Southwest: Why up the price for more passengers?!

[Geyser Gazer]

On several occasions this year I have checked flight prices on Southwest using one adult only to find that it increases 30-40% when I check for 2 or more. I am a big Southwest fan but this practice stinks of deception. Anyone else smelling something similar?

 

[wonderbear2]

Airlines have a certain number of seats in each price category. It could be that when you checked fares, they only had 1 seat left in the lower priced category. Once you increased the number of passengers, you automatically jumped into the higher priced category.

You could check this theory by having 2 people in your party check fares for a single passenger at the same time, using 2 different computers. That would be interesting to see the results

 

[msjprincess]

On several occasions this year I have checked flight prices on Southwest using one adult only to find that it increases 30-40% when I check for 2 or more. I am a big Southwest fan but this practice stinks of deception. Anyone else smelling something similar?

They only have a certain amount of tickets at each price. So if they only have 2 tickets left for $79 and you put in 5 people it will show the higher price. Whenever I come across that I add each person one by one to figure out how many they have left at the cheap price and then purchase the tickets separately.

 

[ancestry]

It isn't deception it is a common airline practice. They only allocate so many seats at a certain price. One that price level is "sold" out the price for the seats jumps to the next highest price. If they only have two seats left at X price but your group consists of five people they will show you the airfare price category that has five seats left in it.

As someone has already suggested the way around this is to book the seats separately or determine at what number the price changes and then book two reservations -- i.e. 2 people at X price and then the 3 people at Y price.

 

[Geyser Gazer]

I'm with your guy's, I get that...but I cannot believe that I'm always snagging the last seat of a sale price dozens of times, every time, over weeks and months. My guess is that if I purchased each ticket individually that I would be able to get the lowest price for everyone but why put us through the hassle? why shouldn't a family of four be able to purchase their tickets at the same price as four individuals? Besides, for some reason I prefer having my young kids under my reservation to having their own. I like being connected in this way as their parent and fellow Southwest passenger.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

My guess is that if I purchased each ticket individually that I would be able to get the lowest price for everyone but why put us through the hassle?

Well, your guess is wrong. What each person has told you is absolutely true. I'm a professional travel agent and this same thing happens for all airlines. The only difference is on our computers it shows the actual number of seats in each fare bucket so we know how many seats are left at each price. (Up to 9; when we see 9 we know there are at least 9 seats at that price but possibly more.)
Do what one person has suggested the next time this happens to you and figure out how many people you can input and still get the lower fare. You will know you've maxed out when adding one more person switches everyone to the higher fare. Grab and purchase those seats while they're still available because someone else might buy one or more of them while you're waiting.

BobK/Orlando

 

[Geyser Gazer]

Thanks Bob,

Every single time I played with this the price went up even when I went from just 1 to 2 passengers. This is what did not make sense to me but I must have just picked up the last cheap seat time after time.

 

[helenk]

I've been pretty lucky with Southwest, I've been able to get the discounted price for all of my family. I bought 5 tickets last June but divided it up 3 and 2so that my son could check in for his family and I could check in for my daughter and I but I paid the same price for all 5.
Now Airtran is a whole other story, I never can get more than 3 at the discounted price.

 

[loxie]

When I first looked at tixs I was looking at southwest & noticed that to. I needed 5 tixs, when I put in for 4 it was the better price, when I did 5 it jumped about 30 more a ticket. So I tried To do both with my laptop & my work computer, At I got the smaller better price that way. I put in for 4 with my laptop, then a put 1 in @ work at about the same time & still got the better price..so I tried all 5 at once again & up went...hahah So I would seperate the tickets cuz you will get them cheaper that way. I decided to go with a different airline so I never did purchase from them.

 

[clanmcculloch]

When I first looked at tixs I was looking at southwest & noticed that to. I needed 5 tixs, when I put in for 4 it was the better price, when I did 5 it jumped about 30 more a ticket. So I tried To do both with my laptop & my work computer, At I got the smaller better price that way. I put in for 4 with my laptop, then a put 1 in @ work at about the same time & still got the better price..so I tried all 5 at once again & up went...hahah So I would seperate the tickets cuz you will get them cheaper that way. I decided to go with a different airline so I never did purchase from them.

You're misunderstanding how it works. If you had actually purchased the 4 tickets then when you then searched for the additional 1 ticket the price would have been higher. Just searching doesn't actually allocate those seats so doing the search for 4 seats didn't affect the inventory so of course you got the same lower price when you then searched for the single seat.

I recently bought 4 tickets for our upcoming trip. The first 3 I got at a lower price and then separately booked the fourth for a higher price by $25. Luckily, several days later the inventory changed and there was suddenly another seat available at the lower price so I was able to get a $25 credit for that price drop. I haven't bought my return flights yet (I haven't decided what day we'll return) so I can easily use that credit towards those.