Not good signs for airfares....SW talking about raising prices !!!

[zdad]

Might want to book as soon as practical for your trip.

CNN.com article

Example:
We booked a flight for our June trip in Feb-Mar. Wasn't the best fare, but eliminated the upside risk. Then sat patiently, watching my Ding fares in the evening. Lo and behold, we caught a $71 per leg Ding fare, that saved us a total of $464. Cancelled original flight and re-booked.

Don't wait for the best flight in this economic environment. Lock something in, protect you upside, and watch for specials

 

[ncbyrne]

What's Ding? And I didn't know you could cancel and rebook. What are the penalties?

 

[zdad]

What's Ding? And I didn't know you could cancel and rebook. What are the penalties?

Ding fares are internet specials that SW sends out. You have to have the Ding software loaded on your machine (just go to their site to download.). The Dings typically only last a few hours and the good fares go quickly, but if you can catch one, wow they're good.

I had a fully refundable ticket when I first booked, so no prob what so ever. Other SW fares though, while not refundable, can be credited to your account and applied to another fare. May leave you with a credit amount in your account, but you can apply it to another flight over the next year.

Hope this helps.

 

[wvjules]

I booked directly through USAirways.com and got $98 r/t direct flights. Total for DD and I = $233.80. I had to jump on that rate when I saw it. Arrival and departure times aren't bad either.

 

[mrslur]

This makes me glad I already booked my US Airways flights. The SWA cheap flights go so quickly and I didn't want to chance not getting a non stop flight.

 

[Alice Sr.]

Might want to book as soon as practical for your trip.

CNN.com article

Example:
We booked a flight for our June trip in Feb-Mar. Wasn't the best fare, but eliminated the upside risk. Then sat patiently, watching my Ding fares in the evening. Lo and behold, we caught a $71 per leg Ding fare, that saved us a total of $464. Cancelled original flight and re-booked.

Don't wait for the best flight in this economic environment. Lock something in, protect you upside, and watch for specials

I so agree. I was watching fares in Feb and Mar for our June trip also. Not only were they over $300, but the flight times were horrible. Well, for some reason I checked on a Saturday (I usually only check Tues. and Wed. AM) and AA had a AM flight for $190 r/t. I thought it might be early and high as we had paid $130 r/t for our January trip, but went ahead and booked it figuring if the price dropped I could get a voucher for the difference and use it toward our November trip. No better times or prices have surfaced, it's incredible to me, we don't usually go in the summer, is the norm? I checked yesterday and my flight is $711.00 So I checked our November dates and they were $225 (still high IMHO) but not ludicrous. zdad is giving some very heads up advise (I feel shame that I didn't try to warn my fellow DISer's) "protect your upside"

 

[zdad]

zdad is giving some very heads up advise

Thank you, thank you, thank you.......

I am not a real travel agent, but I do play one on television !!

 

[HayGan]

I booked directly through USAirways.com and got $98 r/t direct flights. Total for DD and I = $233.80. I had to jump on that rate when I saw it. Arrival and departure times aren't bad either.

When and what airport is that for?????

 

[Bugsmom73]

When should we book for Jan 2006? Rates are greater than 200 currently and I know last year we saw them for 125pp. We live in chicago suburbia and either airport is about the same distance.

 

[gw_lit]

When should we book for Jan 2006? Rates are greater than 200 currently and I know last year we saw them for 125pp. We live in chicago suburbia and either airport is about the same distance.

As someone suggested earlier, I'd pick a price point you'd be happy with, and book it at that point. With the rising price of fuel, and the fact that most airlines are losing BILLIONS of dollars annually, they are going to be trying to creep up fares as much as they can.

 

[wvjules]

USAir out of Pittsburgh.

Put in the airport codes then to a search by price, not date.

 

[mking624]

We used Ding to get our tickets just this past week. Not all the Ding prices are always that great...for example, they had Louisville to Orlando for $96...but their regular fare was like $99...so you saved a whopping $3 each way. But sometimes you can get some really really good deals. We just booked a flight through Ding on Tuesday. It said $48 from Indianapolis to Orlando, but it actually wound up being $30 each way. With the $48 that Ding advertised, it would have been at least $192 roundtrip for me and my husband...that's not including taxes and fees. Our total WITH taxes and fees came to about $165...subtract all the taxes and fees and we only paid $30 each way for each of us. Ding is awesome!!

The price hike for SW doesn't shock me though, I can understand their predicament. But they're only expecting one or two rounds of $1-3 per flight, so that's not a huge jump. But I think the fact that more and more people are flying SW helps alleviate costs because they have more paying customers than before.

 

[zdad]

Mking....
I concur with the tone of your assessment. SW will likely handle this pretty well, and while we'll se a small jump in their prices, it's the other carriers that could be in real trouble. SW is fuel costs are hedged well into 2006. While they can't absorb it all, the guy that runs the airline does a good job of future planning. USAir, United, others......well that's another story !!!

 

[Minerva]

When should we book for Jan 2006? Rates are greater than 200 currently and I know last year we saw them for 125pp. We live in chicago suburbia and either airport is about the same distance.

I'll be flying out of Chicago also in November. I had hoped to hold out for Southwests flights to be released because I'd rather fly out of Midway but I watched Spirit out of O'Hare go from $61 each way at times I really didn't want to fly but would have to over $350 just for the flight *to Orlando and over $100 for the flight back and with the gas prices going up I knew the other carriers wouldnt' be far behind. There was no guarantee that Southwest would have the $79 flights I was hoping for so I went ahead and booked on AA out of O'Hare on March 31 and tickets for my two flights have gone up by over $400 total for the 3 of us since then. I got them for $190 and since I'll be flying down the Saturday after Thanksgiving I'd planned for $200 round trip so I was happy. I'd set a price and keep looking and as soon as you find something for that price jump on it.

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

I'll be flying out of Chicago also in November. I had hoped to hold out for Southwests flights to be released because I'd rather fly out of Midway but I watched Spirit out of O'Hare go from $61 each way at times I really didn't want to fly but would have to over $350 just for the flight *to Orlando and over $100 for the flight back and with the gas prices going up I knew the other carriers wouldnt' be far behind. There was no guarantee that Southwest would have the $79 flights I was hoping for so I went ahead and booked on AA out of O'Hare on March 31 and tickets for my two flights have gone up by over $400 total for the 3 of us since then. I got them for $190 and since I'll be flying down the Saturday after Thanksgiving I'd planned for $200 round trip so I was happy. I'd set a price and keep looking and as soon as you find something for that price jump on it.

Minerva: I think that's a very wise decision...I'm waiting for Southwest fares out of SDF (Louisville) in October just so I can get my credits, but I'd rather fly Delta so DH can get his miles. Plus, I really like the times of one of the direct flights on Delta. Unfortunately, it's been fluctuating between $240 and $250 EACH, and I KNOW SW can beat that. So, like everyone else, I'm waiting for SWA to release their fall flights...

 

[CarolA]

Mking....
I concur with the tone of your assessment. SW will likely handle this pretty well, and while we'll se a small jump in their prices, it's the other carriers that could be in real trouble. SW is fuel costs are hedged well into 2006. While they can't absorb it all, the guy that runs the airline does a good job of future planning. USAir, United, others......well that's another story !!!

When SW did all this hedging, they "guy" that ran the airline was a girl!

 

[jetfxr69]

The "girl" you are refering to is our President, Colleen Barrett. Our current CEO is Gary Kelly. Before accepting this position last year, Gary was our CFO(chief financial officer). it was him and the fuel management department that had the foresight SEVERAL years ago to hedge so drastically. This brilliant move has allowed us to keep our fares so low recently. We will feel the pinch of rising fuel prices eventually, but right now are well protected with our current hedging. Take advantage of the low fares now. Who knows what this oil crisis will do to this industry over the next 5-10 years.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

DING is an amazing marketing tool for SW. They mark down the remaining seats to certain destinations, you look to see what's available, you find a great deal on flights, and voila, you're suddenly taking a trip you may have never thought about taking in the first place! The good news is, you will also find deals to places you WERE panning to visit, as well!

(and yes, I have DING installed!)

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

I sure hope SWA can hedge some more fuel past whatever thier current contract is for. I love low fares! LOL

 

[lacy1101]

When do you anticipate SW releasing their fares for a 09/30/05 flight to Orlando?