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I BLOGGED. YOU FLAMED. WE CHANGED.

By: Bill Owen bowen

Apr 18 2007

Admittedly, while that's not quite as catchy as Caesar's famous Latin phrase "veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered"), it pretty well sums up the aftermath of my "Why Can't I Make Reservations Further In Advance?" blog piece. In it, I explained the rationale behind Southwest's policy of not allowing reservations more than 180 days in advance, and why we on occasion will drop to 90 days of bookable "inventory" before we extend the booking window back out to 180 days. Talk about sticking your head into a hornet's nest! We got 274 replies, and from the tone of some of them we quickly realized that, at least for some of you, a few of our policies were out of step with your travel needs. So...we're changing! We heard, from both Customers and Employees alike, that you didn't like our policy of not publishing the dates on which we plan to extend the schedule. No problem! We now make the tentative, planned date of the next schedule extension available to our Reservations Agents, and in short order this information will be prominently displayed at southwest.com. Bear in mind that the planned schedule extension date will always be subject to change, as we have to "tweak" the date every now and then, due to forces beyond our control–so while you can use the date as a planning tool, please check back occasionally to make sure the date doesn't change. As they say in the commercials."but wait! There's more!" Effective immediately, we will consider 120 days of bookable inventory as our minimum when getting our schedule ready for peak travel periods, such as summer or the Holiday Season. I can't promise that we will never go under this minimum for those heavy demand periods again, but I can promise that we will do everything in our power to make sure you always have more than 120 days of available flights to choose from.  I can promise that it will take something almost cataclysmic to prevent that from happening. For other, less heavy travel periods, we will try to keep a minimum of 100 days of inventory available for your booking pleasure. On the other "end" of the booking window, we're going to push the maximum available inventory from 180 days to between 190 and 200 days of inventory–and once again, we'll pay particular attention to making peak travel periods available for booking as far in advance as possible. So there you have it. We heard you, loud and clearly, and we reacted. I realize some of you wish we would extend the booking window even further out, and while we won't do that this "go-round" we will continue to study the issue and may, at a later time, choose to do so. In any event, I hope these changes make planning your travel on Southwest easier. Like all airlines, Southwest appreciates your business–but unlike other airlines, we LUV you, and we appreciate your honesty! Thanks for all of the responses and thank you for reading "Nuts About Southwest!"

Southwest Culture

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Comments

Maybe I missed it here, but I'm frustrated that I can't ever seem to catch the "day" of the reservation window expands and I miss out on utilizing my rapid rewards for our annual spring break trip. Can the day the reservation window is expanded be sent as an update on your Ding at say 8am central time? I sometimes see a small mention of the "now accepting reservations through." Make it bigger and bolder so it's not missed. In fact I'd ask that it be a special message sent alone so it's not over looked.
Just a thought from a stock holder and life long SWA passenger.

BTW, will the AirTran purchase add Hawaii and if not when will you guys add that destination to the SWA map? m

At what time of day will tomorrow's fares (6/15/10) be released? Please advise as to time zone of release time - PST, CST, EST. Thank you.

I continue to wonder why SW is not in Savannah. I am a very frequent flyer who moved to Savannah about 1 year ago from Philadelphia. I fly from SAV 2 or 3 times each week to various points throughout the northeast and west coast. Many of my friends and colleagues fly as often as I (from SAV).

There clearly is a big demand for SW airlines at SAV and certainly plenty of empty gates. Given Air Tran’s withdrawal from the market, U.S. Air's reduced schedule and the consolidation of Delta and Northwest the Savannah market is ripe for Southwest Airlines.

I can't understand why the City, County, Chamber of Commerce or Airport Commission (I think one exits) has not tried to lobby S.W. into the market. I can't find any public information about this effort. I am willing to put some resources into an effort to bring S.W. to town and am looking for others that may have the same interest.

The drive to JAX is OK but it is time for the Savannah community put pressure on the various government entities that are in a position to lobby S.W. into town. It is hard to believe they couldn't fill up every flight, so something else is blocking what seems to be a rationale business decision.

Please contact me if you have interest.

How do we get you guys, the best airline in the world, to fly to Savannah, GA? After you head south of Raleigh-Durham there are no flights until you get to Jacksonville. Savannah is a great destinatiom to should fly into. This would serve the Savannah/HIlton Head area. Please consider this as your next location!!!! Please let me know this idea is on your radar!!!

Andy,
it is at the top of the Travel Tools page.

Where on Southwest.com is the cycle of posting travel dates that are reservable posted - as committed in the original post? This leaves travelers calling into your CSR's - expensive for SW, and frustrating for travelers.

Bill, do you have a pdf file of all the schedule changes for November 1, 2009?? I cant seem to find one.. thanks..

Anyone know when Southwest will post their November schedule?
Dave

Any idea if there are any plans to add Savannah, GA as a Southwest city? The closest city to fly SWA is Jacksonville which is 2 hours away!!

Thanks for following through Bill!
Now can we know when the next window is ? I'm not flying anybody else...
But I must admit to sitting in front of my computer somenights and "thinking "
about booking somewhere else. I already paid for my beach house vacation on Anna Maria Island in FLA. I would really like a best possible guess to book 4 people from (MAN)
Manchester NH to Tampa on the 19th Dec. -returning 2 Jan. 2010.. it makes me nuts having details- ( flight availabilty ) - not ironed out and tickets firmly in hand.
Come on Bill..give us a hint..Pleeeeeeaaaasssseeee?
( I'll send you a bucket of candy corn...ok?) -Bob & family in NH.