Some of you may have run across this thread I started a couple of weeks ago where I mentioned that Jakeline and I were thinking about a trip through the midwest this coming summer. Well, thanks to the helpful suggestions of many, many Dopers and the fact that we have friends who will be in Michigan in mid-June, we’ve decided to go ahead and make that trip.
About a week ago, I started doing some intense research using sites like Expedia and Travelocity to find the lowest airfare. I came up with a pretty good price for the two of us going round-trip from LA to Detroit ($553), and was getting close to booking that trip. However, something eventually triggered the thought that the low-cost travel sites don’t carry Southwest Airlines’ fares, so I excitedly went to check their site directly.
Of course, Southwest is a no-frills airline and generally provides some really good deals, but there are inconveniences one has to suffer if one chooses to fly with them. What I was not previously aware of was the fact that they place some ridiculous, and apparently arbitrary, limit on how far in advance you can book a flight. Our plan is to fly out on June 15th, but when I got to the site, I could only book through June 9th. No other airline I’d encountered during my search had limitations anywhere near that. However, doing a “sample” fare from June 1st to June 9th showed me that I could absolutely destroy the fare that I’d found previously – Southwest runs promotions from LA to Chicago for $99 each way, putting our grand total some $125 lower than the prior “best” fare. So this seemed worth pursuing.
“No big deal,” I thought. “I’ll just call Southwest and see what the deal is. I’m sure they’ll be helpful.” Hah! The conversation went something like this:
Me: “Hi. I was trying to book a flight for June 15th, but your site is restricting me to June 9th.”
Southwest Rep: “Hmm. Yep, that’s as far as we’re booking right now.”
Me: “Ooooo-kay. Um, so when will be able to book a flight on the 15th? That’s not even a month beyond your current limit.”
SW-R: “Well, usually we let you book around 4 months in advance.”
Me: <glancing at calendar> “Uh huh.”
SW-R: “Oh, I guess it is around that time already.”
Me: “Uh huh.”
SW-R: “Gosh, that’s weird. I would have thought we’d have opened up more dates by now. It should be this week or next week.”
Me: “There’s no way to know for sure? They don’t tell you guys?”
SW-R: “Unfortunately, no. You’ll have to keep checking back.”
Me: “I have to check back every single day until it becomes available?”
SW-R: “Yeah, looks like it. Sorry. But hopefully this week or next week.”
I should point out that my gripe is not with the Southwest Rep by any means. Obviously she was being as helpful as she could be under the circumstances. I just think the policy is really lame and not at all helpful.
At any rate, “next week” has come and gone. I’ve checked their website every morning and evening for the last nine days with no luck. It’s kind of a pisser because I know those $99 fares are limited to just a few seats on each flight, and I don’t want to forget about it and then miss out on the opportunity once those fares become available.
So I’m just irritated with them right now and felt a need to share. Obviously, it’s not going to keep me from flying with them.
Grrr, Southwest. I shake my fist at thee. Grr.