Could anyone give me a brief explanation of what this is and how it works? We’re going the week of Thanksgiving, and the plan right now is to drive unless I can find good airfare.
Ok first: my maiden name is Talbot. So we are obviously cousins.
Now, as to this: the idea is that as your dates approach, typically around 6-8 weeks out, you book the cheapest flight you can find within 30 days of your actual desired travel date. Then you go back into the reservation and change it to your actual dates and get the better flight for no increased price. This happens when SW is working to consolidate their flights or otherwise change their schedule and you typically show a “red banner” when you review your reservation indicating that you can change your flight at no charge.
I’m sure I’m not being clear enough and I hope someone else will chime in to fill in the fuzzy parts.
It’s always a gamble but has worked out to tons of savings for a lot of us.
1 Like
Thanks cuz! 
So (theoretically) as soon as reservations are open for November I could book a flight for the 1st of the month (or whenever fares are cheapest in that 30 day window) and then go to my booking and change my reservation to the actual flight I want?
Theoretically. If this continues to work as it has. Yes.
1 Like
It works if Southwest opens it up for people to reschedule because they are making a lot of widespread changes to their flight schedules. It’s impossible to say if it will happen again with later dates. If SW makes changes to your flight they will let you change, they started doing this kind of “wide open”/for anyone with a booking during certain dates thing since about this time last year (? I think)?
2 Likes
That makes sense! I’ll just have to keep an eye out when my booking window opens. Thanks!
Aww man, this isn’t working for me for Memorial Day weekend. 
It looks like this has ended for May.
So there’s a $49 sale on for summer with a booking window of 3/30-4/8; I would expect the next batch of dates (June) to release 4/9 (for changes I mean, the change fare thingie)
Just a hunch.
1 Like
Did anyone get their flights changed by SW today? I was sooo happy with our flights. We were supposed to return @ 7:30 on a Saturday and I bought a ticket, made a park reservation, and an ADR for that day, They just moved us to a 2:10 PM flight. (That means tragical express @11:00 AM 
) No other later flights available. What I don’t understand is, they are still showing the 7:30 PM flight on the schedule? Ok, talking with SW now. She says the 7:30 flight is not canceled but it’s “full”?. They literally just booted me off the flight??? @OBNurseNH, has this ever happened to you?
Lots of people have had their flights moved.
If they moved you without asking they should move you to another flight at no cost change.
If the latest flight is full… maybe Disney math works so that you stay one more day 
I do understand them moving flights if the flight is canceled, but it is not. They just booted us off!
Some other flight was cancelled. Passengers were consolidated. You lost the “lottery” and got booted.
It stinks but it is certainly not rare, especially in the pandemic
1 Like
I knew my day was just going too smoothly…
1 Like
This would be incredibly frustrating! I’m so sorry!
1 Like
Ok, here is what Customer Service told me in case you are interested. Not sure if I buy it. They had to move people off of the flight due to “social distancing” with Covid. I guess during the pandemic, demand has not been that high, so they did not need to put a mechanism in place to limit the number of people on a flight as long as demand was less than the plane’s capacity. Now demand is picking back up, and the system booked my flight to capacity, so they had to pull people off in order to social distance. I basically told her (in a nice way) that after all this time with the pandemic, SW surely should have had a temporary limit in place for each flight, which allows for social distancing. (My kids would call me a “Karen” on that one 
)
Except they are not social distancing. On my SW flight a few weeks ago, the flight to MCO was FULL, including all middle seats
2 Likes
See that IS BS because they are flying full planes with no open seats.
1 Like
What may be happening is they told people the flight is full, but you can switch to an emptier flight if that flight is less than 60% full. Or, the later flight is over 60% full, so they aren’t transferring people onto it.
They are flying full planes.
1 Like