promising that we won't, as occasionally things of the extreme nature happen which are beyond our control. However, this time we made the collective decision to allow inventory to drop down to 90 days. It wasn't a Katrina, it wasn't a 9/11, and while our reasons were quite valid for doing so, I can honestly say that in our wildest dreams (or nightmares!) we didn't anticipate the type of backlash it has created.

So once again--I apologize. We certainly didn't mean to ruffle as many feathers as we obviously have. However, at this point it's over and done with, and the schedule will open when the schedule opens. Speaking of which...we're currently on track to ship the schedle to distribution venues this week, which means that the Summer 2007 schedule should open for sale next Thursday. If anything changes--and, at this point, only a severe technical issue could further delay the opening--I will let everyone know via this blog. So polish up those travel plans...make sure the credit card is valid...and when the schedule opens next week--let the bookings begin!

Bill

What! Next Thursday! That is ridiculous! This puts me within 87 days of the start of my vacation! I need to reserve my transportation home from Disney sooner! I also need to give my flight information to our car service or I will not have a ride from Disney to the airport for my family! They are almost all booked up and it is not their fault I foolishly picked Southwest!

I feel like I am being held hostage by my half of a ticket (actually 4 tickets) for the week of May 5th through the 12th. What if I can't get a flight home for my family for May the 12th? We only have a place in Disney until the 12th - we booked our room 9 months ago! Oh that's right - it's not your problem!!!

Bill,

I'm a H.S. Senior Class Advisor. We take between 45 and 55 seniors to Disney World every year. We just got back last week and used Jet Blue. The service was fantastic, but the wait time between flights (BUF to JFK to MCO and vice versa) was very long. We used Jet Blue because of price, service, and being able to book about six months in advance.

We would really like to use Southwest for our trip next January (since there are several non stops between BUF and MCO). Do you have special considerations for group travel or would you possibly be able to ball park when those seats would open for booking?

Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Okay, I'll try this again...

It was while looking for "industry secrets" regarding when the schedule would be opened to summer travel that I came across this blog. For some reason, I was encouraged to see that I was not the only idiot checking southwest.com daily, numerous times, in hopes of booking a flight for five for my son's HS graduation trip in early June. Like others, I have found several other deals with other airlines but waited patiently in hopes of saving a buck or two by flying Southwest. In my efforts to penny-pinch, I have likely reduced my normal life expectancy (due to the self-inflicted stress) by appx. 10 years...all in the name of frugality (of is it stupidity?). Would someone please open the travel window before I jump out of one? Come on guys! Get creative! I'll try and help...it's March, then April, then May, then May 10th...uh-oh...the earth has apparently stopped moving and we're still stuck on May 10th.

At least one positive has come from all of this...I now understand the true meaning behind the company motto "You are now free to move about the country." Yes, we are all anxiously awaiting our release on parole from Southwest Prison. Yes, moving on beyond the three square meals of peanuts and peanuts and peanuts. At least you guys don't charge for canned sodas! Unfortunately, the stipulations of our parole will likely prevent us from traveling anyway but at least we're trying. And furthermore, the striped uniforms are in again this year as black and white never goes out of style. Can't wait for the travel shackles to be cut from my ankles. I could walk to SF from Nashville in less time than it will ultimately take to book my flight on Southwest. But for some reason, I remain loyal...at least for now.

Don

Oh, I see...the flight attendants of SW can have a little fun but the bloggers can't?

Bill,

I am yet another person that has been checking Southwest everyday to try to find out when I can book a flight past May 10. I fly Southwest quite a bit, and have three awards I plan to use to fly my wife and myself to Hawaii. I'm scared to death that I'll be to late to book and the flights won't be available for awards. Should I be worried?

Finally Bill returns, but with the attitude we just have to wait it will happen when we want it to happen without concern for our customers. Bill Delta thanks you for the booking of 12 roundtrip tickets for the summer for my wife, 2 kids and me for our trips in June, July and August. Delta $3000, Southwest $0.00. I thought maybe Herb decided to make a point and fired you so this never happens again, that would of been my move if I was in charge, lucky for you I am not. In my opinion Southwest has become to big and forgot about taking care of their loyal customers. Oh well I know Delta needs the money and obviously Southwest does not.

Come on people, give it a rest.. Bill I accept your apology, and look forward to flying with Southwest. I think we are too spoiled in this country. Whenever I do not get what i want i cry....boo hoo... to the mean customer, no i will not sell my shares from Southwest. I will always be loyal, they really know how to take care of their customers. See you in the air soon. To the rest, enjoy the other airlines, especially when you have to pay for a pillow :)

Bill,

I think you've done a great job keeping us up to date. I'm so glad that I found this blog. I wish the people who were flying in July and August would post here because they are probably glad that they'll get to book so early. I understand why the May people are upset, but there are probably July and August people who are psyched that they'll be able to book both segments of their flights. Even though most of the people posting here are mad, there are probably alot of customers that are happy too, we are just not hearing from them. Except for me, because I'm flying the last week of July into August! lol

Lori

Steve,

it is totally unfair to call for Bill's dismissal like that.
he is not sole responsible for the scheduling problems!

And actually, it is one of the great things about Southwest that they don't have a "hire and fire" policy! It is one of the things that make them unique.

I sincerely believe that a mistake has been made, it is in the process of being rectified (and we all know it sometimes can take time - at least we now know when the new schedule should be online!), and those people involved (including Bill!) will definitely not be making the same mistake twice!

The guy has apologised so many times I really do feel sorry for him... if I was in his shoes I'd be feeling quite upset (maybe it's time for some Korn!!).

There's no quick way out, but at least everyone's had an opportunity to discuss the issue and get answers, and that's waaaay more than with many other airlines (I've stopped counting the number of times I've stared at a phone and really wanted to write a scathing letter, only to discover some companies don't even have a postal address on their website!!!).

And hopefully, everyone out there who's had to book with another airline will come back to Southwest some day, and give them a 2nd chance!

Like the poster above who is trying to get back from Florida just days after the May 10th schedule, I had our first half booked, but ended up booking a one way back on Northwest. I am from the Detroit area and try to avoid flying them at all costs, but today, they had $83.90 all in one way fares, and I snapped up 4 tickets for a one way and will not look back. It looks like many of the legacies will post one way fares (of course not with the same refund policies of Southwest) at the same low prices as Southwest where they compete on the same routes. I noticed that DTW-BWI ($49), DTW-MDW ($49), DTW-STL ($59), DTW-BNA ($59), DTW-LAS ($79), DTW-PHX ($79), and DTW-MCO ($83) were all available from Northwest as bookable one way trips. Coincidentally, those are all the same routes where Southwest flies non stop from Detroit.

Drew

That was my opinion, no need to be calling people jerks when you don't know them. Would your employer let you make what is probably a million dollar error without firing you. My comment was not irrational just what I would do if one of my employees cost my company that much money. Before you question the million dollars who knows the actual amount. As previous posts state a lot of people don't even know about the blog or would post anyway. I am sure there are just as many people waiting patiently as there are people like myself who booked elsewhere.
As far as replying to posts by calling people jerks for their opinion take the high road like Raphael who objected to my message without calling people names.

Steve

I am like many of you waiting for the schedule to open so that we can confirm tickets for a family reuinion back east. I have been patiently waiting to book the air fare for 13 people since January 1.... and so far the delay in booking our hotel rooms & car rental has cost us in excess of $300 per family. I am only hoping that Southwest will keep their current pricing in place when they open the new dates and that it will help make up costs for the delay of booking and that we don't loose out on the rooms we want with the hotel we have chosen. Any insite out there on the sale fares being extended?

I think Shannon brings up a very valid question and maybe Bill will address it. Those of us irritated (if not angry) but so far loyal customers have waited (im)patiently. Will there be a super sale to make up for our irritation and to attempt to retain the loyal customer base?

As for Steve, you really think Bill made this decision by himself? Wow, he has more power than I realized! How kind of him then to step down from his ivory tower and talk to us lowly customers.

I think it would be great to have SWA reservation be able to be made more than 180 days out (now 90. It would help with planning. Right now I have 3 trips for August and I need to book by Feb 15 for the other party to pay for it.

Shannon,

You need not have your air travel booked to book hotels and rental cars. Perhaps I wrongly assume that this is common knowledge. The vast majority of hotel and rental car reservations require no deposits and can be changed or cancelled without penalty.

DITTO ON THAT ONE... HARPO... LET US ALL MOVE ON. AHHH POOR STEVE. I HOPE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ENJOYS DELTA AIRLINES, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR FLIGHT GETS CANCELLED. I AM SURE BILL IS AN ASSET TO SOUTHWEST... MAYBE YOU COULD LEARN FROM SOUTHWEST ON HOW TO HANDLE YOUR EMPLOYEES...

Bill,

I'd like to join in thanking you for this information -- not just the possible date, but what is really going on.

Just after Thanksgiving, my fellow travellers booked on Lesser Airlines for our annual mid-May Vegas trip. But I was waiting patiently for SWA.

Earlier this week, girlfriends are asking why I still don't have a ticket. And after a beer or two I was speculating that Southwest was going out of business! There could be no other explanation! I had almost given up, when a last-ditch midnight websearch brought me here.

Isn't there some official corporate way to let your poor reservation agents know about all this? After poking at the website for months, I did call a few times, and the people answering the phones weren't their usual cheerful selves on this topic. They sounded just as uninformed and frustrated as I was...

Some thoughts for the business people:

1) You can't sell inventory you don't have. Please, take my money!
2) If the res agents don't have spend time calling customers about schedule changes, they will take multiple calls and listen to customers whimper and whine (that's me!) when the schedule isn't open yet.

Poor Bill. I hope you guys get a vacation after this :-).

cat b.

Bill,
It appears that you have a lot of unhappy customers and you can add me to the what looks like a growing list. I always travel exclusivley on Southwest, I am a Companion Pass holder and have more Rapid Rewards tickets than I probalby can use. My office is in Long Beach and I commute from Phoenix on a regular basis. I would fly Southwest versus the other guys to either LAX or John Wayne and travel to Long Beach for what was better on time service. I guess you hooked me with the Company Plane slogan!

On the past 6 SW flights I have taken, 2 have been canceled and 3 were late by more than an hour. Now I can't even book my summer vaction due to the reservation freeze. My take is it has everything to do with profits and very little to do with reservation changes. Just like oil companies raise their rates in the summer months its called supply and demand.

Something to keep in mind Ford used to be the number 1 profit guys as well maybe Herb should read the paper!

Off to Long Beach direct!

Thanks,
Randy

I understand your 120/180 schedule, but when will it change to allow us to book for the summer? I've been waiting to book my flights to Florida for a cruise in June and it's been STUCK at booking through May 10th for quite a LONG time now. I'm sure there are others out there who are ready to start booking for their summer vacations. Just a comment. Thanks!

Guys,

Here's a little more info that might help dispel the "Southwest doesn't care about its Customers" talk on this thread. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth! The reality of the process is that when I first posted this blog piece last week, it was already too late to open the summer any earlier than February 8th, no matter how we tried. All of this is intensely complex and has many complicated, inter-related tasks that have to be completed in their proper sequence before we can open the schedule for sale.

After Schedule Planning is done with the work of writing and verifying the schedule, there remains a good 10 days of work that other departments have to complete AFTER we "ship" it to them. For example, it has to be loaded into our reservations system, into SABRE, and into southwest.com--so that's something like 1.4 million itineraries to get loaded for the roughly 95 days of inventory that's going out for sale. The process is partially automated, but there is still a lot of manual work that has to be done to augment the automation. Then, our friends in Revenue Management have to get the inventory readyÃ

Connie

SWA is in tune with its customers, thats why they make sure their schedule is set before they publish so they dont change it on you. Just be patient people. They got like over 2 thousand daily flights, you'll get your seat when they publish.

Sheesh!

TO WHOMEVER CARES AT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES -

WOULD YOU PLEASE UNLOCK THE SCHEDULE AND ALLOW PASSENGERS TO BOOK FLIGHTS BEYOND 5/10/07?

If you read this blog from top to bottom, you can devine the increasing frustration with your current (AND FORMER) customers. Is this your idea of downsizing? Apparently, the new corporate policy is to chase as many potential passengers off to other carriers as possible. Feeling altruistic or something? Are we THAT compelled to help Delta emerge from bankruptcy and stave off the hostile takeover of US Air?

I've read your spin. I'm a Registered Financial Consultant and Chartered Asset Manager, and from my professional perspective - this makes as much sense as does chewing gravel.

When do "the powers" at SWA GET THE MESSAGE that we as YOUR CUSTOMERS couldn't be more unhappy with this airline?

Do you care?

One does not need to wait to book airline tickets to reserve a room or car. Even if you have to give a nights deposit on the room, it is fully refundable up until 72 hours before arrival. You certainly cannot blame SW or any airline for not reserving a car or room when you first learned your dates.

I will be going to Vegas the end of May and I too have been waiting patiently for the dates to open. We made these plans about 10 months ago and that is when I called the hotel and reserved my room. The rates certainly did go up since then but I am locked with the price I was quoted 10 months ago.

To David Guttery

When will you get? SWA does trhings different, thats why they are successful. If they did htings like everyone esle, they wouldnt be here.

Everyone...just chill. I can't believe how worked up everyone is over an airline seat. When it comes out it comes out. Ranting lkike this wont make it any faster.

Shannon,

Thanks for the explanation!

Here is another conspiracy theory....SUPERBOWL MADNESS!!!! Maybe Southwest is taking the Superbowl Commercial Hype by Storm. Hmmmmmm........................

Hey Brian in CA you might be on to something.

The only reason I watch the SuperBowl is for the commercials...now I wanna know if I can anticipate a Southwest "Need to Get Away" funny commercial. What a great marketing idea Southwest has with those commercials and as someone stated in a earlier reply they have become a "commercial cult".

Keep on keeping on Southwest!!!

We now all know that February 8th is the date so it doesn't do any good to complain about it now. Everything that new posters want to say, has been said.

You want to make a point and make them anxious? Just post a simple line in here like...

"Booked with American, could not wait any longer."

I am a gambler by nature and am waiting for February 8th for my first family vacation to Orlando and we are leaving May 6th and returning May 11th. Myself, I am not worked up about the date being off one day because any special I would have been looking for in the past month would probably be gone anyway. I say a gambler, because I just saw the lowest fare I found on a competitor website go up $50 per ticket and will wait until Feb. 8th. Geez, SWA can't be more than $375 RT to Orlando from Austin on that week, can they???

Earlier, Bill stated he doubted there were maybe "thousands" who are in the same situation since only 20 or so are posting in here. I guarantee if SWA put a banner on the top of the page or in line with their Menu on the right side that read "PLEASE SEND COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS HERE" there will be a LOT more responses. Instead, the Blog is at the bottom of the screen as the last item in small print. Marketing of course. Provide an avenue for discussion to keep up with the internet world but keep it small and hard to find. Many people who are knowledgeable (sp?) enough to surf the internet, do not even know what a Blog is.

Like somebody said earlier, if you are that worried about your vacation, book it on another carrier. Otherwise, join me at the Craps table and let the gambling continue....

Why Brian in CA? Are you needing someone to come watch the commercials with you this Sunday? lol Should I catch a Southwest flight to CA and we can look for those "Need to get away" commercials :)

Bill,
Nice to have an explanation but the fact is that I have been checking with my preferred airline (SW) daily to attempt a Memorial Day weekend reservation to attend a nephew's wedding. I like the way SW does business and fly SW when at all possible. However, IÃ

Just booked with Jet Blue for June travel. How much patience is a loyal customer expected to have? VERY disappointed in your management style/decisions. Have held out since OCTOBER and will book elsewhere for December travel too. When you do finally get around to opening up some more dates, the Internet rush will make it near impossible to book at a competitive rate anyhow...

Ellen

Bill,
I have to say that I'm pretty frustrated and exasperated with you and this whole scheduling process. I want you to know that I am deeply into the planning process for bringing all of my relatives to town to celebrate my 100th birthday, and YOU are single-handedly holding up the logistics.

Would you PLEASE tell me when you expect to post the flight schedules for May 2056?
Kim :-)

Where is Dr Phil when you need him......

Bill,

I am from the UK and currently planning a round-the-world tour, which has been booked for over 6 months - with flights booked for every leg except the US leg as much as 18 months in advance. For some bizarre reason, SouthWest is the only airline I have come accross in the world with such a bizarre system for loading its flights and schedules. Low cost airlines in the UK such as EasyJet, Australia's Virgin Blue, and Asia's Air Asia have much better systems allowing customers to book as much as 12 months in advance. Yes, Southwest began the low-cost model in Europe, but for gods sake - why is Europe now suddenly getting their booking systems so much more advanced.
Whilst I am only waiting one flight from LAS to LAX to become available in June, there is clearly a huge amount of customers who will be forced to go elsewhere. I have got bored of waiting and I have to admit based on your prices for May, Delta and US Airways are only about 5$ more then u guys....looks like im off to US Airways.

Thoughts:

Bill is probably wishing he had never posted on this blog.
Many above mention "The system will crash when it opens for May 11+ booking". Rubbish - SWA moves over 2 million people a week, 70% purchase tickets online. I'm sure a system designed to handle 1.4 million reservations a week can easily handle the extra 10-15% load factor it will see.
My crystal ball says maybe 2% of the people who promise they will "Never fly Southwest again" will actually make good on their promise.
Many people above have suggested setting the system up so each month another month is added - if there are no technical reasons requiring the current "add 120 days to the bucket at a time" system, I think that is something SWA should strive for.
Bill Owens has class, it takes guts to come here and face a hostile crowd.
Extremely doubtful this situation (less than 120 days available) will ever happen again.
SWA has historical data that tells them how many people book how far in advance, I'll bet that was taken into consideration when they set the current time line (back in October? November?) but Mother's Day and Memorial Day weren't considered.
SWA messed up, they've admitted messing up, they have apologized and learned - what more could you ask for?

Dear Bill,

i think you have been patient and helpful with a situation beyond your control. Thanks.

For the people with the rude comments to those who are having difficulties due to this short time frame Southwest is offering, why do you even care? If you are not having any problem and love all things Southwest, why even read this blog.
There are several other blogs that deal with the things Southwest does very well. Go read them and be happy. Your sophmoric comments don't make you or Southwest look any better.

I hope Southwest makes an effort to keep at least 120 days available, and I will be happy to buy their product.

See you all at 10 AM on the 8th.

Paul

SWA is losing business- here it is February 3rd & you can't buy a ticket past May 10th? SWA is usually consumer friendly- with this they're stupid. I've taken SWA in the past to save a few bucks, but often they're more trouble than they're worth- I just booked 2 family trips (8 RT tickets) on another airline for our summer trips- I've got good fares, assigned seats & legitimate airports to fly out of, not run-down little dumps in the wrong part of town that SWA mostly uses. So I'm happier & SWA just lost $1700+ worth of my business. I couldn't be alone.

Hi there - I understand part of why you won't book too far in advance. However, today is Feb 2, 2007 and you're only booking until May 10, 2007 - that May 10th date has been there for over a month!!! When will it move????? I'm trying to wait patiently but will soon have to go to another airline because I'm worried about getting flights for vacation in may. I want to fly southwest - I love the company (and own the stock) and love the concept that they're trying to promote. However, it certainly is getting difficult to make plans for the quickly approaching near future. One suggestion is to let the customers know when the date will be expanded rather than all of this guess work.

Thank you for listening,
An tired and somewhate impatient mother & traveller,
Doris Godfrey

Dear Brian,

Thanks for your info! post number 90 out of...what is it today? 167? I can't believe I missed it! :) I appreciate the second set of eyes wading through all the mud and muck.

It's sad to read all the mean comments. I particularly like the man who ended his rant "open the schedule NOW" Well, since you put it THAT way...! it may be a pain that the schedule isn't open yet but sheesh! I can see them stomping their feet or holding their breath.....!

Jean

So - when will the block be restored to 180 days? I want to book a flight for late in May - and I want to fly Southwest - but I need to firm up my plans now. Thanks!!

Would it be possible to have schedules from January-July & then August-December? It's just a thought.
SWA LUV! :)

Kim,
you already have a job at Southwest.
Lav cleaner remember?
Joe ;-P

Feburary 8 at 10 am central!

Just wanted to thank SWA for having this blog as a means to communicate with its customers. While I share the frustration others have regarding the delayed schedule opening (like others, I am planning a trip with flights shortly after the current May 10th cutoff), I greatly appreciate the explanations about Southwest's policy compared with that of other airlines.

Living in Montana, I have never flown Southwest before, but after seeing the fares that United, Delta, and Northwest are currently charging for the routing and dates/times that I want, I am seriously considering making the 6-hour drive to Spokane for Southwest if the price is right. Based on the prices I've seen for pre-May 10th flights, I think they will be. Anxiously awaiting Thursday...

Tom, I hope you do fly Southwest! It's my favorite airline & I still want to try again to work for them some day. :)

Hey Hope,

Sorry, I need to book Orlando for 12! Big family vacation. Air Tran is tempting me but no non-stop.

Thanks to all of you who have recently posted here. However, it looks as though many of you have missed some important information that Bill provided in his own comments. If you will scroll back up about 100 comments to comment 90, his January 30, 12:23 PM post, and he states that the schedule will open this week. So please be patient for a few days longer.
Brian

Great, This coming Thursday....... Can't wait! Las Vegas Here I come. Thanks for keeping us posted, Bill.

Brian, I have been extremely patient with you guys. To you and the guy that said we dont need to plan six months or 5 months in advance. Guess what? I just checked americans schedule for the flights I need for the end of may. They have now got 21 seats available on 1 flight and 17 seats available on another flight. I need 7 seats. See what can happen if you wait too long. I am sitting here banking that SW will have a better price and availability with no guarantee. If SW schedule had been open a month ago, I would have had about 50 seats on each of those AA flights as well as SW to choose from. Dont tell me that you can always book later if you need to. Sometimes you cant.

Why are you discontinuing service to PHL from BDL?

Bonnie,

Typically around 10 AM CST.

Correction to my previous post, 'for those who book on the 8th of Feb.' not the 10th.

-Trev

Meg,
Ummmm, ten bachelorettes? Perhaps Brian, our illustrious BlogMaster, could arrange a special charter to pick you ladies up and fly you wherever you want. Please forward pictures of the nine ladies and yourself and we'll talk.

LMAO
Kim :-)

Customers who are loyal and who appreciate the value that Southwest provides for its consumer base should keep the following in mind when determining who to fly with...

Southwest is currently a shining light in the airline industry. How many airlines in the industry remain as profitable and as successful as Southwest? Not many.

Part of the reason Southwest is able to provide us all with reliable, low prices is due to their energy risk management practices. Southwest is able to secure its costs months in advance by participating in the derivatives market and entering into forward contracts for energy products.

So what - ? This means fewer big swings in their costs. This means more predictable pricing patterns. And it all boils down to being able to offer YOU good service at great prices compared to the other airlines.

Southwest says let's lock in our costs so we can offer customers reliable travel at good rates. If that means limiting our scheduling availability, that's a necessary consequence in order to provide the service we desire.

The other airlines? Let them book whenever they want - two years in advance? No problem! We need all the money we can get RIGHT NOW just to pay off our creditors and stave off another round of bankruptcy!

Which kind of company do you want to fly with?

I work with a group that has traditionally booked 2 trips in May to national events held in Philadelphia. The two combined trips usually involve approximately 180 round trip tickets. We are going to have to book with another airline if these schedules for SW can not be released in the next few days. This will be a disappointment to all in the group, as we all prefer to use SW - however this delay is making it impossible to make our travel arrangements within an appropriate time frame.

Sorry Southwest, JetBlue just got my business for a planned trip in May. 90 days of inventory is not sufficient, regardless of all the reasons. My guess is that SW has lost millions more than they 'saved' by doing this.

In response to Greg's 1/29/07's 12:52 pm with regard to Southwest's plans at Dulles, I flew back from Dulles (IAD) on Jan 19th and there was a video presentation on the monitors that described Dulles's plans for the airport. There is to be two additional terminals to be built and two additional runways to be built as well. I see Southwest's plans for Dulles as being more long-term. I also see Southwest picking up a good chunk of the gates at the to-be-built terminals. But Southwest and their executives only know the true answer. But I do see service from IAD to look a lot more like it is from BWI years down the road but again Southwest know the answer the that question too.

This is starting to get serious. I have booked resetvations in Las Vegas for a week and would like very much to fly Southwest. My week in Vegas is just beyond the 10th of May. That means, until the chicken bones or goat innards or whatever method you guys use to decide the release date of new scheduling pops, I can't use my favorite airline.
American used to be my favorite airline. Their service's convenience became less than perfect and Southwest had what was at the time the best service and site in the industry.
Key phrase in the above is "used to be". If I don't see a schedule update by, say, 2/9 (that's Friday), I may need a new airline of choice.

I booked my flight with Delta got a good deal that I could not pass up .

I have an awesome idea. Can we move this blog back to the front page, and push out the schedule extension one more week? I am hopeful that by doing so we can surpass the comment record set by the assigned seating post.

Just kidding. :D

Bill---

I think you should receive an honorary Heroes of the Heart Award when they make the presentation next week! It is wonderful employees like yourself that make me proud to work at the best airline in the world! I can't imagine any of the legacy carriers (or any others for that matter) sharing information as to "why?" something is as it is... for an airline who doesn't "care" about our Customers; the fact that you would share this info and take all this criticism and harsh words, yet still reply to concerns in a compassionate and caring manner is just awesome and speaks volumes. You most certainly possess a Servant's Heart.

I can certainly understand our Customer's frustration and guys, believe me, if they could've opened the schedule sooner the would've... the majority of Southwest Airlines employees take their jobs to heart and want nothing more than to make our Customers the happiest that they can be. We also share your frustration in the schedule issue--- I am a Reservation Sales Agent as well as a Customer Care Representative and wish I had a definitive answer when you call and ask when the schedule will be open. We strive to provide you the very best Customer Service imaginable and not being able to give you a concrete answer is a disappointment.

Have faith in Bill--- they are offering all kinds of overtime for Reservations tomorrow, so I just bet that you will have your schedule then-- and we will be more than happy to get your flight arrangements for the summer months taken care of !

Once again Bill-- you rock and I admire your courage and thick skin!!!!

I second that ... Bill you ROCK !!!

To John L.....RELAX DUDE!!! Bill said the schedule will be out tomorrow.

David G.,

If you've read the comments on this blog, you should know that the schedule usually comes out around 10am (9am CST).

For all those who lost patience and booked on another airline, be prepared for more frustration when SW does release them (hopefully today), because you will likely see the rates on the flights you booked on another airline drops a well. It's no secret that the legacy airlines often time their sales with SW releases and sales. The problem is you will have no recourse to rebook at the lowere fare like you can with SW.

Yes the other airlines have been loving this, they have been able to keep their fares higher through this time and snatch up the impatient SW customers. Well, the joke will be on you.

And just FYI, I am not a loyal SW flyer. I am a mercenary who will fly with whoever has the best rates and times at the time I need my flights by. However, I RARELY will buy tickets on another airline until SW has their rates up just for this reason.

Alright already...10am has come and gone. Still waiting...

I called Southwest this morning and I asked if I could change my itinerary when the dates come out. Then i said " I know the dates are coming today and you cant tell me that" and the woman responded " Well lets put it this way, alot of us are working extra today" so I am confident its gonna happen

Yes, settle down, he said 10am CST not 10am EST...Geez

...and the waiting continues. This is starting to remind me of Y2K. Still waiting for all of that turmoil to destroy the world as well.

I waited an extra 2 1/2 months to book LAS to MCI because the May 4th flight (one week prior) was $49 at that time. Now, after all this, May 11th goes on sale for $169 one-way! I'm done with with Southwest. The prices are about as bad as the service!

Were good forget da match!

I'm booked to Vegas. Way to go SWA! Bill thanks for your patience and understanding.

Well worth the wait!Thanks Bill

Wow, prices are high. Last Novbember trip to Vegas I paid $195.00 round trip. Now, it is $276.00. Really was not worth the wait for me. I am just hoping they will go down a bit. However, I will start checking other prices at different airlines.

Just booked with American. Would have cost me almost $500 rt from Seattle to Dallas with SWA for the dates I wanted. I paid $218 for AA. Sorry, SWA. The wait + prices = shopping around.

Hey all the schedule is OUT!!!!
(just for fun...think the oscar meyer song......)

MYYYYYYY, airline has a first naaaaame it's S O U T H
my air - line has a sec - ond name it's W E S T......A ;-)
I love the gold I love the blue
reasonable fares and fun fun creeeeeeeews

aaaaaand that's why I'm smiling now cause now I am a LUV-head toooooo.

cheers!!

Any guess' when the Ding fares will catch up to summer? Last year I booked end of May in February on a Ding.

I'd like to thank Bill for his openness with us and for so politely handling the inevitable catcalls. This degree of frankness from a large corporation is quite rare, and it deserves to be rewarded.

Please consider casting a vote for Southwest in the Freddie Awards at http://freddieawards.com/

blogsouthwest.com is a major part of why I believe Southwest deserves to win the Best Newsletter/Member Communications, Best Web Site, and Best Customer Service awards. Another is that Southwest has an official representative assigned to flyertalk.com's Southwest forum, which I moderate. I can count the companies that have earned this much loyalty from me on one hand, with fingers left over.

Time to start guessing again for the next release date. I remember reading over at Flyertalk their expert guessing late March, which would have been either today or next Thursday. Using the 120/180 rule Bill mentioned, doesn't April 26 make more sense, since it would be close to the 120 days out from the current end of inventory, which is Aug. 24?

I can understand the reason you gave (a little bit) but I am not happy as a first time customer to find that I cannot book my vacation because I prefer to go with a company that I hear so much about, yet their planning department cannot even take off the months that have even passed and are no longer available nor needed to me nor anyone else, let alone put up a schedule that can be available to me.

Now that is disturbing! I've read your policies about my rights and what I am responsible for, and I am eager to ask, Arent YOU (SWA) all responsible for taking down any months that are past to put up new months on the rise? You know some people (like myself) have families to plan trips for, some people (like myself) would like to go with an airline who are advertised more than any other airline available, last but not least when I call to make reservations for a vacation that is 5 months in advanced and not a year, I should be able to book and know how much I am paying to go on my (family) vacation. I should not have to call/nor go to an airline site to find what I 'm looking for with an airline I haven't heard about for a trip LESS than 6mos AHEAD.

I thank God I am not working in your planning department because there would be some change in that department, It'll probably be a new dept when I finished with it. DING! I am not bashing, but there are some things that you as an airline carrier should be aware of and if it takes me a 26 year old married mother of 3 to tell you I will. I love to see/hear your commercials. I says to myself "I can't wait til I move up out of the country" and soon as I am ready to plan and eager to go, I have to wait till the ariline get ready to put up a schedule to go back to my travel agent to book. That's not exciting! It makes me want to say the hell with either the trip or booking with you. I am not the only person who fells that way and I also know that enough people just haven't come forth to say anything. They probably just gave their money to another airline and said forget (SWA). Well I won't! I'm going to give you the facts whether you like it or not, and /or whether you hear me or not, and take it from there. DING!!!! I hope you get better in that planning/ scheduling Dept.

Good luck SWA,

Wennetta Feagin
wfeagin@bccc.edu

[...] another change was made supposedly due to feedback on a previous post. As many of you know, Southwest only keeps their schedule open for a certain period of time in [...]

SWA - Please Add Hartford to Philly back to your schedule - I will fly this at least once a week if you do,

Also, a Hartford to IAD or DCA flight would be highly popular

Thanks for listening

Frankly, the explanation of why at I can't book a flight for November in late June is lame. The explanation is as credible as SWA's explanation of why they have no way for customers to email them comments or suggestions. How can you even pretend to value customer service with these lame excuses on such fundamental issues.

I can currently book a flight in November on any major carrier EXCEPT Southwest! How does that value me as a customer??

I can send an email to any other major carrier except Southwest! This is a joke. SWA has no problem sending out MILLIONS of marketing emails a month, but can't seem to figure out how to receive a single one from a customer???

Customer service and SWA should never be used in the same sentence!

Just call me frustrated in Phoenix...or a better name would be....booking on US Airways because Southwest won't take my flight reservation.

what is up with only being able to book through March 6 2009 (for like the last 2 months). I just want to book a trip for March 13th!!!! what is going on after March 6th that is stalling the airflights???

With the new schedule coming on April 14, 2009 can we please have a flight from (MCO) to (PVD) return to a early morning route sometime between 6:15 am and 7:00 am The flights during the summer leaving (MCO) AT 9:35 am are to late in the morning to enjoy a full day in Rhode Island