SW .. Do I Gamble

[Nutz4Dsny]

Within the past 3 days I decided to go ahead with plans for our Nov/Dec trip to WDW. So I haven't had much of a chance to watch SW fares from Kansas City to Orlando. I did go ahead and get our return flight at the great price of $59 per person. Now to decide when to book the outbound flight. It went up $20 since I checked yesterday. Anybody know if the trend is to continue going up??

 

[mousemom11]

It depends on your outbound date. You mention a Nov/Dec trip. Are you flying around Thanksgiving? I have been following SW November prices since June and here is what I have seen. Airfare for flights anytime from the day before Thanksgiving through the Monday after Thanksgiving has done nothing but go up. So if you are flying out on any of those days, I would buy now.

For all other November dates, prices have bounced around. I might be tempted to just watch fares for the next 2 weeks to see what they do. When you see a good one, pounce on it.

Don't forget that if the price drops after you buy, you can get a credit for the difference (although it does have to be used within 12 months of your initial booking).

By the way, that $59 price from Orlando to Kansas City rocks! Well done!

 

[Tara]

Within the past 3 days I decided to go ahead with plans for our Nov/Dec trip to WDW. So I haven't had much of a chance to watch SW fares from Kansas City to Orlando. I did go ahead and get our return flight at the great price of $59 per person. Now to decide when to book the outbound flight. It went up $20 since I checked yesterday. Anybody know if the trend is to continue going up??

Since the late June day when I started planning my Nov 6-11 trip, my flight prices have gone down exactly one time. The return trip dropped for one day only from $125ish to $99, so I scooped that up right away. My flight to Orlando did not go down at all, but went the other way. It sat at $149ish for a while and I had my "buy by" date in mind, but on that very day, it went up to $172, so I sucked it up and bought the earlier but not nonstop flight for $124. I've watched it since then and the $172 has remained the same and just today the $124 went down to $122. (big whoop, I'm not fooling with it for $6!)

At the same time I've also been watching for my sister's family's flights out of another city to meet us in Orlando. They steadily went up until one day recently when the flight out dropped from $122 to $105, so we jumped on that. The return home has only gone up, from $112 to $130. I went ahead and booked that using a 20% off coupon (thank goodness!) because it's getting too close for comfort and I don't believe the price is going down enough to make all this checking worth my while!

So that's the long way of saying I'm very envious of your $59 fare! Good luck in your fare search.

 

[MAH4546]

This is the great thing about American Airlines (who matches all of Southwest's fares, except dings, 90% of the time): You can hold a fare until midnight the next day. If the fare goes down, cancel your hold and hold the new, lower fare. If the fare goes up, book it. You can hold over and over again, you just have to re-enter your hold daily.

 

[Nutz4Dsny]

Yes .. the date in question is the Saturday after Thanksgiving .. thanks for your replies .. looks like I need to get it booked today. If it goes down I'll be forced the use the credits to travel again next year.