Southwest deals

[jmartinez1895]

Southwest has some great prices right now. I just booked tickets for the 5 of us the fly from Birmingham to Orlando ( non stop) and back ( non stop again) for only $59.00 a piece. The grand total for our round trip flight was only $ 697.00. A year or two ago three of us paid more than that one way. If you are looking at a trip, now would be a good time to book.

 

[Dizneydaz]

I love SW too! Only wish we could get such great rates but we are in California. We are paying about $350 RT which isn't great but is reasonable. I did have a RT booked for about $282 but then our dates changed and I had to rebook. Great thing about SW is no fee to change. Oh, and 2 free checked bags pp, can't beat that!

 

[jmartinez1895]

The free bags are one of my favorite parts of flying with them.

 

[Sandy321]

We had promised dd she could visit nana and papa for spring break - last year we waited and the price from Chicago to Florida went from reasonable, to un affordable - so this year, I was determined to grab the reasonable fare -

Her spring break is the last week of March - they went on sale Monday I believe - paid for them by 9am I think - by the time we got home and she told her friend (who also has grandparents in Ft Myers FL) the prices had doubled!

Now 5 days later, half those flights are GONE (unavailable!)

so, I learned when traveling at a high travel time - find out first day they go on sale, and buy early! It seems the other airlines follow SW sale fares, but only SW gives the great web prices - but they too sell out!

 

[Goofypop]

The free bags are one of my favorite parts of flying with them.

Just be sure to check that other airlines with baggage fees are not cheaper. My brother goes to Orlando from time to time too (But not to Disney. ) and he is an avid, almost fanatical, Southwest proponent. He will only use SW because he thinks they beat other airlines hands down. But several trips he has made have cost more with SW than going with maybe Delta and still paying the baggage fees. Granted, that is not often but if it can happen to him it can happen to you. Just check with all of the airlines.


That being said I have always been reluctant to use SW because of the lack of seating assignments. I don't want to get to a full plane and find that their are a few seats left but they are scattered so my family will all have to sit separate. I know they have the Early Bird Check-in service but do you really think I can trust that? What do you think?

 

[CarrieR]

The only time I've not been able to sit near my friends is when we forgot to check in at the 24 hour mark. So long as you are able to do that, I wouldn't hesitate to fly SW.

We've just booked flights for Christmastime, as they dropped into the reasonable (which, for those dates, is unbelievably low!) category.

 

[cheerforchelsea]

Southwest has some great prices right now. I just booked tickets for the 5 of us the fly from Birmingham to Orlando ( non stop) and back ( non stop again) for only $59.00 a piece. The grand total for our round trip flight was only $ 697.00. A year or two ago three of us paid more than that one way. If you are looking at a trip, now would be a good time to book.

I am shopping for Bham to Orlando tickets and the prices I see for Southwest are WAY more....I must have missed the sale....

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Just be sure to check that other airlines with baggage fees are not cheaper. My brother goes to Orlando from time to time too (But not to Disney. ) and he is an avid, almost fanatical, Southwest proponent. He will only use SW because he thinks they beat other airlines hands down. But several trips he has made have cost more with SW than going with maybe Delta and still paying the baggage fees. Granted, that is not often but if it can happen to him it can happen to you. Just check with all of the airlines.


That being said I have always been reluctant to use SW because of the lack of seating assignments. I don't want to get to a full plane and find that their are a few seats left but they are scattered so my family will all have to sit separate. I know they have the Early Bird Check-in service but do you really think I can trust that? What do you think?

I would buy EBCI. We have flown SWA probably 10 to 15 times since they came to Philly in 2005. We have never had our kids not sit with us. We used to always simply check in at T-24 and now we buy EBCI. We've never had to plead to a FA to seat us together.


Granted we don't always sit 'together'. Their planes are all Boeing 3737, with 3x3 seat configuration. Since we're a family of 4, we either sit 2 at window & middle with other 2 directly in next row behind or 3 together, and 1 across the aisle. First configurtion, each child gets a window and they're separated so there's no bickering; each parent gets 1 child. Also it's easy to pass items back and forth to each other.
When we do 3 and 1, both adults get an aisle seat but 1 child won't have a window. At this point they don't really care so it's less important these days.

We also love that SWA doesn't charge any change fees. So if we later decide to stay an extra day, we just make the changes online and it's no big deal. To change flights on USAirways, we have to pay $600 in change fees alone. Not happening...

 

[Goofypop]

Cool. As long as EBCI gets us all together then that will be great. We'll just sit in one row and I'll sit by the stranger.

We'll be going with SW this next trip then if it is this easy. Thanks. The only readon I wouldn't is if Delta gives me a better deal even with the baggage fees. We got 4 RT tickets last year for $600 total, with baggage it came to $965. SW was at $1130 for the 4 of us RT. But all in all I just want to get a good deal, have a hassle free flight, and actually get there in one piece.