Winter isn't for sale on my computer yet!!

Ready set go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When???????????????

This is rather disappointing. I had so hoped to have my holiday tickets booked by this time today. I have been ready to commit to them for a couple weeks now. Will just have to sit tight and wait till Southwest REALLY opens up winter travel. I still think they're the best airline to fly tho' ! ! !

The schedules just opened at about 10:00AM Central Time.

I was told the booking dates beyond Oct 30, 2008 were to begin on 6/26/08. When will they extend?

It's 10:13 CST and nothing is up past October. Am I missing something? I've refreshed, used other computers, etc.

Really? I've been trying since 10:00 EST and haven't seen any holiday dates yet.

I was at my computer ready to book at the very moment your schedule opened up on the west coast. All lowest fares for Thanksgiving were already unavailable. What gives?

Well Southwest how does it work that I get in to book a flight literally minutes after they go on sale to us grunts in the general public and the lowest fares are not even available anymore and 2 flights were already completely booked out in December?!

Also the rate increase is astronomical. It is no longer competitive with other airlines.

598$ from the Bay Area to NY?

Are you kidding me? 6 month advance purchase for 600$ ticket? with lay overs, plus that price is for the worst possible times?!

Very disappointing Now for the first time in almost 5 years I will be shopping for tickets with other airlines.

Good luck.

Sadly jetBlue is cheaper from Orlando to Washington Dulles. I love SWA but not for $50 more.

Winter schedule opened on June 26th, as promised, and I made my reservations. They were a bit costly but it feels good to have the tickets. How about February? When will you post that schedule?

Bill

How about that WIFI update you promised?

Thanks
Scott

It's great that you're bumping up the frequencies on some flights from Nashville but how about more cities from Nashville. We really need nonstop or some kind of real long standing direct service to PBI, RSW, and IND. These along with LIT and SDF are all cities that Nashville had for a long time either with our American Airlines hub, Delta, US Airways, or Corporate Express and have since lost. I'd also like to encourage you to look at Atlanta. I realize that it is a big Delta and AirTran hub but in this day in time how is that any different for you than expanding in Denver with United and Frontier(AirTran's marketing partner)?? Nashville hasn't had an alternative to Atlanta over Delta since Eastern and Valujet which have long since gone away and could use one. You could also look at Chattanooga as an alternative to Atlanta since it is so close although like I said I see no reason why you couldn't just march in to Atlanta itself if you wanted to and really be successful. I'd also like to inquire as to why as of March you still hadn't really done much of a transformation of Nashville's gates to the new setup aside from simply pulling the little A,B, & C signs down and giving us cheap black and white number signs attached what looks like temporary movable metal poles. You've given us kind of a glass ceiling in terms of never going above a certain flight count in Nashville and removing a city every time you add one and letting your gates get older and not updating them(ie. We have don't have the digital/electronic gate podiums or the nice permanent number posts or the TV screens that are supposed to go with them that most other cities our size do). I realize that you don't regularly reply to these but it would be nice if you would in this case.

Scott--I dropped the ball, buddy...I think I know someone that can update us on it! (I have NO clue but am eagerly waiting it to be onboard our airplanes!!!!)

If you are having trouble booking flights past October, don't use the "Book A Flight" option on the right hand side of the web page (Southwest.com) , instead, click on the tool bar on the top of the page that is labeled "Book Travel" and this will let you buy tickets up to January.

Nashville,

I'll get back to you on your facility concerns. As far as added cities from Nashville, we always follow traffic trends--and LIT and SDF are simply too small to support Nashville service for the time being. As for PBI, we used to fly there, and the traffic was so weak we wound up cancelling it. And as far as "marching into Atlanta"....who are we, General Sherman? *wink* All things are being examined these days, believe me! Southwest is carefully watching for the best places to expand.

Will,

Thanks, but I already have PLENTY of wrinkles, not to mention more gray hair than the "Senior DIscount" line at Denny's. But thanks! Email me at work sometime....I'm sorry I missed y'all last month!!!!

Bill

Thanksgiving pricing SEA/PHX is the worst ever and no RR seats whatsoever. Yikes! Even USAir is cheaper and with more desirable nonstop flight times. I expected higher prices this season but these prices on this route are unreasonable. I would hold out in hopes that Southwest opens some reasonable pricing but don't feel I can afford to wait. Sorry....this schedule opening was not worth the wait. Looks like I am booking USAir or Alaska this time, hate to say.

Thanks SO MUCH for moving the nonstop from LAS to SDF to an earlier afternoon departure! I hope that this time slot will perform well...it's much more convenient to get to SDF at 8:30pm than 12:30am! Thanks again, Bill!

I am so discouraged with Southwest I could scream!!! I have waited all YEAR to buy my tickets to Orlando Florida through Southwest to come to find out that I have past up airfare tickets with Air tran 99.00 tickets, Jet Blue tickets at 79.00 to find out that my loyalty to southwest will cost me 325.00 round trip. Why did I wait if this is what S.W. is going to do? You have never had such expensive tickets. Yes, you brag about your no cost 1st bag, 2nd bag and free snacks - but if you can't afford the ticket what good is the rest?????I have stood true and loyal to this company and this is the respect that you show your customers. My entire rest of the family purchased tickets on Air Tran as I stood in the back ground saying that "my" airline will come through for me. Boy, do I have egg on my face. THANK YOU SO MUCHHHHHHH!!!

does anyone know if all the "cheap" rate flights are booked? or is SoutWest just posting the higher fares to see how they sell? Then maybe offering the lower cost fares later on..?? Ideas/thoughts...???

Howard,
You probably won't see SWA at DCA for a while. Count how many gates are empty. NONE!
That airport is small compared to BWI and IAD plus with the airplane retrictions, you won't see any new airlines moving in soon unless something happens with the Delta/NWA merger.
I prefer DCA over IAD and BWI because Metro goes there and I can leave my car at home but sometimes I catch the B30 Metrobus to BWI from Greenbelt Metro on longer trips.
You can get the B30 schedule here if it helps http://www.wmata.com/timetables/view.cfm?line=165

I'm busting my gut laughing at all of the complaints about no low fares being available. Wake up people! Oil is over $140! Southwest may be partially hedged, but a good chunk of fuel costs are at market prices. Plus, Southwest still needs to plan ahead as the fuel hedges roll over to higher and higher prices.

Air travel is expensive. Get used to it. If you want Southwest to remain healthy, they must charge higher fares. The days of dirt cheap air travel are long gone and will never come back. The same thing goes for award travel. Needing double credits or miles in order to obtain a seat will become the norm as the entire industry adjusts their capacity to fit the market. There won't be that many seats that are predicted several months in advance to go unsold by the ever more sophisticated revenue management systems.

Indeed, we are hedged 70 percent at $51/barrel for 2008, but our operating costs are up 33 percent owing to rising fuel costs. We share your vision of a future with increased fuel efficiency, and we continue to take big steps in that direction (i.e. the addition of winglets, gate services, and electric ground equipment). You may have seen a post a couple of weeks ago announcing our commitment to RNP technology, which will further decrease consumption (see http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/rnp-reduced-emissions). I don't know about you, but, despite the current challenges, I am still optimistic about the future.

Here is an example, and don't give me any BS about change fees. I never had to change a leisure flight.

DAL-LAS 19-DEC
WN1469 11:10am / 2:05pm $241
LAS-DAL 23-DEC
WN310 12:05pm / 5:40pm $241
2 Passengers $1023.00

DFW-LAS 19-DEC
AA1063 11:55AM / 1:05pm $203
AA892 3:15PM / 7:55pm $148
2 Passengers $743.00

A great idea for a new "Wanna get Away" commercial:

Health Officials: Did We Say Tomatoes? We Meant Jalapeño Peppers

After causing the tomato industry to lose an estimated $100 million, health investigators have essentially recanted their contaminated tomato theory and have refocused their attention on jalapeño peppers. The Baltimore Sun reports that new interviews with salmonella victims have revealed that many of them had eaten salsa containing jalepeños. Other common Mexican food ingredients such as cilantro are also being investigated, however, no new samples have tested positive for salmonella

Any thoughts about adding flights to Steamboat / Hayden this winter? I see a number of airlines are adding Nonstops this year.

I am trying to reserve for March 14 to 21 2009. When does the Southwest schedule open for these dates