southwest flights still too high

[MikL99]

Anyone else having a hard time finding a good deal on flights with Southwest? My trip is 74 days out and the price of tickets is still way too high. I had 60k in points so i ended up booking a one way flight to make sure we have the early morning non stop flight at 138 a ticket (which i think is a bit high). But the return flight is still at 158 a ticket. (9636 points each). I'm down to 26k points as i was hoping my flight to Orlando would drop so i could get some points back but that hasn't yet. With the current point value i need 38544 in points to book my 4 seats. I don't want to buy points because points cost more than just buying the tickets. I can always save my points till next year because i plan on flying again. I just didn't think I would have this much trouble since most people buy round trip for 220 to 250 on southwest i want to get away.

Anyone else having these issues with August flight? (also the flight times suck doing my trip. The earliest i can fly out Non stop is 8:05am.

 

[Malibustyle23]

Did you try booking just two seats to see if they would cost less? I did that for mine and got a lower price for those two then booked the other two at the higher price.

 

[disfanforlife]

I don't travel in the summer - so it's hard to compare but for me the prices you are booking at are reasonable. We got lucky and have $98 down and $148 return in early November and I am satisfied but I have paid $300 round trip many times too. What really threw me was in March when I wanted to go and it was close to $500 round trip - now that was too high for me. Hope the price drops for you soon!

 

[MikL99]

Did you try booking just two seats to see if they would cost less? I did that for mine and got a lower price for those two then booked the other two at the higher price.

No i have searched for 1 seat to make sure the prices didn't change but they stayed the same.

 

[sunshinemelody]

I don't travel in the summer - so it's hard to compare but for me the prices you are booking at are reasonable. We got lucky and have $98 down and $148 return in early November and I am satisfied but I have paid $300 round trip many times too. What really threw me was in March when I wanted to go and it was close to $500 round trip - now that was too high for me. Hope the price drops for you soon!

I agree. $138 is incredibly reasonable.

OP where are you flying from?

 

[cmarsh31]

I'm looking at early October and seeing the same thing. I grabbed nonstop to MCO for $98 each a few weeks ago but the only non-stop return is 7am and the rest of the flights are $176. I think we're going to end up flying back JetBlue, which won't help with points, but the nonstop flight is at 2pm and is $60 per ticket cheaper.

 

[cmarsh31]

$138 vs the $176 I'm seeing would totally make a difference for me. That sounds pretty good. We rarely get anywhere for under $300 round-trip.

 

[MikL99]

I am flying from Pittsburgh to MCO. 138.00 was reasonable and is why i bought it. I need the flight coming home to drop down a to around that price as well. Its a big difference in points from 158 to 131. The difference is 2,377 per ticket in points. It just adds up. I would only need another 3k in points at that price. Where as the price at 158 i would need 12,500 point more.

 

[hoffman1]

Our flight for Sept is more expensive than I thought it would be too. (SDF to MCO)
I booked anyway (flying with others so not much of a choice). I am hoping the price drops.
It has already dropped a little and I rebooked at that price.
Now the website is saying it can not find my reservation

 

[wendow]

OP, I can relate!

We are flying to MCO in Sept and our flights are much, much higher than they have ever been. We go to WDW pretty much this same time every year and have for years and always have paid between $220-$240 RT. Our flights are currently $404 RT. And the flight times for nonstops are much later in the day. We cannot get out any earlier than 10:45 which puts us getting to MCO at 4:00'ish (we fly from Denver). Typically, we have flown out at 6 or 7am which has us arriving at noon'ish. All this is for Southwest and for the first time, I am now looking at other airlines. But dh and I both opened SW CC's for the points so we really want to fly SW.

 

[jmsaj]

Do your anniversary points drop in anytime soon? That would help a little with points.

 

[SunnieRN]

We're driving as flights are so high for our December trip. Of course I'm hoping they will come down some, (fingers crossed).

 

[pittsburghmom]

I am flying from Pittsburgh to MCO. 138.00 was reasonable and is why i bought it. I need the flight coming home to drop down a to around that price as well. Its a big difference in points from 158 to 131. The difference is 2,377 per ticket in points. It just adds up. I would only need another 3k in points at that price. Where as the price at 158 i would need 12,500 point more.

We fly from PIT to MCO as well. In January. The first year (2013) I got flights at around $106/$112 pp. In 2014, I snagged some $99 fares, but wasn't able to get that fare for all 5 of us. Return might have been $110 or something in that price range. I have no idea how January compares to August, but I agree, the $158 seems a bit steep! Hope it all works out for you!!

 

[DisneyArie]

I haven't had any luck with Southwest lately. I booked our flight for our trip in September (flying from Houston) about a month ago, and I was able to get round trip tickets for a little over $200 each. A few days later, my husband and I decided to extend our vacation by 3 days, but when I went back to change the return flight, I noticed prices for ALL days had gone up. Flights are barely $200 one way now. I've been checking daily. I have some time since the trip is about 100 days out, but I imagine I'll give up after another month and just settle an 8 day trip.

 

[MIChessGuy]

I booked my late August trip from FNT in late April, nonstop each way, about $194 total. Lately I have noticed that routing is closer to $288. Southwest offers no nonstops from DTW for that time period. I considered Spirit (yecch....) and Frontier, but both charge every fee you can think of and get bad reviews. This will be the first time I have ever used Bishop Airport in Flint, so right away I'll be seeing new things.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Did you try booking just two seats to see if they would cost less? I did that for mine and got a lower price for those two then booked the other two at the higher price.

That's what we did last May for a flight from MCI to AUS. We bought 2 seats at the lower price then the other 3 at a higher price. As we were all adults splitting the cost we just averaged the price of the ticket. Only reason we found this out is because I was plugging in 2 tickets on the app (just as a norm) and my husband was plugging in 5 on the computer. We played around and found that they only had 2 seats left at the lower price.

 

[happymommy]

I'm surprised your flights are high! I'm going 8/23 - 8/31 and from BWI got $69 each way. I was shocked; I haven't seen fares so low in years (although late August they usually are low, since it's a slow time in Orlando).

 

[georgina]

Southwest is not always the cheapest anymore for us, but I like their non-stops from PIT. My flight home in Sept has not dropped below $210, but I booked with points in case it should drop (it is a Sunday afternoon so not likely).

 

[ah10is]

I'm surprised your flights are high! I'm going 8/23 - 8/31 and from BWI got $69 each way. I was shocked; I haven't seen fares so low in years (although late August they usually are low, since it's a slow time in Orlando).

I'm flying from Maine to Orlando 9/19 - 8/27 and ours were $179 each leg on southwest! We booked right when they were release and have only gone up since then! A lot higher than I was expecting. Our December trip 12/10-12/14 is actually less....$169 there and $130 back.

Still cheaper than other airlines...but a lot more than i have paid in previous years! I use to be able to get round trip for $200.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We have 6 in our party. Got $119 down on a Friday from Louisville to Orlando in November, the flight back Tuesday started at $101, then $119, 139 and is now $208. The flight back Wednesday is $69, and there were 6 tickets at that price. We can stay at Disney another night to save $800.