southwest flights still too high

[ls1222]

Me too!!!!!!!! 73 days out and we are flying from PIT, I have been watching since Feb.. I'm now checking CMH, CLE, and CAK.. We usually get August airfare for around 108 so I'm not liking the 146-158 range

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

We fly from pittsburgh too. Airfare is horrible. No competition equals high prices.
DH and I are flying into Fort Lauderdale in October driving to Key West for a few days then to WDW for the Food and Wine Festival.
Our airfare PIT to FLL is $150 pp one way which I was happy with.

The steeler schedule comes out and the steelers are playing the dolphins at the tail end of our trip. Now we are driving from orlando back to Miami for the game.
We tried to fly out of Fort Lauderdale the monday after but airfare is $250 one way , it recently dropped to $190 but thats connecting inchicago.

So we are driving back to MCO the monday after the game to get a non stop for $169 pp one way. We are using points also. Driving the 3 hours lets us use points on all 4 tickets.

Airfare isnt cheap like it used to be. There is literaaly no competition so the airlines unfortunately know we will pay it or not go

 

[Shanti]

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.

For that distance, the flights are cheap. It costs just as much for us to fly from Texas to MCO. Each flight leg is only a $27 difference. Maybe pay cash instead of points? The day of the week you're flying can make a big difference, too.

 

[Jing]

Normally Tuesday and Wednesday are the same price, but my return flight that I need for Tuesday in November is the most expensive flight out that week. I got great flight deals a couple weeks ago during their sale, and I am hoping to get something better if they do the anniversary deal again.

 

[Marionnette]

We got decent fares, IMO, for PHL -> MCO in September ($125 apiece or 7426 RR pts.) on the Friday before Labor Day. But the return flight on Labor itself was cheaper and had better times on American. It used to be that Southwest had good flights later in the day MCO->PHL but the latest nonstop flight departs MCO at 11:20! I still prefer Southwest's more forgiving cancellation policy but the American flight is 8 hours later.

 

[got2sammies]

Seems like the past two weeks the fall "sale" is still only through dates of the 4th/5th which is after what I need Hopefully they will announce a "sale" on those dates soon!

 

[jiminy14]

We got decent fares, IMO, for PHL -> MCO in September ($125 apiece or 7426 RR pts.) on the Friday before Labor Day. But the return flight on Labor itself was cheaper and had better times on American. It used to be that Southwest had good flights later in the day MCO->PHL but the latest nonstop flight departs MCO at 11:20! I still prefer Southwest's more forgiving cancellation policy but the American flight is 8 hours later.

I used to only fly SWA out of Philly to MCO but recently fares and times have been much better on American. I have been pricing our flights for November and at this point they are $340 rt with EBCI on SWA. AA is $284 with checked bag fees and priority boarding. AA is also offering more direct flights than SWA which has reduced their non-stops to four. There was a time that I never paid more than $200 rt on SWA but unfortunately I feel those days have passed.

 

[Sandi]

I was happy to find $144 each way for our late August trip after pricing Delta. I can get both of us with SWA for less than the cost of one Delta ticket. It's all relative.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I have 3 trips booked thru the end of the year and I am not happy either any of the prices. I am glad I booked when they opened though, because they have mostly all gone up. It is a lot more than I am accustomed to paying from Nashville and these are destinations we frequent. Southwest is a bummer lately between flight prices and their schedules.

 

[ArielRae]

We fly Frontier Airlines and I just checked flying from Pittsburg to Orlando and they are around $49-$69 each way in August. Bags aren't much either to add on.

 

[queenbetsey]

oh man I am glad I am not the only one thinking they are high. going beginning of jan. can't even book return flights yet. I did manage to find a red eye out of san diego on united that would get us there at around 11 am ish so thinking of that for flying there that way we don't loose a whole day flying from cal. maybe a flight back home on southwest if they ever open up the dates

 

[disneymom0104]

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.

We are in the EXACT same position. I can't believe how high the prices are from Denver!

 

[wendow]

We fly Frontier Airlines and I just checked flying from Pittsburg to Orlando and they are around $49-$69 each way in August. Bags aren't much either to add on.

I think we are considering moving more to Frontier also. Not a Disney trip but I just flew my two oldest dc to TX for a couple of weeks to spend with my family. I paid for their flights there and flew them on Frontier. Even with paying for bags, their one-way flight (Denver to Dallas) was $72 (each). My mom bought their flights returning and she booked them on Southwest. Those flights were $244 (each) one-way!

Southwest just has some ridiculous prices right now!

 

[cmarsh31]

I've apparently come to the conclusion that if I check SW flights for Oct every day, they will magically add a nonstop late morning, afternoon, or evening flight. I'm pretty sure this is the definition of insanity. WHY oh WHY is the ONLY nonstop flight for the entire month of October at 7:15am? I don't want to leave Disney at 7:15am (and that flight is $98 vs. $176 for the not non-stop later flights)! Anyone else successful magically changing SW?

 

[Marionnette]

I've apparently come to the conclusion that if I check SW flights for Oct every day, they will magically add a nonstop late morning, afternoon, or evening flight. I'm pretty sure this is the definition of insanity. WHY oh WHY is the ONLY nonstop flight for the entire month of October at 7:15am? I don't want to leave Disney at 7:15am (and that flight is $98 vs. $176 for the not non-stop later flights)! Anyone else successful magically changing SW?

Once the schedule is out, it doesn't change. They will not be adding flights or changing stopovers to nonstops. Sorry. However, prices can and will fluctuate, so there's still a reason to keep checking!

 

[kristenrice]

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.

The airport in Flint is great! Nice and small and very easy to navigate.

We live 10 minutes from GRR but we often fly out of FNT due to the prices and times. They (AT/SWA) used to have a non-stop flight that departed early in the morning so we would drive over the night before and stay in a nearby hotel.

The cheapest round-trip option we had was out of FNT ($288 R/T, non-stops) and it was going to be $400 R/T out of GRR with plane changes both ways. Those prices haven't budged much at all. I'm jealous to see that people can get flights for $200 round-trip...lucky. We ended up choosing a late flight out of GRR on Friday (instead of Saturday) and staying at the airport Hyatt. Then, we will fly back into FNT on the non-stop, afternoon flight. I was able to get our return flight on points and the flight down was $200 each. It's now at $187 but since we won't be flying again until 2018, there is no sense in requesting a credit. Besides, we will earn more RR miles this way.

 

[cmarsh31]

Once the schedule is out, it doesn't change. They will not be adding flights or changing stopovers to nonstops. Sorry. However, prices can and will fluctuate, so there's still a reason to keep checking!

I know they don't but for some reason, I feel like I'll miss something if I don't keep checking!

 

[Betty_Baylor99]

Southwest was not the cheapest option for us coming from Dallas for our August trip- as of last month, I kept getting RT airfare for 3 over $900. I was able to book RT (before adding luggage fees) for 3 for $750 w/AA this past week- if I had gotten my butt in gear two weeks earlier, I could have booked RT for 3 between $575-650 RT for 3. I'm traveling w/kids so we won't be adding too much luggage so it was worth it for us to go with a different airline.

 

[HeatherC]

Well I am happily surprised. I was looking to fly from Massachusetts to Florida during Christmas week. When fares first released they wanted $500 one way!! No way!!!

But a week later they dropped a bit and I was able to get $218 nonstop from Harford to Fort Lauderdale. Still high for one way, but it is a holiday period so I was thrilled with that rate. Now I'm doing the waiting game till July 2 when they release the return flight...which we will use points for.

 

[SBWB48]

I know they don't but for some reason, I feel like I'll miss something if I don't keep checking!

Definitely keep checking! Our flights have since been halved since we first booked with points. Was just over $400 per person RT back in April, but after checking every week the last two months, we are now looking at around $210 per person RT. Persistence pays off!