Southwest Airlines?

[dreamer66]

Hoping to get some opinions from all of you here who know a lot about SW.. we’re looking to book a flight from RDU to FLL towards the end of October. Do you think we’ll see any great deals like the $49 or $69 fares?

 

[belle032]

I'll be honest and say don't count on it. I have flights booked for September and I've only seen them rise since I've booked. Airfares are just up across the board as people are traveling again and flights are in higher demand. I don't think it's impossible, but just be ready to book when you see a price you're comfortable with. If it drops in price, you can change it super easily and get a credit for a future flight.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Its a crap shoot and its anyone guess. But if the price goes down you can rebook for free and get a refund in the form of a travel credit that will expire 1 year from the date that you originally purchased the ticket. Or if you booked with points the points will be returned to your RR acct. I see right now their calender shows a bunch of $49 and $58 flights. for RDU to FLL. they are Tue, Wed and Sat flights

 

[dreamer66]

Thanks guys! Of course they are. We’re looking to fly out on Thursday for a cruise on Friday and fly back home in Monday.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Thanks guys! Of course they are. We’re looking to fly out on Thursday for a cruise on Friday and fly back home in Monday.

Thur and Fri Mon and Sun are typically higher in price. Maybe do a late night Wed flight to cut down your cost.

 

[bakerworld]

A great deal currently is usually on mid-week or Saturday flights and you have to 'catch it'. Recently I became tired/anxious of waiting and on an Saturday book the flights I wanted only to have to re-book them on Monday during a 'flash sale'. My new strategy with SW is the purchase points - because we fly to MCO about 3 times yearly - so I can take advantage of the sale offers without having to worry about remembering the rebooked codes.

 

[Alexle2007]

A great deal currently is usually on mid-week or Saturday flights and you have to 'catch it'. Recently I became tired/anxious of waiting and on an Saturday book the flights I wanted only to have to re-book them on Monday during a 'flash sale'. My new strategy with SW is the purchase points - because we fly to MCO about 3 times yearly - so I can take advantage of the sale offers without having to worry about remembering the rebooked codes.

Why would you need to remember the rebooked codes? As long as you enter your SW RR #, you can see the remaining funds on your account under travel funds.

 

[CeCe0906]

I'm just hoping their recent high percentage of cancelations doesn't affect my flight to Orlando in a couple of weeks. Southwest has always been reliable for me, but I'm still nervous. They can save the cancelation for my ride home, I'll stay an extra day!

 

[bakerworld]

Why would you need to remember the rebooked codes? As long as you enter your SW RR #, you can see the remaining funds on your account under travel funds.
View attachment 590375

I always seem to have to enter the ticket code to have the travel funds appear. I don't know why but sometimes I haven't saved the code - or can't find it. Plus if I have multi changed a flight I also have an issue getting the full travel fund credit. I find points easier.

 

[bakerworld]

I'm just hoping their recent high percentage of cancelations doesn't affect my flight to Orlando in a couple of weeks. Southwest has always been reliable for me, but I'm still nervous. They can save the cancelation for my ride home, I'll stay an extra day!

FYI: I received an email stating they had cancelled our flight and changed our booking. Luckily instead of just accepting the change, which I often do, I went on their site and another flight had been added which I preferred.

 

[DRT-eagle]

Hoping to get some opinions from all of you here who know a lot about SW.. we’re looking to book a flight from RDU to FLL towards the end of October. Do you think we’ll see any great deals like the $49 or $69 fares?

no way. planes are full and fares are crazy high. do not wait and hope for deals.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

A great deal currently is usually on mid-week or Saturday flights and you have to 'catch it'. Recently I became tired/anxious of waiting and on an Saturday book the flights I wanted only to have to re-book them on Monday during a 'flash sale'. My new strategy with SW is the purchase points - because we fly to MCO about 3 times yearly - so I can take advantage of the sale offers without having to worry about remembering the rebooked codes.

The best time to buy points is when they have the bonus offers usually 40% more points. If you fly so many times I would get the SWA credit card. They are offering 40K points when you spend $1000 in 3 months just go buy Disney gift cards since you will need them for your trips and tickets to the park. Then you will continued to earn points as you purchase stuff. You get 3times the points for dinning out purchases. You get an anniversary bonus of 3000 points added to your account. Get a card for yourself and one for your spouse and end up with 80K in points just for spending a total of $2k in 3 months. Plus you will get 6K in anniversary points every year. Also buy $1k in gift cards for the grocery store you shop at. You will be buying grocery every week so you can buy $1000 in GC and get the SWA quick and be done with meeting the quota to get the points. AND don't forget you will earn 1000 points for the $1000 spending you have to do so if you have two cards you could end up with in 80K + 2k= 82,000 in one months time. Plus the anniversary bonus of 6k for two cards for a total of 88K points in one year for 2 cards. And that does not take into acct all points you will earn for the purchases you will make throughout the year. I also pay our car and house insurance with the credit card so any big bills you have make sure to pay those with the credit card. And currently they are offering 6 times the points for every dollar spend on gasoline.

 

[Erica Ladd]

We fly down a Saturday in September RDU - FLL and booked a non direct flight for $58 because the direct we wanted was $92. I stalked the site and it went doyen on a Wednesday morning to $69. I rebooked. Two hours later it went to $49 so I modified again. We have seen flights drop on Sundays as well. If book with what you can tolerate and then check several times a day just in case. They change prices all. The. Time

 

[pindecisive]

I always seem to have to enter the ticket code to have the travel funds appear. I don't know why but sometimes I haven't saved the code - or can't find it. Plus if I have multi changed a flight I also have an issue getting the full travel fund credit. I find points easier.

Same for me. I've always needed to provide the code to use the funds.

 

[loveswdw]

Why would you need to remember the rebooked codes? As long as you enter your SW RR #, you can see the remaining funds on your account under travel funds.
View attachment 590375

My travel funds generally don't show up in here. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. And if I have multiples, inevitably only one will show under Travel Funds. I have to manually keep track of them.

 

[KaystotheKingdom]

These flight prices are crazy cray. We fly this week. Last week price for our same flight was an additional 300 per person that what we paid( which was already over $200 one way) I have NEVER paid more than $200 one way to Disney from our airport.
Then today I look at it was 50 bucks cheaper- can’t make any sense of this nonsense but I rebooked my same flight and saved the 50 bucks lol

I refuse to pay for a one way domestic flight that is more expensive then round trip flights to Europe i have booked before.

 

[KaystotheKingdom]

Its a crap shoot and its anyone guess. But if the price goes down you can rebook for free and get a refund in the form of a travel credit that will expire 1 year from the date that you originally purchased the ticket. Or if you booked with points the points will be returned to your RR acct. I see right now their calender shows a bunch of $49 and $58 flights. for RDU to FLL. they are Tue, Wed and Sat flights

book early, check the fares of your already booked flight regularly

 

[bsmcneil]

book early, check the fares of your already booked flight regularly

So much this. I had never experienced the "change flight" aspect to allow me to recoup funds but it's been a god-send this fall. I ended up bringing back a good 250-300 from 2-3 round trips.

 

[KaystotheKingdom]

So much this. I had never experienced the "change flight" aspect to allow me to recoup funds but it's been a god-send this fall. I ended up bringing back a good 250-300 from 2-3 round trips.

my family as well, we never looked at the flights again after initial booking. I often wondered how much we missed out on and it’s too easy with the app there isn’t any reason not to check. It’s almost part of my daily/weekly routine, because it takes mere seconds.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Thanks guys! Of course they are. We’re looking to fly out on Thursday for a cruise on Friday and fly back home in Monday.

Does it have to be swa? Check skyscanner.com I get the best rates from them.
FLL is our home airport you can also check MIA..
Even if you are out of port Everglades you can get reasonable transportation.