SWA anything but cheap!

[JeanfromBNA]

I've been looking for reasonable fares for our late September trip from Nashville, TN to MCO for six months, and SWA is still $300+ RT . The discount and internet only fares are posted, but all are shown as not available. I've been flying SWA for years, and have never seen such high fares .

Anybody else have this problem, or any advice? Other airlines aren't much cheaper, and involve connecting flights.

 

[dburg30]

You using the DING! program? I swore I saw some nashville to orlando (well orlando to nashville actually) What dates? I did 9/15 - 9/22 and it shows some 64 each way... same with 22-29.. if you can leave on certain days they are cheaper.. I know saturday is one of the cheap days

 

[slruud]

This morning's DING! has Orlando to Nashville for $59. Threw in some dates...22 thru 27 and came back plenty of availability. Good til 1:45 CDT. You snooze you lose.

 

[IggyLans]

Today's Ding $59/ea Way Nashville/orlando!!! Hope You'll Get On Board!

 

[CPer'sMom]

Jean, Hope you got the Ding fares for your trip! Tried to send you a PM to tell you (in case you weren't checking the boards this morning) but got the 'does not accept PMs' message.

 

[m_kasch]

I just checked your dates from Nashville to MCO, and they have a $64 for the trip down. RT was 226 per person. Have you signed up for Ding? Like the PPs have said, they have great rates a lot! Since it isn't available for your dates yet...maybe soon? Keep checking, I am traveling in late November and just got a lower fare the other day. Good Luck!!

 

[m_kasch]

Jean, Hope you got the Ding fares for your trip! Tried to send you a PM to tell you (in case you weren't checking the boards this morning) but got the 'does not accept PMs' message.

The Nashville Ding! is only good through the 27th. Her siggy says she is going the 29th - Oct 6th. So this Ding! probably won't help her. But there ARE lower rates than $300 pp. I love Southwest, they make it SO much easier than other airlines to apply a lower rate and get a credit for your next trip!!

 

[JLitfin]

Has anyone ever seen a Ding fare for traveling from Baltimore to Orlando?

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Thanks everybody for replying! Yes, I have Ding! on my desktop here and at work. Our trip is Saturday September 29 through Saturday October 6. I noticed the same less expensive fares that you all did, but they would have us arrive at 8:50 PM saturday 09/29, and depart Orlando at 7:05 AM on 10/06, which would mean that Magical Express would pick us up at 4AM. I'm an early riser, but getting up at 3AM is a little crazy . We would be wasting two days of vacation.

Called SWA to see if there was something that I didn't know, and the rep said that new internet fares are posted on monday. I'll keep checking .

 

[CPer'sMom]

Has anyone ever seen a Ding fare for traveling from Baltimore to Orlando?

I've gotten great Ding fares between BWI and MCO ~ once even got a $29 one!! But the Ding fares have been harder to come by recently. You just have to watch for them.

 

[Madformickey]

we are flying down 9-1 and home on 9-9 with southwest, 4 of us 555 round trip, but my best ever was late april 06, 365 for all 4 of us r/t. Im happy at 555 but cheaper is always better, and this time we leave here(Pittsburgh) at 7:50 am and dont depart the following sunday till 8:50 pm, which means we get almost 9 full days to enjoy. Cant wait

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Last June I flew down for 25 each way plus tax from BNA. Just keep watch, your dates are coming up soon!!

 

[madge]

I've been looking for reasonable fares for our late September trip from Nashville, TN to MCO for six months, and SWA is still $300+ RT . The discount and internet only fares are posted, but all are shown as not available. I've been flying SWA for years, and have never seen such high fares .

Anybody else have this problem, or any advice? Other airlines aren't much cheaper, and involve connecting flights.

This is the first time in years that we aren't flying out of Nashville - the prices came down some ... I did see a Ding! fare here and there, but nothing as cheap as years past ($34-49 each way). We paid $34/$39 each way in October 2006. Nothing close to that this year.

We're flying out of Indianapolis for $49 each way. It's not much further for us to drive there than Nashville (from Kentucky).

 

[JeanfromBNA]

This is the first time in years that we aren't flying out of Nashville - the prices came down some ... I did see a Ding! fare here and there, but nothing as cheap as years past ($34-49 each way). We paid $34/$39 each way in October 2006. Nothing close to that this year.

We're flying out of Indianapolis for $49 each way. It's not much further for us to drive there than Nashville (from Kentucky).

We've flown for the same cheap fares previously. I'm not expecting that with the increase in fuel costs, but $300?! I need a barf icon.

I found some NWA flights connecting through Memphis for $164 RT. It may be goodbye, SWA.

Enjoy your cheaper flight and trip to the World. I mean that sincerely; I don't mean to sound sarcastic.

 

[madge]

Enjoy your cheaper flight and trip to the World. I mean that sincerely; I don't mean to sound sarcastic.

I should point out that the cheaper flight we booked is on AirTran for part of it - that the time I booked the flight, SWA was nowhere near the lowest fare.

I've made no secret of how thankful we are to live within 3 hours of 5 major airports - and of the 5, 3 of those have Southwest. The odds of us finding something reasonable are pretty good.

I'm afraid part of the trouble getting a lower price for your dates is that it falls on Columbus day weekend

 

[blessedby3]

I have been watching the ding fares from RDU to MCO and I think they are much higher than before. We paid $28 each way in Nov. 2005!!!! Guess I wont ever see that again!! It seems like the fares are running in the $70's-$90's for dings from RDU to MCO for me. My dates arent available yet, but I just wanted to get a head start on price watching. I will be flying Allegiant if these SW rates dont come down.

 

[mgilmer]

We've flown for the same cheap fares previously. I'm not expecting that with the increase in fuel costs, but $300?! I need a barf icon.

I found some NWA flights connecting through Memphis for $164 RT. It may be goodbye, SWA.

Enjoy your cheaper flight and trip to the World. I mean that sincerely; I don't mean to sound sarcastic.

I am in your boat. We have always flown SWA from BNA but the prices now are not very good (except for the occasional ding for off times). In the past my family and I have averaged SWA tickets in the $200 to $225 rt price range per person. Now the average is $300 and (mostly) up. I am afraid that the SWA monopoly from Nashville has really set in hard (and before anyone else points it out, I know Delta flies NS to MCO from BNA, but their prices are no better than SWA). I have driven to WDW only once but I am seriously considering it again next June if prices continue this way. The best price I have found in the region is on Frontier out of Memphis. They have flights for from $49 each way nonstop to MCO. They also have better flight times than NWA - check them out. I have considered them myself but when you add in the four hour drive to Memphis from my house, the time to park, the wait in the airport, etc., I can drive in about the same amount of time as it would take to fly. At least with driving, I would not have to put up with the TSA baggie hastles at the airport (). As for the smilies you wanted, try these (I hope they work):

 

[grimley1968]

We usually try to fly out of BNA or SDF (Louisville) on SWA.

For years, SWA has been cheaper than everybody else, and cheaper in BNA and SDF than in other places. But the market has changed, obviously. With rising fuel costs and full flights, it's unrealistic to expect anything less than $100 flights each way. To get anything less than that, as in the past, would be great, but I don't fault SWA for not having them now. They've saved me a ton of $$$ in the past and still offered great service, and I'm grateful for that. Other startups are offering budget fares now, but they will soon have to start charging more, as SWA and JetBlue have done, or they will have to go out of business.

Still, though, I've been checking for our times/dates and have not seen anything cheaper than SWA out of those airports, for our times. SWA is charging however much they can get and keep flights full. Obviously that is a higher amount than in the past. I will not pay the same amount for Delta, UsAir, etc. as SWA because they normally do not have direct flights for us, and more direct flights are another benefit of flying SWA to us.

This year, though, the cheap SWA fares just aren't there for us, so we're driving down. Door to door, it's about 3.5 hours longer to drive than to fly, and it's definitely cheaper for us. It will be nice to at least have our own car with us without having to rent a car.

 

[MrMarv]

Southwest has to be realistic about what they can charge their passngers and still make money; they didn't get to be the world's biggest airline by doing the stupid things which long-gone airlines such as Braniff did.

Airfares have gone up (thanks to our government-sponsored and government-initiated ethanol hoax, among many other reasons), as well as the very deep pockets which those species known as environmentalists have used to bribe Congress into keeping a lid on production and drilling sites.

But as long as Southwest continues to do a much better job keeping their customers happy by minimizing inconveniences, flight cancellations, and communicating with their passengers when something goes haywire (something the 'Big Six' aren't that good at!!!), they'll continue to shine from a customer service level that very few companies (Nordstrom/Lands End/FedEx) have been able to attain and sustain.

$140.00/$180.00 R/T from Raleigh to Orlando is undoubtedly a profitable, respectable and intelligent airfare; $58.00 R/T is not.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

I agree with you all that super-cheap airfare is no longer an option. We flew to Orlando and Tampa in the past for $39 - $79 each way. This is no longer realistic. All fuel is much more expensive, and Southwest's fuel price hedge ran out awhile back.

I have long admired SWA's business strategy that has kept them profitable and successful (not necessarily the same thing). They were not in line for the corporate welfare handout with the legacy carriers post 9/11. However, I can't help but think that now that SWA has the majority of gates at BNA, they can set the price that they want, at least until they start flying out with half empty planes. This is not the SWA philosphy that I read about in Nuts!