Anyone familiar with Southwest prices?

[disneyfam5608]

I got online to check airfare prices for our disney trip, and priced it at $243 per person for round trip. Talked it over with my family and got online the next morning to book it and it had gone up to $406 per person for the same flights! Is anyone familiar with Southwest airfares? Are they like other airlines that raise the prices and then drop them back down a week later? Or will the fares just keep going up and never go on sale? We are 7 people flying from Baltimore to Orlando. Thanks!

 

[ibob52]

Although this is not exactly the answer to your SWA ticket price question.
What I would do is see if you can change the dates of your vacation.
Changing the vacation dates by even as little as a day ...
sometimes the ticket price you would prefer are still available.

 

[katallo]

I'm not an expert, but they do vary. For us, they usually don't change from day to day. I notice a difference around sale times. However, BWI nevers seems to be included in Orlando or Tampa sales. I thought we were a hub, but sales from BWI to MCO are few and far between. We also never get DINGS for Orlando.

 

[kydisneyfans]

One thing to check is to put in 2 or 3 instead of 7 and see what the price is. If you can get a few tickets for the old price and the rest at the new, then the flight is filling and the price will not drop unless folks cancel. If you can't get 1 ticket for the old price, it may be the sale is over.

SW prices are almost always higher on the weekend. I would check again Tuesday morning

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

One thing to check is to put in 2 or 3 instead of 7 and see what the price is. If you can get a few tickets for the old price and the rest at the new, then the flight is filling and the price will not drop unless folks cancel. If you can't get 1 ticket for the old price, it may be the sale is over.

SW prices are almost always higher on the weekend. I would check again Tuesday morning

I agree with this. Booked within a few minutes of the ticket window opening and was able to get 4 tickets at one price and 3 tickets at the next level. If I had booked all 7 in one transaction my total one-way would have been $200 more. It was worth it for our family to fly on 2 different ressies. I just made sure there was an adult on each one.

 

[firegurl]

I don't know your dates but if you have time, I would just wait it out and check everyday. At the time our booking window opened I wasn't able to book because we thought we may have to cancel the whole trip. At that time it was about $800 rt for 3 of us out of BWI. I watched the price increase twice just that day. Over the next 3 weeks it got up to over $1600 for the 3 of us. Then I checked the next day and it was back down to about $800. I booked it. I still check everyday. The prices vary a lot. I was able to rebook my flight to MCO and save a little bit but my returning flight has been the same or increased since I booked. I certainly don't have any kind of knowledge about why or when their prices change, I just stalk but I would recommend the same to you.

 

[mmouse50]

Don't know when you originally looked at the ticket prices but they were running a fare special through last Thursday, August 28th - if you looked at the prices on Thursday and tried to book yesterday, Friday 8/29 - the fare special was over. That could be why the fares were higher. Wait a couple of weeks if you can and they should be running another fare special.

 

[disneyfam5608]

I saw the special that was running last week, but it wasn't good for my airports Hoping for a deal soon. I really didn't budget $1400 for 3 airline tickets

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

did you check to see what the price for one person would be? As PP mentioned maybe they only have 1 or 2 seats left at the orginal price but since you want to purchase 3 tickets they are quoting you a higher price. If they have seats at the cheaper rate book what you can for the reduced price and then pay the increase for the remaining tickets. So you will have to book separately .

 

[pixiedust915]

Always check the fares for just one person. When we purchased our flights to Disney last month, I was able to get a fare for $136. But when my boyfriend booked his flight right after I did, not even five minutes later, his price was $152. They only have so many fares available at certain price points. Once those sell out, the next pricing level takes effect. Higher demand for a flight causes the prices to raise. Even the "Wanna Get Away" fares. Once those are gone, they're gone.

 

[DebbieB]

Always check the fares for just one person. When we purchased our flights to Disney last month, I was able to get a fare for $136. But when my boyfriend booked his flight right after I did, not even five minutes later, his price was $152. They only have so many fares available at certain price points. Once those sell out, the next pricing level takes effect. Higher demand for a flight causes the prices to raise. Even the "Wanna Get Away" fares. Once those are gone, they're gone.

Not always true. I'm going Oct 18 and when I first looked it showed several flights as sold out for wanna get away. A couple of weeks later, I got it for wanna get away, $155.

 

[disneyfam5608]

Does Southwest ever ADD additional flights? For example, if they have 8 flights scheduled out of Baltimore on a Friday, and a few of them sell out, will the add more flights at different times of the day?

 

[DebbieB]

Does Southwest ever ADD additional flights? For example, if they have 8 flights scheduled out of Baltimore on a Friday, and a few of them sell out, will the add more flights at different times of the day?

Very rarely. In order to add a flight, that plane would have to be taken off another route. They don't have extra planes sitting around.