How Often do Southwest's Prices Change?

[dobball23]

How often does Southwest change its prices? A flight I was watching from Baltimore to Orlando for this July was at $111 (each way) for a number of weeks and just jumped to $121. I would like to get the flight booked in the next couple of days, but am wondering if I gamble by waiting to see if the price wil drop back down?

If Southwest doesn't typically adjust prices often, then I will likely just go ahead and book at the $121 price.

 

[DebbieB]

How often does Southwest change its prices? A flight I was watching from Baltimore to Orlando for this July was at $111 (each way) for a number of weeks and just jumped to $121. I would like to get the flight booked in the next couple of days, but am wondering if I gamble by waiting to see if the price wil drop back down?

If Southwest doesn't typically adjust prices often, then I will likely just go ahead and book at the $121 price.

There's no way to know. It could have been they had 10 seats @ $111 and they are all sold, so now it jumps to the next level, $121. It's not necessarily a "price adjustment". They may look at that flight and see they have alot of empty seats and put more seats into the lower price category.

 

[dobball23]

There's no way to know. It could have been they had 10 seats @ $111 and they are all sold, so now it jumps to the next level, $121. It's not necessarily a "price adjustment". They may look at that flight and see they have alot of empty seats and put more seats into the lower price category.

Thanks for the info/feedback! I appreciate getting some insight from someone who probably knows more than I do about booking flights (I only do it every 3-4 years!).

 

[katallo]

If you can wait until Tuesday or Wednesday, try again. I've always found prices to be a little lower.

 

[Brer Chump]

SWA raises its prices Fri-Sun. I was watching a flight for this week since October. The prices went from $109 from Mon-Thu to $129 over the weekend. I booked when they dis one of their regular sales and dropped to $95.

 

[mlittig]

I check Southwest several times a day because I have found they can change fares often I love the fact that if the fares decrease, I can get a credit for future travel

 

[IDoDis]

I'm so disappointed that the SW prices keep going up! The fare is more than double what we paid for June of '09. I'm trying to plan a vacation for June '11, but so far the prices have not come down at all! I've been checking several times a week since the May/June prices were released.

The prices just jumped $10 a couple of days ago, just like the OP noticed. Here I've been waiting for a special like I've gotten every other time right after the first of the year, but this year nothing. I can't justify paying between $210 and $285 per person each way when we usually pay $99 each way. I can see jumping to $159 even, but sheesh! The fares are getting ridiculous.

It's cheaper to fly from almost everywhere else I check, even places in the other direction that are farther away. Unfortunately, the two nearest other large cities (Phoenix & Denver) are 7 hour drives away and are about $30 cheaper per person, so that's not even worth driving to a different airport.

 

[jmkrat]

I am not sure how often they change, but I bought my tickets in Oct. for 89.00 per ticket. I purchased them the day they came out. I just checked today and they went up to 123.00 per ticket.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I've been watching SW like a hawk since they opened up the summer dates back in mid November. I should have booked that week as the fare was $104 each way. It has only jumped up once since then but it went up to $134.

I have to go to a convention that, unfortunately, runs through the first week of July. The good news is that it's at WDW I think I held off on booking as I've never paid more than $89 in the summer and also my oldest DD really doesn't know if she can join us...she's going back to school and tuition is pretty high. I guess I foolishly thought that I would catch a sale...which I usually do but at some point my luck has to run out. I still have lots of time and worst case scenario we have to drive.

 

[MusicMouse]

I booked 3 tickets to Orlando for the end of March on Sunday. When I looked again today, the price had dropped by $55 per ticket, so I rebooked and got the difference as a credit. This afternoon the price is back up to what I paid on Sunday. I'm just glad that I caught it when I did!

 

[conniehar90]

You really need to watch every day. We booked our spring break trip back in October. I was disappointed that we had to fly on a flight with a stop but the prices were outrageous for a non-stop. I watched the flights every day and watched them go up and up - up to close to $375 one way! All of a sudden in the beginning of Dec (it was Saturday, Dec 3rd), they dropped down to $140 and I was able to switch to a nonstop flight for no extra charge. On the next day(Sunday), the flights on the following day dropped and I was able to add an extra night to our trip for no extra cost. Since then, they have been going up and up to the $300 range again.

Past experience for me has been that you will usually see another drop about 6-8 weeks before the flight - seems like SW looks at flights that have a lot of extra seats and drops the price on those. But, I don't think anyone planning a Disney trip could take the chance of waiting until 6 weeks before to book their flight.

Good luck!