Southwest airline prices!

[princesscj]

I can not find good prices on Southwest anymore. Anyone else feel Southwest has gone up a lot? We are looking for flights from Indy/Columbus to LA and Orlando/Tampa, and last year we found all for under $100 one way, now its almost impossible. LA is even the featured destination aright now and fights are still $169 each way! UGH!! Do you expect them to come down ever? I am tired of looking at them all of them time hoping for price changes. Now all the "good" fights are unavailable. BTW- have credit on SW, that is why we are trying to fly thru them (on our way to Disney last time, the windshield cracked and we had to back to Indy for hours delay - they issued us some credit for it). Any advice or similar frustrations??

 

[mrsklamc]

We're not trying to go anywhere right, now, but I have noticed that the 'Ding' offers lately seem pretty sad.

 

[delmar411]

We're not trying to go anywhere right, now, but I have noticed that the 'Ding' offers lately seem pretty sad.

the Dings offers I just looked at where MORE than the internet fares listed! LOL

 

[DISNEY4FUN]

I fly out of PIT. I booked my May flights within an hour of them being released and got $49 each way. Now they are up to $117 each way and haven't budged. I check the Dings everyday and I haven't seen a PIT to MCO Ding all year. It seems like the deals and flexibility offered last year are gone. I feel really lucky to get the prices I did.

 

[BubblPopElectrc]

I agree with you. They are horrible. The only reason I bother looking with them is I have vouchers to use.. if I'm lucky I'll get 2 round-trips out of them as opposed to at least 4, like I was expecting.


Other airlines are much cheaper.. and I'd rather go with them anyway.

 

[cnj]

We bought our tickets for April at the end of November and for 4 people roundtrip from San Diego to Orlando it was $740. We were very happy!

 

[cajunfan]

I feel teh same way. I am looking for Nashville to MCO and would be happy just to get them down to $200 per person!!!! Right now they are about $285 per person!!! I am seriously looking at Delta for the same price and less hassle (No cattle call).

Lynn

 

[Ub_Iwerks]

I do find them to be higher, especially during peak season, but everyone else is higher too. My sister buys tickets between Orlando and Kansas City often because her son lives there. She still gets some good Dings if she is extremely flexible with the dates.

Is anyone finding other airlines that offer good deals? We are going to Orlando spring break 2008. I don't want to wait for Southwest fares if someone else is competitive with their prices.

 

[Ub_Iwerks]

We bought our tickets for April at the end of November and for 4 people roundtrip from San Diego to Orlando it was $740. We were very happy!

I would be ecstatic with that price.

 

[chefmb]

Have you looked at flights on weekdays?? I am planning to go in August, and have changed our tentative dates because we can get cheaper flights during the week. I haven't booked yet, so I hope the rates don't go up! We fly from BWI.

 

[mareed]

I agree with you. They are horrible. The only reason I bother looking with them is I have vouchers to use.. if I'm lucky I'll get 2 round-trips out of them as opposed to at least 4, like I was expecting.


Other airlines are much cheaper.. and I'd rather go with them anyway.

If you haven't already considered it, think about using your SW vouchers for one-ways, and then book another airline for the other way. I've found decent one-way fares on Delta lately.

 

[IDoDis]

Try flying into an "in-between" city and then booking another flight from that city into Orlando (one that has $49 fares). We did this once and saved several hundred dollars on our airfare (and also took a bump on our last flight out of Phoenix and got $800 in vouchers!).

I just checked airfare to San Diego (for example) and noticed that all of the flights had a stop in Phoenix. So, I looked at prices to Phoenix for $49 each way and then checked the prices from Phoenix to San Diego which were also $49 each way. The savings was $312.00 for 4 people breaking the flights into two separate round trips (Alb to Phoenix, Phoenix to San Diego) than just flying right into San Diego on one ticket, but we'd still be on the exact same airplane! You would also get double the frequent flyer miles doing it this way.

Scenario 1: Round-trip flights for 4 people from Albuquerque to San Diego w/ change of plane in Phoenix = $1256 (incl taxes & fees).

Scenario 2: Round-trip flights for 4 people from Albuquerque to Phoenix, then Phoenix to San Diego = $944 (incl. taxes & fees)

Net savings booking separately but riding on the same plane and flight numbers: $312

 

[keishashadow]

I fly out of PIT. I booked my May flights within an hour of them being released and got $49 each way. Now they are up to $117 each way and haven't budged. I check the Dings everyday and I haven't seen a PIT to MCO Ding all year. It seems like the deals and flexibility offered last year are gone. I feel really lucky to get the prices I did.

Actually, for our date - July 1st, $117 was never offered for the last flight home. Purchased @ $129; went up to $142+ the next day...guess i got a bargin

no luv for the 'burg; all of it sent out east to our good friends in Phillie who are benefiting from $49 fares.

 

[Camp Rd. Lady]

Have been watching airfares from Buffalo to Orlando and no bargains here! Last years prices were much cheaper. Too bad because we love Southwest!

 

[Adi12982]

I have NEVER found a better price using SW - AND that is even going to airports an hour away from our home AND our destination (because those are the airports they go to).

 

[AJLacher]

I have been pricing airfare for most of the week and I have to tell you that SW is one of the worst that I have seen for a trip from Kansas City to Orlando in April. It is $177 EACH WAY plus taxes and fees! We ended up booking on Midwest in the nice leather seats and two by two seating for $237pp round trip and that is with all the taxes and fees. Don't fly SW!

 

[Gillian]

Try flying into an "in-between" city and then booking another flight from that city into Orlando (one that has $49 fares). We did this once and saved several hundred dollars on our airfare (and also took a bump on our last flight out of Phoenix and got $800 in vouchers!).

[stuff deleted]

Scenario 1: Round-trip flights for 4 people from Albuquerque to San Diego w/ change of plane in Phoenix = $1256 (incl taxes & fees).

Scenario 2: Round-trip flights for 4 people from Albuquerque to Phoenix, then Phoenix to San Diego = $944 (incl. taxes & fees)

Net savings booking separately but riding on the same plane and flight numbers: $312

Thanks for posting this! I don't know if it will help us, we've pretty much cancelled our NM plans, but I will check it out for the next time we try to fly to Albuquerque (from NJ or Philadlephia). It's rather pricey, and changing planes with the kids isn't appealing.

 

[IDoDis]

Thanks for posting this! I don't know if it will help us, we've pretty much cancelled our NM plans, but I will check it out for the next time we try to fly to Albuquerque (from NJ or Philadlephia). It's rather pricey, and changing planes with the kids isn't appealing.

My scenario was just an example of how to split up the trip into two much cheaper roundtrip tickets to save money. I didn't mean that you had to fly out of Albuquerque. Check around for $49 fares (that head towards Orlando) from the airport you would normally use. Then, check on those $49 cities to see if they have $49 fares into Orlando.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[brymolmom]

With SW and any airline - my motto is check early and check often!!! We got direct both ways BUF to MCO (leave on Sunday - woohoo) - for $175 r/t - and I was happy with that - but then...a few days later - it went down to $135 r/t - AWESOME (we booked about 2 months ago but my experience says that it could go down at ANY time, so check all the time) - we got credit for the difference, so now I have over $100 credit (for 3 of our tickets) to use (hopefully) for my Fall girls trip to Vegas.

 

[TAEMom]

Instead of Columbus or Indy, how do you feel about Dayton? I just got decent rates on Air Tran for our June trip to Orlando. I paid $99 each way, for a nonstop flight, at okay times (think we leave at 8am, fly home ~5pm). Not as great as I'd hoped, but way better than the SW deals that I was seeing and significantly better than Delta out of Cincy. Actually, Delta was even better than SW - and that NEVER happens!