Not Happy with Southwest!

[guinea pig]

We have a trip planned 10/5-10-11 at BLT with BIL who is DVC. Now I am also going on an unexpected last minute trip with Sister, her daughter and granddaugher ( I will be their "tour guide"!). That trip is 9/25-9/24 so I will be home 6 days between trips!! I booked roundtrip nonstop flights with Southwest for a great price of $264 for the Sept trip. Six days later the cost of the flights for the October trip is doubled as is the flying time!! All the cheap seats on 10/11 are even blacked out!. Not sold out, just not available!! We will have to switch our dates around somehow. The direct flight out on 10/5 cost $227 and was only $138 the week before! I am not sure why there would be such a difference in price and availability one week later!

 

[julieanddanny]

Supply and demand my friend! You are bumping into a holiday weekend and school vacation for some.

 

[kamik86]

We have a trip planned 10/5-10-11 at BLT with BIL who is DVC. Now I am also going on an unexpected last minute trip with Sister, her daughter and granddaugher ( I will be their "tour guide"!). That trip is 9/25-9/24 so I will be home 6 days between trips!! I booked roundtrip nonstop flights with Southwest for a great price of $264 for the Sept trip. Six days later the cost of the flights for the October trip is doubled as is the flying time!! All the cheap seats on 10/11 are even blacked out!. Not sold out, just not available!! We will have to switch our dates around somehow. The direct flight out on 10/5 cost $227 and was only $138 the week before! I am not sure why there would be such a difference in price and availability one week later!

Not sure what you mean by the cheap seats. SW doesn't have assigned seats. Do you just mean that there are no wanna get away fares? If so that means the flights are almost sold out. They only sell a certain number of those and then switch to higher priced fares.

As for why a week would make such a difference... just like disney hotels charge more on busier weeks (Christmas week costs more then the last week of january) so do the airlines. For some reason its looking like that week is busy.

 

[guinea pig]

The "Wanna Get Way" seats is what I am referring to. There are all the same seats on Southwest though!

 

[Marionnette]

Not sure why your beef is with Southwest specifically? All airlines change their fares over time. They go down and up and down again from one day to the next. If you're lucky, they open up more seats at the cheaper rates before your flight is scheduled to take off. At least Southwest doesn't charge a change fee. With other airlines, once you purchase your seat, you're locked into that flight and price. The change fees pretty much make it not worth switching to cheaper flights.

 

[Marionnette]

The "Wanna Get Way" seats is what I am referring to. There are all the same seats on Southwest though!

Doesn't matter. You could be flying on Delta and the guy in the seat right next to you could have paid half of what you paid. It's just how the airline industry works.

 

[BCV2003]

As a previous poster said, its all about supply and demand. I'm flying to orlando this week and my flight down was $168 and my return flight was $300. The more seats they have available, the cheaper they will be and the less seats they have available, the more expensive they will be. I ended up spending $100 more per ticket than I needed too because I though the price would drop and it never did.

Your October travel is also just before the Columbus Day weekend so that could also have something to do with it.

 

[Gracie09]

You're also around yom kippur which depending on your schools calendar could be a couple days off and then coupled with the holiday weekend the following means people take vacations

 

[wishuponastar42]

Doesn't matter. You could be flying on Delta and the guy in the seat right next to you could have paid half of what you paid. It's just how the airline industry works.

As someone who has worked in the IT department at Hertz Car Rental, this is spot on. It is even true with car rentals and hotels. Pricing is a very complex process based upon factors such as travel dates, length of trip, location, availability, number of existing bookings, historical data, and much more. IT systems are far more advanced in this day in age and we are able to better predict what someone is willing to pay based upon those factors.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

That's just the way airline pricing works!!!! I'm guessing you don't travel often!!!!!!! Your flying time in October must be doubled because they aren't non-stop flights!!!!!

Non-stop is not the same as direct!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hsmamato2]

yeah....it's called supply and demand,why would you be 'mad' at SWA for this? just be happy you got a good deal on one trip...and go with it

 

[scrapquitler]

We have a trip planned 10/5-10-11 at BLT with BIL who is DVC. Now I am also going on an unexpected last minute trip with Sister, her daughter and granddaugher ( I will be their "tour guide"!). That trip is 9/25-9/24 so I will be home 6 days between trips!! I booked roundtrip nonstop flights with Southwest for a great price of $264 for the Sept trip. Six days later the cost of the flights for the October trip is doubled as is the flying time!! All the cheap seats on 10/11 are even blacked out!. Not sold out, just not available!! We will have to switch our dates around somehow. The direct flight out on 10/5 cost $227 and was only $138 the week before! I am not sure why there would be such a difference in price and availability one week later!

Your return is on Columbus Day weekend, and (at least here in the NorthEast), as lot of schools have long weekends, so it's a great time to travel. That's probably the main reason for the higher airfare you have seen.

 

[Marionnette]

Your other problem is that your October travel dates fall on a Saturday and Sunday. Those are prime travel days for vacation destination cities. The rates are generally higher on those days to begin with due to increased demand. If you were to use Southwest's Low Fare Calendar, you would see that there are Wanna Get Away flights on 10/10 and 10/12 that are less than half of what the Anytime fares are for 10/11. You could depart a day early to save money or stay a day longer and use the difference to pay for your hotel and food.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

We have a trip planned 10/5-10-11 at BLT with BIL who is DVC. Now I am also going on an unexpected last minute trip with Sister, her daughter and granddaugher ( I will be their "tour guide"!). That trip is 9/25-9/24 so I will be home 6 days between trips!! I booked roundtrip nonstop flights with Southwest for a great price of $264 for the Sept trip. Six days later the cost of the flights for the October trip is doubled as is the flying time!! All the cheap seats on 10/11 are even blacked out!. Not sold out, just not available!! We will have to switch our dates around somehow. The direct flight out on 10/5 cost $227 and was only $138 the week before! I am not sure why there would be such a difference in price and availability one week later!

I do not see how the flight time doubled for a nonstop flight on different days.

 

[MichaelaF]

Also, you're taking back to back Disney trips, for a total of 7 days? The fact that you are even able to pay for these....AND pay the higher prices for airfare and still get to go....

...Your life is pretty good, friend.

For future reference, sometimes it is worth it to call Southwest. I found previously that on flights that looked sold out on WGA fares still had some left if I called.

 

[guinea pig]

I guess "unhappy" was the wrong word. More, I find it curious . I am not "mad" at SW. Just find it interesting , that's all. I do travel a lot and understand supply and demand . Just find it curious such a big jump in prices in one week. All the non stop flights are either sold out or the Wanna Get away flights are not available so it would be a 4-5 hour flying time with the stops. Non stop flights of 2 hours spoil you.

 

[Marionnette]

I guess "unhappy" was the wrong word. More, I find it curious . I am not "mad" at SW. Just find it interesting , that's all. I do travel a lot and understand supply and demand . Just find it curious such a big jump in prices in one week. All the non stop flights are either sold out or the Wanna Get away flights are not available so it would be a 4-5 hour flying time with the stops. Non stop flights of 2 hours spoil you.

Two words:

*Free* Dining​

It was opened up for the public last week for check-in dates August 31 to October 3, 2014 (among other, later dates). People who check in on 10/3 are very likely to be checking out on the last day of your trip (10/11). Demand went way up for those flights when the offer came out. And that's what filled the seats on the SWA flight you wanted.

 

[tazztrav]

If anyone has mentioned this already, sorry.

I wanted to mention real quick that if the flight price goes back down, you can change it and have a credit for the difference.

 

[LindseyLou2222]

The flights have been like that for a while. We were originally going to take our trip in October, but the flights were really high. So a few months ago we moved the trip to September and the flights dropped quite significantly. And luckily, we now will be at WDW for free dining!
I feel your pain. Maybe you'll find that random low priced seat!!

 

[kydisneyfans]

Two words:

*Free* Dining​

It was opened up for the public last week for check-in dates August 31 to October 3, 2014 (among other, later dates). People who check in on 10/3 are very likely to be checking out on the last day of your trip (10/11). Demand went way up for those flights when the offer came out. And that's what filled the seats on the SWA flight you wanted.

Wrong 2 words: it's actually FALL BREAK
We've been eyeing the same date back to Louisville and Wanna Get Away was sold out well before Free Dining was announced. The Sunday early AM flight with layovers was $203 last week, now it's $238.

What I find ironic is I can fly to Atlanta from Orlando on SW for $77 around 3:00, fly back to Orlando to catch the evening direct flight back to Louisville, and it's $196. For $273 I can fly to Atlanta, back to Orlando, then to Louisville or for $436 I can be on the same flight as the Atlanta/Louisville one direct from Orlando. That makes no sense.

Keep playing with the dates, the prices are changing a couple times a week. That Saturday has been gone for Wanna Get Away for quite some time though. Check neighboring airports, change your dates, and check other airlines. Right now we are booked for $102 there and $192 back on SW through a different airport. I'm hoping for the flight back to drop though.