Buy SW fare now or wait

[DJT]

My sister and I just decided to take or niece (adult) on a trip to DW the second week of November. The airfare is $183 now. It seems I heard there is one day of the week when fares change. I am wondering if we should get our tickets now or wait until tomorrow or Wednesday. Suggestions please. Thank you!

Donna

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

You can buy now and if the fare goes down you can get a refund in the form of a travel credit to use at a later date. I actually changed our recent flight 3 times because the price kept going down.

 

[clanmcculloch]

SWA tends to discount their fares on Tuesdays.

Here are a few suggestions for what I do to determine if I should take the chance of waiting or not.
1. I look at whether or not there are other flights on the same day at a cheaper price. If there are then that typically means that the flight I want is not likely to go down in price. It still could, but not very likely.
2. I look at the price for 8 passengers. If the price goes up compared to the number of people I really want then that means that the flight is selling out of the lower priced seats and I know I need to hurry up and purchase before they do run out of the lower priced seats. If the price stays the same for 8 passengers then I know I've got more time and I can wait a bit longer for lower fares.

This is what works for me and for the most part I've been very comfortable with the prices I've paid. I do sometimes get credits because flights do go down but *knock on wood* I've never missed out on a price that I wanted doing this. Note that you are taking a risk of the flight going up while you're waiting even doing step 2. The flight I booked for my February trip went from the lowest price point they've had for this flight to selling out of wanna get away fares overnight (I bought when I saw they were at the lowest price point compared to other flights). It can happen. I generally buy when I find a price I'm comfortable with and use the above as a guide for if I can or should wait a bit (maybe until the next billing cycle on my credit card for instance because I pay off my card every month so that means I have an extra month before I have to pay for it).

 

[webworm]

My sister and I just decided to take or niece (adult) on a trip to DW the second week of November. The airfare is $183 now. It seems I heard there is one day of the week when fares change. I am wondering if we should get our tickets now or wait until tomorrow or Wednesday. Suggestions please. Thank you!

Donna

As of this morning I see several flights from Indy for $69, $79 or $83.00 dollars in mid November.

 

[dburg30]

You buy when you are comfortable with the prices. If they seem to high, wait. If they come down fine, if they dont then either try for another time, or buy the higher priced tickets. Also, soon the prices will start creeping up just because you'll be getting closer to departure date.

 

[DJT]

Thanks everyone for your help. My sister finally decided on the day (Monday and not Sunday) for our travel, and got her tickets yesterday around 2:30 p.m. I had to wait until I got home from work to get mine. At 6:30 p.m. the price had gone up $22.00 from the time she got hers. Bummer!!!