Southwest/Travel Agency Question

[Pan's Dad]

We have never flown SWest before, nor gone to WDW during a peak time but we intend on doing both for next Pres Wk 2002. We found a travel agency who said they can sell us our 9 tix for a flight from Albany NY to Orlando; however, not only have I gone to the local airport and spoken to a SWest agent, but I called SW tonite and they seemed unsure of this being possible. I was told to call grp sales tomorrow. The Agency claims they get a "block" of prepackaged tix (for instance we could get a sat am-sat pm flight or a sat pm to sun am flight but not a sat am to sun am flight..). On a prior post, some thought this sounded funny.

Has anyone heard of this being possible? I know that SWest is only booking thru early Fall at this time, but if they do have arrangements where travel agencies can purchase a block of prepackaged flights this far ahead, I would feel more comfortable buying the tix this week.

If this is done, can I find out what local agencies have purchased these block of tix so that i can call to see if they have the sat am departure time we are looking for?

The agency also said they issue no vouchers - I am unfamiliar with vouchering but the SWest agent at the airport said i can buy the tix from the agent and get a voucher if prices decrease directly from SWest. I thought I read posts stating you ask for the voucher from the agent not the airline??

I am so confused at this point but we are leaning to getting the tix to avoid missing the flight due to it being booked later on. Any advice on how best to protect ourselves?

Thanks!

 

[jjskribs]

Pan's Dad,
Friend's of mine have purchased their airline tickets for President's Week. They are flying Southwest out of Providence. They purchased the tickets directly through Southwest's group fare. They are leaving on Friday night and returning on Sunday afternoon and are paying $333.00. They were told that they needed to purchase 10 tickets in order to qualify for a group fare.Give Southwest's group travel a call and see what they can do for you...the number for group travel is on their website. Good luck!

 

[bicker]

It is possible that the travel agent is selling consolidator tickets. You may want to check into the restrictions and conditions on those tickets: they tend to be more draconian than with regular tickets.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

Bicker is right on this one! (bet you never thought I would say that huh?) some agencies have contracts with certain carriers for seats...I know fo a few here that do that and they know they are allotted so many seats per flight.....royal travel here in pittsburgh for one has it!