SW in December ?s

[bnf2]

Hi! Need a little advice from all the experts here...I'll try to keep it short

We're going in December (12/15-12/22)- have never flown anywhere around that time of year and I'm a little anxious about flights filling up and not finding anything (or at least something we can afford- can always fly Delta out of my backyard... at at least $1300 for the 4 of us ).

We love SW and don't mind the hour and 20 min. drive to get to them. I've read here (and finally found it on SW's site) that Dec. times will be released at the end of this month. My question: book right away or be patient and wait for a sale or ding fare? We are usually 'gamblers' when it comes to holding our for dings, etc. so normally waiting wouldn't bother me, in fact the last few times we've flown SW I've booked it at 3 months or less. I'm concerned that approach may not work for December.

What are your experiences flying so close to Christmas? It makes sense that fares would be higher at that time, but it also makes sense they'd run good deals to get more people flying What started all this panic is that one family going with us was going to fly Delta using sky miles and there are no seats (with sky miles) for that time!!! Now I'm looking for 'great deals' for 12 of us!!

Thanks for your help!

 

[CarolA]

How close to "around Christmas"? If it's something like 12/23 or 12/24 then I would book IMMEDIATELY. If it's 12/15 that might be a different issue.

 

[bnf2]

How close to "around Christmas"? If it's something like 12/23 or 12/24 then I would book IMMEDIATELY. If it's 12/15 that might be a different issue.

Ooops, that info might help! We're going the 15th-22nd

 

[pyrxtc]

well, I'll eb ther from the 7-14 and I'm goign to book right away and then if (when) a Ding comes out, I will get the difference back. i'd rather know I have the flights than put it up to chance.

Plus, I know I'm flying them since they are non-stop and it is a requirement for this trip.

 

[bearybubba]

well, I'll eb ther from the 7-14 and I'm goign to book right away and then if (when) a Ding comes out, I will get the difference back. i'd rather know I have the flights than put it up to chance.

Plus, I know I'm flying them since they are non-stop and it is a requirement for this trip.

We are flying out of Pittsburgh on Dec 9th and I am planning on booking right away. I won't have DING (since I use the work computer to check email and the board every day) so I will jsut book right away and that way I know I have the flight I want, the time I want it and also for it to be non-stop since I have 3 people in our group of 6 that have NEVER flown before!!!!

 

[dizzy203]

I don't wait, I always book right away. This way I get the days and times that I want. After I book, I try to check the flights everyday to see if they have any specials. For my next trip I booked my flights on May 1st and a month later the price went down $125.00. I now have a nice refund just waiting for me to book another trip!

 

[MrMarv]

I'd book SW right away out of either Columbus, Indianapolis or Lousivlle, and get the flgiths and times YOU want.

If the fare goes down AFTER you've booked and purchased your tickets, that would just be icing on the cake, wouldn't it????????

 

[bnf2]

Thank you all for your advice & suggestions. I guess if we do get a better fare (after booking as soon as they come out) it'll be a great way to convince DH we'd need to go to The World again since we have credits with SW Not sure he'll buy the logic, but it's worth a shot!

Anyway- thanks everyone... guess I'll be glued to the computer on June 28!

 

[SuperDuperBounce]

I wouldn't wait for the Ding! We've been waiting for Southwest to open up reservations for December. I woke up this morning to hear on that radio that airlines were planning to raise prices by 30%. I checked their website and still no December. We called reservations and they gal said to try back toward the end of June. So we bailed on Southwest and went with Airtran, getting the same low fair we get with Southwest but no anxiety about trying to get A boarding passes to seat seven people together.

 

[CarolA]

According to SW's website they plan to release fares thru sometime in January on 6/28 (subject to change)

However, over on www.flyertalk.com yesterday someone posted a link to a news story where SW was suppose to have said that they are considering slowing growth (and maybe cutting some flights) in order to help increase profits. My bet would be that they would look at cities where they have to "Ding" a lot of seats and start cutting flights hoping that they could sell the fewer seats for a profitiable margin.