Seriously SWA... $620

[HFC1969]

Just have to vent...

SWA is charging $620 for St. Louis to Orlando... We have never had to pay more then $300 round trip...

For $600 per I can "almost" charter a plane.

I guess they have to raise some revenue to help pay for the AirTran purchase...

 

[Lewisc]

I know you're only venting.

I don't know your dates. I picked random dates 9/14-9/21 The fare is $250.10 R/T.

SW no longer has an advantage over other airlines via fuel hedging. SWs labor costs aren't that much less then the legacy airlines.

SW is charging more for peak flights. Time of the day. Day of the week. A lot more during peak travel weeks (Presidents week). That allows them to charge less for off peak flights.

IF not enough passengers are willing to pay the fare SW will lower the fare. Can you get acceptable fares for less then desirable flights? Consider booking then changing your flight if lower fares are released for a flight which better meets your needs.

Otherwise check other airlines.

edited to add The fully refundable fare, the fare business travelers who frequently don't book early enough to qualify for fares with advanced purchase restrictions, is 740. 620 is closer to 740 then it is to 250. SW has either sold a lot of seats for the flights you're looking at or believes those flights will sell without the need for much discounting.

The fare will go down if future sales suggest SW is wrong.

 

[HFC1969]

Actually you mentioned a very huge factor... Their fuel contracts have run out.. AirTran aquisition and soft dollar....

We do DCL every Christmas so my Dec 23 flight is peak time..

My Dec 23 with a Dec 30 return is somewhere north of 600...

Crazy isn't it..

AirTran has a flight we might use.. that is roughly 400..

Who knows.. At $600 I can wait.. see what happens..

 

[Jestocost]

Actually you mentioned a very huge factor... Their fuel contracts have run out.. AirTran aquisition and soft dollar....

We do DCL every Christmas so my Dec 23 flight is peak time..

My Dec 23 with a Dec 30 return is somewhere north of 600...

Crazy isn't it..

AirTran has a flight we might use.. that is roughly 400..

Who knows.. At $600 I can wait.. see what happens..

Our flights over Thanksgiving for STL-MCO were about $450 the day they went on sale and have only gone up since then. Prices currently are $600+ per ticket. In my recent experience, SWA fares for those peak travel periods are pretty high when they come out and only go up from there. If you want anything even remotely reasonable for Christmas, Thanksgiving and other peak dates you have to bite the bullet and buy early or you likely will see nothing but the kinds of really high prices that you are seeing.

And in all likelihood the plane will be completely full. If you were running a business and could fill a plane with tickets priced at those levels, would it make any sense to charge less for any of those seats? I know it stinks with SWA being the only non-stop STL-MCO provider at this point (unless you count that once-daily now-you-see-it, now-you-don't AirTran flight), but that's the position we're in. If you want to blame anyone, in my opinion, blame American for starving the St. Louis hub so they could justify decimating their flight schedule at Lambert thus taking away the only viable alternative to SWA on many routes.

 

[HFC1969]

Our flights over Thanksgiving for STL-MCO were about $450 the day they went on sale and have only gone up since then. Prices currently are $600+ per ticket. .

We go on DCL every Last year our SWA tickets were $310... guess we chouldn't ahve complained then..

And in all likelihood the plane will be completely full.

I think the only time it wasn't is when SWA used to have that 10pm out of MCO ..

We head back to WDW in about 6 weeks... DW got great prices... $210 round trip on SWA.. Which is great... But 600 come on.. I will defaintely ask for the whole can of soda..

Flying out of STL is getting down right depressing..

 

[wdwrich]

Just curious- How does the SWA $620 fare compare to other airlines for the same travel dates?

 

[disneygma11]

I just plugged in our dates for Southwest and got fares of $109 to $380 one way! That is from STL to MCO as well!

 

[HFC1969]

I just plugged in our dates for Southwest and got fares of $109 to $380 one way! That is from STL to MCO as well!

Exactly... they are not being very nice for us travelers...

Just curious- How does the SWA $620 fare compare to other airlines for the same travel dates?

SWA 1483 is $287 SWA 479 is $334
287
+334
-----
621


AirTran is about $200 cheaper for their 1 flight thats NS... AA flights all go through MDW now..

Im thinking of starting to fly ourselves.. going to discuss it with my instructor this weekend...

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Actually you may have just waited too late...

There are times it pays to book early!

 

[rlduvall]

At my home airport [TUL] all of the other airlines follow suit with SWA. So when SWA doesn't go down, no-one goes down . . . and SWA isn't going down. I'm still only sitting at $400. plus tax roundtrip versus $620. for STL. That does suck!!

 

[Jestocost]

Just curious- How does the SWA $620 fare compare to other airlines for the same travel dates?

That's the thing. There's nothing really to compare it to. Other than the one AirTran flight a day that seems to come and go from their schedule at random, there are zero nonstops between STL and MCO other than on SWA.

 

[shame711]

Out of Philadelphia I have never seen any real price breaks from SW compared to other airlines even adding the baggage fees.

 

[Donna M]

When I price flights out of Boston during school vacation weeks on SW, or any other airline, if I don't purchase the tickets (on SW) the minute they come out they only go up in price. SW has gone up by the hour! Never have I seen them go down during those times. We are paying about $90 more per ticket this year.

And car rentals are high too.

 

[EpcotGuy]

I guess I shouldn't complain. I just grabbed Sacramento to MCO (we don't have the option of a direct flight) for $350rt. I had refused to pay the $399-$450 it has been running.....

 

[MickeyCrazed]

I was stressing out about our Southwest flights (out of PHL) for early December also. So much so, that I jumped on a one way flight out of PHL with US Air for the first time in about 8 years.

Finally, last Monday night, SW lowered their prices for my flight home. They cut the price by over 1/2, so all I can say is that it pays to keep checking. I know they probably have more competition out of PHL than at your airport, but hopefully you will have the same good luck that I did.

 

[HFC1969]

We are down to $578 ...

Im gonna need a lot more pixie dust...

But we ahve faith... $400 or bust..

 

[HFC1969]

Booked this AM..

$320 round trip...

Saved $300 per ticket..

If you need tickets.. take a look..

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I just look at STL to Tampa and got a price of $383 and it is only an hour and 15 minute drive from Disney. You could even fly into MCO and out of TPA if it saves you money. That is what we are doing.

Airtran out of STL to MCO is $363

 

[HFC1969]

I just look at STL to Tampa and got a price of $383 and it is only an hour and 15 minute drive from Disney. You could even fly into MCO and out of TPA if it saves you money. That is what we are doing.

Airtran out of STL to MCO is $363

We have done that many times ourselves... Then we usually end up spending the day in Tampa...

Thank God... SWA dropped their prices.. Our cost went from $2600 to $1400..