Did Southwest Raise it's Fares?

[mdsd8700]

Agreed, definately more expensive, but we are traveling mid to late June so as another poster said "captive audience". We paid $341 per person round trip from Chicago! That is the most we have ever paid. We first flew to AZ and then on to LA last year and with the combined flights we didn't pay as much as this year. It is crazy, but not much we can do about. I only hope we can snag a deal for a short planned November trip otherwise we might not be going.

 

[woodkins]

Summer, dont' ya know we are such a captive group here on LI, so they can charge probably whatever the market will bear.

I just cant seem schlepping to LGA so I put up with the price. I still havent gotten tickets for our may trip. I am looking at the 20-26 and its expensive, like $500 for dh and I.

In Dec. I used a free ticket for dh. That was using his credits and I won the rest of the credits in a southwest contest,.

Southwest is having another contest right now and I am gonna enter for sure.

Flying out of Islip is super convenient for me as I live about 15 minutes North of Macarthur & the airport is just so much easier than JFK or LGA. I just booked SW for end of Oct at $144 each way paid $99 & $119 each way last year. I check JetBlue out of JFK & they had a couple of $99 flights but not at the times I wanted and by the time I pay for car service each way or the higher rate of parking than the parking rate at Mac I figured that I was spending about the same price in the end so we are sucking it up and flying out of Islip...I remember 2 yrs ago I got $49 flights in Feb

 

[LexiC123]

We had a family member drop us off and pick us up. What about the Air Train thing? Or is that a pain?

Not for me...but I used to travel frequently for business, so I'm used to taking mass transportation to/from airports. I'm afraid my DH thinks it would be too much work to go that route. It is, after all, his vacation, LOL!

I guess I'll just sit tight for a bit, and hope for a little pixie dust from the folks at SW.

 

[RangerPooh]

I looked for airfare for our family of 5 to fly to both Orlando and Anaheim from either Spokane, Seattle, or Portland and regardless of where we fly from our airfare was going to cost $2500 at the cheapest. That was with playing around wiht various dates, the more realistic cost was $2800 Nedless to say it's cheaper for us to drive to Anaheim and buy park tickets then to fly to WDW and use our APs

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Last I checked Southwest pre-purchases it's gas in ten year increments and the deal they had going expired last year. It is much easier to give good deals when you are paying year 2000 prices on your gas rather than year 2011 prices.

 

[dhardawa]

I paid $92 each way for our February trip. The cheapest they have for November now is $159 each way. Glad I have my two free round trip tickets from the Visa card. After that, if the prices are this high, I'll be shopping other airlines because even the big ones like Delta and AA aren't as high as Southwest right now.

 

[ccgirl]

booked trip in jan, flights out of PVD 134$, checked 2 weeks ago (before tax refund) out of PVD 82$ flight,couldnt book than, checked last friday 124$ went to book on saturdau 134$, booked return for 92$, but why is the trip down still high??? no one can explain that.....will have to book soon.....hopefully at 82$ agin>>>>>

It could be that the cheaper seats have already been filled on that flight. For our October trip I just booked at $134 each way. I booked each leg as a one way. That way if just one leg goes down I can get a credit. If the price goes up, I am grateful I purchased now. If the price goes down I'll just get the credit so no biggie. This way I got the times we want and don't have to stress about it.

Good luck.

 

[hpfan100]

prices are higher on SW but I think they match the competition pretty closely. for july trip air fare is 214 one way on SW with free Dt. Cokes, peanuts and bags. On US air it is 214 one way with bag fees, change ticket fees, peanut fees and seat fees TOO many fees.

I've never flown any other airlines. I don't like hidden fees. Makes me nervous.By the way air tran fans, SW is buying them so their prices/policies could be changing soon.

 

[brerrabbit]

We flew SW last year Houston to Orlando for $572 round trip for me and DW. Same flight this year $702. $130 increase. I think several things factor into this, one is the Air Tran/SW merger. We like to fly from Hobby which is 10 minutes from home rather than IAH which is almost an hour away. Air Tran also flys from Hobby and their rate is identical. I checked IAH and all the other airlines were competative from $715 to $734 but SW wins hands down. Convience and $100 total in in no luggage fees.

I dont know the fuel hedging position but certainly that has aided them in the past. Also SWA has changed their frequent flier program from trip segments to points, not miles, but points. The higher fare you pay for the same flight the more points you get. Since I don't fly enough I could care less about points and just want the cheapest rates. We would consider driving but given we only have the one week for the sake of time we will fly.


June flights are $144 going and $190 coming back.

 

[Candace]

From what i heard, the reason they used to have crazy low prices was because they had purchased a bunch of oil when it was at it's lowest cost (years ago). Unfortunately, they're beginning to run out of that oil, and now have to buy at the crazy high prices they are now. I wouldn't expect to see those low prices any more.

Heard the same thing.