My Standoff with SWA - MCO to PHL

[lauti]

We live in Chester County and will fly out of BWI in October. Paid $221 roundtrip per person. The extra distance is worth it to us.

 

[bzzelady]

We have bitten the bullet and moved to BWI as well. Lack of competition at PHL has driven up prices.

 

[lions1995]

I liked aitran out of PHL. Now that SW bought the, they destroyed what airtran had going go them in PHL and cut their own flights. I am not a SW fan. For my family of 5. By the hind I pay the cost for EBCI, I might as well pay the baggage fees for 3 bags and be ble to egg assigned seats. With my usairways perks ( which are going away doom) I was able to get 5 seat for average price of 240 RT during thanksgiving week. Plus I get 3 free checked bags.

 

[Redarrow5150]

Honestly it isn't a factor right now. Airfare prices have been sky high well before the push of recent oil prices. Also airlines hedge oil prices so what your paying today was predetermined a while back. If these airfare prices continue at these level and prices Congress is going to get an earful based upon less competition. IMO consolidation has driven up prices more than anything else.

Per chance have you seen the gas prices in your neighborhood...jets use a lot of fuel, airlines feel the pinch just like we do...

 

[Redarrow5150]

Yeah I live in Grand Rapids and those are very good rates and would jump on them immediately.

I'm going to show my DH this thread. Today we can book 3 of our tickets for $246rt and one for $265rt from Flint to Orlando for our fall trip. We have our flights down booked but not our return flight. He thinks we can do better...we have been spoiled before with ultra-low fares. I want to book the rest now. $1003 for four of us seems pretty good to me.

 

[kristenrice]

Yeah I live in Grand Rapids and those are very good rates and would jump on them immediately.

We are flying out of Flint this fall too and I snagged our flights for $220 R/T (I used points but that was the cash equivalent) when they first released them. They've only gone up since then. I budget $300 R/T per person for pretty much anywhere out of Michigan. If I find something lower, I grab it immediately. Flights out of GR are $400 and Detroit is around $350.

 

[DebbieB]

I liked aitran out of PHL. Now that SW bought the, they destroyed what airtran had going go them in PHL and cut their own flights. I am not a SW fan. For my family of 5. By the hind I pay the cost for EBCI, I might as well pay the baggage fees for 3 bags and be ble to egg assigned seats. With my usairways perks ( which are going away doom) I was able to get 5 seat for average price of 240 RT during thanksgiving week. Plus I get 3 free checked bags.

SW has had difficulty competing in legacy airline's hubs. PHL is a USAirways hub. Airlines best customers are business travelers who book high last minute fares and they will favor the legacy airlines because of first class benefits, preferred seating, international network. They pulled away from Detroit & Cleveland, other airline's hubs. They shifted their PHL connecting traffic to BWI, where they don't have a major legacy competitor.

I think the main reason they bought AirTran was to get a presence in Atlanta, which is Delta's main hub. I wonder how that is going. I can't imagine that the Atlanta business traveler market is moving to Southwest. To be honest, I use Southwest for my vacation travel to Orlando but I don't consider them for business travel, mainly because my company has an agreement with some of the majors. I just got back from Dallas, I flew American.

 

[Donnainnj]

Bought the first leg on southwest a few weeks ago. $119 Philadelphia to MCO. Used points for the 4 tickets we needed. (That flight is now $200+). Going down Aug 9th. There is still a later non-stop for $119. Wednesday I finally bit the bullet and got our return trip for Aug 25th. $131 late non-stop flight. I figured best case we would find would be $119, and with points for one of the flights I wasn't willing to risk the two flights I liked going up a lot for a possible $36 total savings. We did the Baltimore thing last year when we were a party of 8. Saved us about $1000. Donna

 

[PatMcDuck]

I did get $99 each way, RT PHL to MCO, for this September. I had to shift my trip dates to and fro to get that….. mid week flights of course.

BUT, I had trouble moving my discounted WDW room reservations, so you can't win, lol. I now have 3 different room reservations, one night, one night, and then four nights. The last 2 are at the same resort, and I HOPE I do not have to switch rooms. I am ok for the first night being elsewhere. I keep calling, and hope to resolve it. (I am not booking for free food room).

I was surprised to get nonstop flights for $99.

 

[stazmatic]

Since you already have your flights down what about renting a car and driving back? If you do some research there are rental companies that will basically let you rent a car for $1 just to get it out of Florida.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

We are flying out of Flint this fall too and I snagged our flights for $220 R/T (I used points but that was the cash equivalent) when they first released them. They've only gone up since then. I budget $300 R/T per person for pretty much anywhere out of Michigan. If I find something lower, I grab it immediately. Flights out of GR are $400 and Detroit is around $350.

I just bought our SW flights for $246 RT out of Flint. I was hoping for a little less, but I've been watching for a while and don't think I would have done any better at this point.

 

[mousestruck]

We have flown out of PHL for many years -- and boy do I miss those cheap SWA fares! This year I was able to get $119 tickets for both our departure (on Aug. 13) and return flights (on Aug. 20). I booked each leg separately because, at first, I could only get $119 for our flights out. Flights home were $144 (for the times we wanted), so I waited and stalked. About two weeks ago I was able to get 3 of our 4 tickets at $119... then about a week ago I was able to get the fourth at the price, too. I was patient and it paid off.

My biggest advice is to check prices for fewer passengers than you need. You may be able to get some tickets at a lower price if you are willing to make multiple reservations. I did that - and saved $100. Good luck!!!

 

[puffkin]

We are driving for the first time in November because I can't get anything under $400/person (times 5 people) out of PHL or BWI into MCO or Tampa. I've been stalking all the airlines. Add in a rental car and its almost 3x what we normally pay. I know other parts of the country may think its crazy to complain about $400RT airfare, but when I have been to Disney for 25 trips over the last 13 years and NEVER paid more than $220 RT it is really depressing.

I got a mini van rental for $500 for the length of the trip so at least we will be more comfortable than our regular car.

 

[murt22]

SWA started flying out of my home airport and there was a buzz of the SW effect on the other airlines......well - someone did a survey and found that SW was higher than UA and AA on most routes....so much for that!

 

[DopeyDame]

I feel your pain - I have tickets booked but am keeping an eye out for cheaper prices from PHL or BWI.
If your days are at all flexible, though, check that. We added another day onto the end of our trip, and the money we are saving (for family of 4) more than covers the extra night in the hotel. An extra day at Disney and saving money - yes, please!

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

check out this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3295201
Prices were substantially lower for him today!

 

[wendydarling826]

Standoff over - SW won. The flight I've been holding out for went up in price today, so I bought their lowest price flight for that day,which has a layover and means we'll be headed to the airport at 4a.m. after being out at the Villains party until late the night before. Oh well, it wouldn't be Disney vacation if we didn't come home exhausted.
I'm going to keep stalking the flights though, in case the one I wanted ever drops in price.

 

[gonnago]

check out this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3295201
Prices were substantially lower for him today!

Thanks but I am a female

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Thanks but I am a female

Oops - so sorry!