richmo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2007
On the time: I think they're usually out about 7 AM, but as an earlier poster mentioned, you can't count on it. I know when I booked my March flight (maybe November?) that the new times weren't loaded until sometime after 8:00...so be prepared to be flexible.
On the opening day prices: This is a tougher one. Sometimes the best price you will see is right away when booking starts and another poster was correct that there may only be a limited number of seats at that price. If the price looks high, try putting in a lower number of passengers. Sometimes you have to split the itinerary and book some at a lower price and some at a higher. If you do that, you'll also likely have a split itinerary coming back (and there's nothing wrong with doing that). Of course, if you split your passengers for the same flight, you'll have to do multiple checkins.
Also, what occasionally happens is that if there is a competitive carrier on the same route, that carrier may drop its price to match or beat Southwest. Southwest may or may not respond during the day to undercut or equal the competition. I've seen this happen, although rarely, with American on the PHL-MCO route. Of course, if you jump right in and book before the price drops, you can always rebook/modify and take the credit. I guess what I'm saying is that if you book on opening day, it doesn't hurt to check back even later that day to see if there's been a drop.
On the opening day prices: This is a tougher one. Sometimes the best price you will see is right away when booking starts and another poster was correct that there may only be a limited number of seats at that price. If the price looks high, try putting in a lower number of passengers. Sometimes you have to split the itinerary and book some at a lower price and some at a higher. If you do that, you'll also likely have a split itinerary coming back (and there's nothing wrong with doing that). Of course, if you split your passengers for the same flight, you'll have to do multiple checkins.
Also, what occasionally happens is that if there is a competitive carrier on the same route, that carrier may drop its price to match or beat Southwest. Southwest may or may not respond during the day to undercut or equal the competition. I've seen this happen, although rarely, with American on the PHL-MCO route. Of course, if you jump right in and book before the price drops, you can always rebook/modify and take the credit. I guess what I'm saying is that if you book on opening day, it doesn't hurt to check back even later that day to see if there's been a drop.
