WHOA! Southwest rates are so high!

[Mammabruski]

Jeepers! I was just looking at airfares for our trip in March (3/26-4/3) and Southwest has fares as high at $300 for ONE WAY! And that was in their "cheapest" category. And the flight I wanted was already sold out (in the "cheapest" category)! I know it's spring break and all, but what happened to SWA being affordable?!

We're leaving from Denver... anyone found reasonable airfares for your spring break trip? Even on Expedia my desired flights would run about $613 with taxes! OUCH!

[Disney4us2]

I am traveling during spring break (4/15-4/22). The air for us on United was $498+fees. Makes Southwest seem cheap.

[KAT1811]

They always jack the prices up around the busy travel times. Imagine buying tickets for a family of 6, that should make you feel better. We end up spending over $1500 just to get there! Southwest is by far the cheapest. I have yet to find anyone that even comes close. Good luck! I find that if you can wait and alter you travel dates sometimes they lower the rates that don't sell. Maybe you can leave mid break and come home a little later?

[jonsmom]

They always jack the prices up around the busy travel times. Imagine buying tickets for a family of 6, that should make you feel better. We end up spending over $1500 just to get there! Southwest is by far the cheapest. I have yet to find anyone that even comes close. Good luck! I find that if you can wait and alter you travel dates sometimes they lower the rates that don't sell. Maybe you can leave mid break and come home a little later?

This year it was by far cheaper to fly JetBlue out of Boston instead of SWA out of Providence. This would be for next April school vacation week.

Parking at the Braintree Logan Express was $66 including r/t bus fare. Can't beat that.

[Ian]

Well the fact that the flight is sold out already should tell you something. Flying during popular travel times will always result in higher fares.

[sassafras]

We're flying out of St. Louis to go to DW on April 30 and about choked when we saw the price! SW wants $168 to fly down and $148 to fly back (each). We flew down in Aug and only paid 320 roundtrip for both us! I'm trying to decide if I should hold off for a Ding fare, but am afraid our flight will sell out!

[BrerGnat]

You're too early. Airfares are typically lowest 4-6 weeks prior to travel dates.

Earlier this year, for the week prior to Easter, we paid $425 per person from CA to Orlando. This was on Jet Blue, which ended up being one of the cheaper options. We bought our tickets approx. one month prior to our trip

I have found that Southwest is really only good for shorter distance travel. Coming from the west, Southwest is never the cheapest option.

I began searching for our airfare for that trip around November of last year, and the fares at that time were in the range of $600-800 per person. It came down significantly. Remember, people change their plans, cancel flights, etc. all the time.

[Pirate Granny]

Just feel sorry for the parents who get to foot the bill for those pricy airfares.

[kakn7294]

We are traveling on SW in January and got our tickets for $69 to and $99 home. In the summer, those same flights will be at least $50 more per leg of the trip. My friends in Baltimore always pay far less than we do no matter what time of year.

[Zippy 1]

We fly out of Denver to Orlando and have never paid more than $200 per ticket roundtrip. I do have to say we have never gone Spring break. Once at Thanksgiving and then always early November. Hopefully the prices will come down.

[luvDaMouse]

I fly Southwest out of Philadelphia and wont fly anything else! My system works but takes some effort and you have to be flexible with your schedule. I started looking at my flights for my Dec (2010) trip as soon as the booking window opened up for SW. The flights I wanted were expensive for both the departing and the return flight. I start checking every day in the morning, at lunch and then again in the evenings. The departing flight eventually came down in price in the morning so I booked it. I didn’t book the return flight yet as it was still way to high. I would keep checking every day 3 times a day or so. Then my departing flight went down again! So I rebooked it and had a credit of about $36 per person, which I figured I could use towards my return flight. Then I would keep watching the return flights until one day in the am the return flight I wanted dropped down to 79$ (from the orig price of $180!) so I used my credit and booked my flight!! It takes a lot of work and you have to constantly watch the site (it has become a game for me) but you get the best prices that way! (btw that same flight went back up that night to 180) Just keep in mind Southwest has changed its policy effective Jan 1st that credits have to be used for the same person they cannot be transferred. My dh thinks I am insane until I tell him how much money I have saved! :D
Keep watching... :mickey:

[Ian]

My system works ... Man, you could have stolen my story!

We're flying out of Philly in December to head down to WDW and I went about it the same way, got the same fares, etc.

It can be done! :thumbsup:

[luvDaMouse]

Ian: "Man, you could have stolen my story!" :thumbsup:

(I cant figure out how to copy a quote :blush:)

I forgot to add that I also had a credit from last year and used that to lower the price too:thumbsup: You can use up to 2 credits per person ( I think that is the max) And the credit is good for one year.

I love Southwest:)

[Mammabruski]

Just feel sorry for the parents who get to foot the bill for those pricy airfares.

I was wondering if you'd see this post....

Tryin' to look for the cheapest option! :mickey:

[MarkC]

If you have this option, being flexible on the day of your trip and even your airport really helps. When we travel we routinely look at 3 different airports and then consider the cost of gas, parking, our time, etc. Like luvdamouse said, you almost have to be obsessed with finding a low airfare and then being ready to lock it in when you see it. Good luck.

[Mammabruski]

Gosh, everyone has some great suggestions... Unfortunately I can't be flexible with our dates, as my wonderful DM (Pirate Granny:number1:) has rented (and paid in full) points to stay at OKW for our whole family. Everyone kindly worked around my schedule (I'm a teacher), so we could have a super great vacation together.

I also can't be flexible on our airport... Besides Denver, the only other large airport near our house is SLC and that's a 6 hour drive as opposed to a 3 hour drive to Denver.

I guess I'm just going to have to be a hawk and check airfares A LOT, so I can save as much money as possible on the cost of the tickets. Well, actually so I can save Pirate Granny as much as possible on the tickets.:blush:

[BrerGnat]

Yep, just keep at it. Airfare will come down before then. You've got plenty of time.

I love to sign up for "fare watcher" alerts on different sites (you can do it on Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.) These are helpful. I think SWA offers a version of this on their site as well.

We are usually in a similar situation regarding lack of flexibility. DH is military, and time off isn't usually something we can plan way in advance or get very specific about. He always has to work around what's going on, meetings, etc. and that stuff doesn't pan out until 2-3 months prior. So, for the most part, we get a set of dates, and that's the end of that. We have a lot of airport choices near us, but we HATE LAX, which is usually the cheapest option. We'd rather pay more and avoid that airport at all costs!

Here's a tip: TUESDAYS right around 2pm E.T., airfare is the LOWEST it will be for the entire week. So, I guess that would be noon your time, or thereabouts? Set some sort of reminder to yourself to check the airfares every Tuesday at noon!

[Mammabruski]

UPDATE:

I checked, and I checked and I checked! And I got a "decent fare"! We (ok, not me but Pirate Granny) ended up paying about $380 a head, AND we got the non-stop departure times we wanted! What a nice xmas gift. I'm going to keep watching to see if the prices drop even still and get that SWA credit.

So excited for our trip! :cloud9:

[faline]

Glad to hear you got some acceptable, though certainly not great, rates!

[TheRustyScupper]

And the flight I wanted was already sold out (in the "cheapest" category)!


1) You might have simply waited too long.
2) We just got roundtrip from Cleveland for $201 AFTER taxes.

[Mammabruski]

1) You might have simply waited too long.
2) We just got roundtrip from Cleveland for $201 AFTER taxes.

Well, I actually was able to get seats on that "sold out" flight... it's really interesting that it can be "sold out", then available. It must be a marketing ploy...

Also, it's great that you got flights for $201 AFTER taxes, but I'm still pretty happy with $380 AFTER taxes. You have to remember that Denver is a spring break location as well, with the skiing that is just over an hour away. It's kind of like a double whammy, since Orlando is obviously also a spring break location, too.

Overall $380 down from $613 seems like a good deal to me... especially when you consider if it goes down, I can get credit for our family to fly this summer. :thumbsup:

[BigThunderFan]

We flew SWA in January last year $69 each way. This year? The cheapest tickets were $104 each way. And I check multiple times per day.