Southwest, does it matter?

Jaylin

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Biting the bullet and buying my Southwest flights today for my Aug trip. Prices are ok, $129 each way. My question is should I buy the flights as one way or roundtrip? I thought I remember reading somewhere that is easier to get a price credit (if they go down) if the trip isn't booked as roundtrip. Am I correct?

I also read that I should sign everyone up for a rapid rewards account, even my 4 kids. There's no issue with having 6 RR accounts on the purchase of trip is there? I wouldn't need to book everyone individually would I?

Thanks!!
 
All our kids have RR accounts. You just enter the numbers for each person on one reservation. You have to name each person individually and there is a place to enter the RR number.

I would book round trip. I've never found any real advantage the other way although others might. You can still re-book either half of the trip if the price goes down with a round trip reservation.
 
My family of 4 (me, hubby and two kids), plus my mom travel to WDW every year and I am always the one booking the flights together. Last year was the first time we flew Southwest and I did sign myself up for the Rapid Rewards... but no one else in my family. Now I'm looking for flights for our October trip and curious about booking Southwest again and creating a Rapid Rewards accounts for the other 4 people in my travel party. At this point we obviously wouldn't have earned enough points to book a flight using points, but how would that work maybe next year or the year after when we do have enough points and I'm again booking everyone's flight? Can I book us all under the same reservation and still use everyone's individual points when making that reservation?

Also, is it worth it to buy Rapid Reward points to make reservations for this year's trip? Because I believe if the price goes down after we book, that we will automatically get a refund on our points, correct? And can we change flights without penalty if we book it with points, should our plans change or a better SW flight becomes available?

TIA :)
 
There is no advantage to booking round trip (other than convenience when booking). There MAY be advantages to booking one way if there are price drops or changes to your plans.
 


There are no automatic refunds of your points, you have to catch the price/point drop and rebook which is easier when you have one ways booked. Don't call in on the price drops and have them do it. Once they touch your booking you will no longer be able to rebook or anything online, you will have to call in every time (lesson learned for me!). You can get price drops for cash bookings too, but you don't get a "refund" you get a credit in your SW "bank" to be used later.
 
There are no automatic refunds of your points, you have to catch the price/point drop and rebook which is easier when you have one ways booked. Don't call in on the price drops and have them do it. Once they touch your booking you will no longer be able to rebook or anything online, you will have to call in every time (lesson learned for me!). You can get price drops for cash bookings too, but you don't get a "refund" you get a credit in your SW "bank" to be used later.

So how do you "rebook" online to get the lower fare when using points? Do you cancel your first reservation booked with points and rebook a new one, as if starting for scratch?
 
You go into your SW login and go to "My Travel". Go to the booking you want to change and click on the blue "change" link and then you select the new flight that you want (even if it's the same exact flight just now cheaper). You will get a refund of any points difference or a credit to be used later for any cash difference.
 


You go into your SW login and go to "My Travel". Go to the booking you want to change and click on the blue "change" link and then you select the new flight that you want (even if it's the same exact flight just now cheaper). You will get a refund of any points difference or a credit to be used later for any cash difference.

Awesome, thank you! Is there a limit of how many times I change my flight? We don't travel until October, so if I book now and see the price drop multiple times between now and then, I'd like to be able to change it as many times as the price drops.
 
I would definitely book the 129 flight. I don't think they get much better. I just booked our Sept flights 2 days ago 127 each way. After reading your post I checked my flights again and they are now 188 each way. Book now!
 
Book now and book one way. I book last week when the fall schedule opened up and the non-stop flight from Louisville to Orlanda is already sold out. Orlando back to Louisville went from $134 when I booked to $178 by the end of that same day. I'm checking every day for a price adjustment but since the flight down is already sold out, I doubt that will happen. I think I actually got the best deal and the lowest price by booking at 6am on the day the schedule opened up.
 
One more thing about RR accounts. SW also uses them to help identify fliers agains the TSA watch list. Our daughter got watch listed about 8 years ago and while waiting for TSA to process her removal (successful) Southwest advised us to set up an account for her and always use it because it provides more specific identifying information which reduces mix ups with TSA data.
 
We always book 2 one way flights. My understanding with a RT flight is if the rates go down, you have to rebook both flights. Sometimes one flight will have prices go down and the other up. If you have 2 one ways, you can change just one flight.
 
On a SWA / RT (same confirmation number)
trip a person is able to *Select Flights To Change*
Meaning you may change the Outbound or the Return trip
separately ... you Do Not need to change both Trips on RT booking.
This can be done when viewing itinerary using the *Change Flight* option.
 
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Thank you everyone! I booked it yesterday! And I looked today and our outgoing flight went from $129 to $188!!! So I'm glad I did! I think with southwest decreasing the amount of flights they have that planes are going to be full, which means no $79 flights!
 
We always book 2 one way flights. My understanding with a RT flight is if the rates go down, you have to rebook both flights. Sometimes one flight will have prices go down and the other up. If you have 2 one ways, you can change just one flight.
That used to be the case but as ibob52 just posted, they finally changed that. Now, when you select the "Change Flight" option and enter your confirmation number, you can opt to change just one leg of the flight without affecting the other. I did that not too long ago to reprice our flight into MCO on a round trip itinerary.
 
I also always book one way. Believe it or not, there was ONE TIME, about 8 years ago, that when changing my flight to get a lower price, they did REQUIRE you to select both legs. And so the discount on the way down was offset by an increase in the return. Since then, I have always booked one way. Also, I book them individually - but of course, we're all grownups now. When DD was younger, I would book her with me and do DH individually. The plus side of this, is that if the fare goes down, and there's a limited number of seats at the reduced fare, you can change SOME of the tickets and save SOME money. Sometimes, If you're looking for 5 seats, the fares are higher than looking for 1 seat. The main downside of this is that you have to be checking in multiple itineraries at once. And you likely wont' get your boarding numbers to be consecutive.
 
While you can successfully rebook one leg of your trip on a round trip itinerary, I'm not sure if you can outright cancel one leg, especially if its the outbound flight from home (going to MCO). While that is unusual, that happened to me last summer. I had booked a round trip from PHL to MCO on Southwest as two itineraries. Along came Frontier with some crazy sale where I was able to do TTN (Trenton) to MCO for $29, so I booked that and cancelled the Southwest itinerary to MCO (will be using the credit from that later this month). The return flight on Southwest was still much better than Frontier, though. If I had a round trip booked with Southwest, I'm not sure if I could easily remove a flight from it completely.
 
I book one ways because it is easier to change one leg at a time and there is no benefit for a round trip.
 
Can someone explain the benefit of having rapid rewards for each family member and not just for the person booking the flights? Thanks!
 
Only the person who flys can earn reward points for the flight (sometimes called butt in seat miles). The person booking the flight can get points for the money spent on all of the tickets they book if they have a SW Visa. If you are flying with other family members, each person must have their own RR number to earn points for the actual flight itself.
 

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