Southwest Outrageous Ticket Prices

[gdrj]

SW Fares are high DC to MCO as well for Easter. We fortunately can choose to drive.

 

[shrinkydinky]

Changing our flight dates from the weekend to Tuesday/Wednesday lowered our fares significantly. Then in the last week, their fares have gone down even more. We all saved around $100 on our flights. My husband and my rt flights from Sacramento to Orlando are now only $377.50. That's the lowest i've ever seen. So, things are looking up!

 

[TJDisneymama]

SW has always been our preferred airline and we fly out of Islip (Long Island), NY. We're booked on a Disney Cruise for President's week in 2016. We have yet to book our airfare. The "Wanna Get Away" fares are all blacked out for the dates surrouding that week, and the other fares are insane. This is on top of the fact that they have drastically cut the number of flights in and out of Islip. Other airlines are in the same ballpark, although the trend the last couple of weeks (I check prices pretty much daily), has been priced coming down slightly - from completely ludicrous down to just plain ridiculous. Hopefully they get to reasonable levels at some point or we may cancel the cruise. WDW/DCL, Universal, etc. should be very concerned about the price airfare right now. If prices remain sky high (pun fully intended) - all while fuel costs are as low as they've been in a long time - it's going to hurt them.

we are in the same boat (maybe even literally.....2/14 on the magic?? ). I am so freaked out, I check fares literally about 30x a day. I am assuming (hoping) that they are going to release some Wanna Get Away fares as we get closer. I will cancel the cruise before I pay $400-$500/per person for flights!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Don't forget to check prices flying into Tampa. Earlier this year a flight to MCO was $189 but a flight to TPA was $101.. And it only adds 40 minutes extra to the drive time to WDW each way.

 

[antman]

Don't forget to check prices flying into Tampa. Earlier this year a flight to MCO was $189 but a flight to TPA was $101.. And it only adds 40 minutes extra to the drive time to WDW each way.

But no Magic Express, that is a very big negative for me. It basically rules out any other option.

 

[nkereina]

But no Magic Express, that is a very big negative for me. It basically rules out any other option.

But you could rent a car from the airport and drop it off at one of the car rental companies on property, if you didn't want to keep it for the duration. Mears may even have a shuttle. Of course it would be for a cost, but might still be worth it depending on how much $$ it saves.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

we are in the same boat (maybe even literally.....2/14 on the magic?? ). I am so freaked out, I check fares literally about 30x a day. I am assuming (hoping) that they are going to release some Wanna Get Away fares as we get closer. I will cancel the cruise before I pay $400-$500/per person for flights!

If you are flying from the NE you may be in trouble. That's the one week a year that I have seen weekend fares start high and just go up.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

If you look for flights on the weekends the prices are always going to be expensive. I looked last Tuesday/ Wednesday for flights from Hartfod > MCO and I was seeing $90-125 each way. Those same flights today, Sunday, are over $200 and sometimes over $300 each way. The prices change daily and the sales come and go. Just keep looking mid week and if you see your preferred time for less than $130 grab it. And if you book your flight and see the fare is cheaper down the road, Southwest will re-book you at the cheaper fare. You just have to call them in order to do that.

Sundays, Mondays and Fridays -- Fares are always higher

Tues-Thurs, Saturday -- Fares tend to be cheaper

Yep!

We fly Southwest from Indianapolis. For our trip in August we paid $216 RT/person so for the 3 of us it was a total of only $648. I haven't paid airfare that low in a l-o-n-g time. We were scheduled to fly down on Saturday and we flew home on a Thursday. (I say we were scheduled to fly down on Saturday because we didn't actually make that flight - it was cancelled due to 'flypocalypse'; we flew down on another carrier the next day).

 

[TJDisneymama]

i have been checking every single day, multiple times a day. Fares haven't moved even $1 on SW. I don't think SW follows that pattern of lowering prices on Tues/Weds.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

i have been checking every single day, multiple times a day. Fares haven't moved even $1 on SW. I don't think SW follows that pattern of lowering prices on Tues/Weds.

That's because this is one of those "myths" with some truth.

Years ago before the advent of good computers on Monday morning the airline executives all looked at past sales, sales forecasts etc... and said "opps Atlanta to Las Vegas isn't selling well drop that fare $20" That night their staff loaded their decisions into a reservation system (going way back into a book LOL!) And on Tuesday the new fares took effect.

Now the airlines have systems that monitor and project in real time and can change fares on Friday at 2 PM just as easily as Monday at midnight!

 

[Rhombus]

i have been checking every single day, multiple times a day. Fares haven't moved even $1 on SW. I don't think SW follows that pattern of lowering prices on Tues/Weds.

That pattern has been a myth for years now. And I don't think Southwest ever followed it even when it was somewhat true.

 

[TJDisneymama]

Don't forget to check prices flying into Tampa. Earlier this year a flight to MCO was $189 but a flight to TPA was $101.. And it only adds 40 minutes extra to the drive time to WDW each way.

that's a good option, i wouldn't have even thought of that. We'll be paying $35/pp anyways to get to/from MCO to the port so what's the difference if we hire a car to drive us from Tampa to the port! If we got free Magical Express like with WDW, it wouldn't be worth it.....

 

[Yellowjj]

i have been checking every single day, multiple times a day. Fares haven't moved even $1 on SW. I don't think SW follows that pattern of lowering prices on Tues/Weds.

It's market dependent. Two months ago, I snagged quite a few flights on WN at $41. These all activated Tuesday morning at about 2am. Before that the price was about triple. If your just looking at one particular route then it's true that it may never fall. If its a route with competition on it, you may see a drop.

That's because this is one of those "myths" with some truth.

Years ago before the advent of good computers on Monday morning the airline executives all looked at past sales, sales forecasts etc... and said "opps Atlanta to Las Vegas isn't selling well drop that fare $20" That night their staff loaded their decisions into a reservation system (going way back into a book LOL!) And on Tuesday the new fares took effect.

Now the airlines have systems that monitor and project in real time and can change fares on Friday at 2 PM just as easily as Monday at midnight!

Of the four upcoming trips I have on WN, price changes went into effect Tuesday morning. While the legacies AA/DL/UA tends to change as you described.

 

[dakotix]

Southwest is having a sale starting today...Tuesday morning. It's really not a myth but that doesn't mean your route will be on sale. Supply and demand!

 

[shopn24seven]

I just don't get SW

 

[shopn24seven]

sorry, hit enter too soon.
I just don't SW anymore, When the March dates opened up a couple of weeks ago, the DAY of, mind you, EVERYTIME for 3/13 was UNAVILABLE except for one and that one was price at 278.00 each way.
Did a couple more searches and the same same, 90% unavailble, except for ONE very expensive. Thats 556 rount trip for coach. I could fly FC on AA for that.

 

[TJDisneymama]

ITA,all the WGA fares have shown as Unavailable since release day. Its been over a month now. I get that they want to try to sell the higher fares, but I thought SW was considered one of the low cost carriers? At this point, ALL the other carriers are cheaper.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

ITA,all the WGA fares have shown as Unavailable since release day. Its been over a month now. I get that they want to try to sell the higher fares, but I thought SW was considered one of the low cost carriers? At this point, ALL the other carriers are cheaper.

Not any more. Often other carriers have better fares.

 

[jec6613]

I thought SW was considered one of the low cost carriers? At this point, ALL the other carriers are cheaper.

It is a LCC, and was one of the early ones. After the airline deregulation, carriers were either legacy, or a LCC, with LCC ones being started after deregulation and legacy being ones that predate deregulation - and LCC refers (or referred) to their costs, not your costs.

There are only five remaining legacy carriers remaining - AA, DL, UA, AS and HA. Every other US-based carrier is a LCC by at least the old definition.

 

[elaine amj]

This thread popped up again and reminded me to check. my flight price dropped for my Feb 2016 trip. But only for 1 fare. I changed my ticket but when I tried to get the drop for Ticket 2 and Ticket 3, the price had gone back to what I originally paid. So i will continue checking.