Southwest - Booking Window Open

[3dog2kidmom]

OK - so I went in to play around with dates and times, and found a fare I can live with!!!! Instead of flying Sunday to Sunday (12/21 - 12/28), I moved the trip back one day, so Saturday to Saturday (12/20 - 12/27). I had to book the first flight out at 6:00am, and the last flight back at 9:15pm (arriving MDW at 11:05pm!), but it brought the price down from $622 RT to $390 RT! And no worries about icy roads, except for the 2 hour drive from home to MDW - I'll take that over the 19 hour drive to Orlando.

Yay! We were thinking of driving for the first time, but never having done that I was afraid of bad roads due to winter weather.

I'm so glad the price to fly is not that more than my cost estimates to drive --- we have to account for overnight hotel stays since DH doesn't like to drive straight through, extra days at the kennel, extra unpaid days off work, etc. I can breathe for another year

 

[Cottager]

What are your dates? We're also out of Buffalo and need 11/15-11/22 but it's about $300pp round trip right now. I booked the return leg but the flight there is pretty high.

There are two non-stop flights on November 15th from BUF to MCO at 3:05 p.m. and 4:55 p.m. that are at the lowest price of $109 each with 8 seats available at that price. If you're holding out for the morning price to drop, it won't. Book your afternoon flights now before it's too late!

 

[3dog2kidmom]

I booked our November flights this morning. We layover in Atlanta going, and our flight to Orlando is on AirTran. Should I pay the extra money to pick seats, or do they try to keep families together when assigning seats? It's just DH and I that have seats since DD will be sitting in one of our laps. It would be nice if we could be together, but don't want to pay if it's likely we'll be together anyway...

I paid for AirTran seats last year to be safe. They won't assign seats until the last minute and by then if a majority of the seats are purchased, they may not be ABLE to keep families together.

 

[bizer]

Does anyone know if Southwest cancelled their nonstop flights from Minneapolis to Orlando? We have used them the last couple of years but I see none listed this summer or fall.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

We did well! Got $295 roundtrip from DAL to MCO, nonstop flights at perfect times. They are a bit higher than we usualy pay, but since we are flying over Thanksgiving, I went ahead and snagged them.

I booked at 6:30 this morning. Right now, (3:30pm) the same flight is $472!

 

[jalaine]

I was on right when flights became available this morning and got RT tickets PHL to MCO for $351 pp including EBCI. We got a somewhat early morning flight out and an evening flight for our return. The lowest cost for those same exact flights right now (I checked just because that's what I do, ha!) is $687 including EBCI!!!! That's absolutely crazy! I was thinking maybe I had overpaid, but the $351 was the lowest I've seen in the past few months I've been looking at other airlines, and now I feel even better about grabbing those tickets this morning! It was worth waking up early for I guess!

 

[macsandy1957]

I'm going to wait, as flight TUL to MCO was $209 one way and flight back is $264. Maybe it'll go down. Flying back Nov. 6

 

[laura428]

Yay! We were thinking of driving for the first time, but never having done that I was afraid of bad roads due to winter weather. I'm so glad the price to fly is not that more than my cost estimates to drive --- we have to account for overnight hotel stays since DH doesn't like to drive straight through, extra days at the kennel, extra unpaid days off work, etc. I can breathe for another year

I feel exactly the same way! I honestly wouldn't mind driving, and totally trust my DH's winter driving, and mine, just not everyone else's! And with do many other holiday drivers.... eeek... that scares me. We also wouldn't drive straight through, so that's a hotel room on the way there, another on the way back, extra meals... and, like you, extra kennel days and days off work. It costs more, for sure, but my peace of mind is worth the extra spend.

 

[buckeev]

Capitalism in HIGH gear! (At least on our flights...)
Over $1000 more for us this year vrs last year...same travel days of the week and departure times.
Might hafta drive and give up two Orlando nights to make this work. At least I'd save $400/$500 on the rental car!

 

[nkereina]

There are two non-stop flights on November 15th from BUF to MCO at 3:05 p.m. and 4:55 p.m. that are at the lowest price of $109 each with 8 seats available at that price. If you're holding out for the morning price to drop, it won't. Book your afternoon flights now before it's too late!

Thanks for the tip - I did see that. Short trip this time so I'm holding out for the morning flight. If it means paying more, so be it. Just wasn't what I was expecting!