SWA FEB Watch LIST (Feb/march is open)

[Sammy]

FINALLY!!!!! We just got MHT to MCO for 5 people; $677 total...nonstop (Feb 28 to Mar 7). I had to adjust our vacation by two days (Tuesday to Tuesday) because of course all of the Fri/Sat/Sun combinations were "unavailable". But, at least we got something! Last year, we couldn't get anything on SWA for under $200 pp. We ended up having to fly out of Logan on JetBlue instead.

Disney....here we come!!

Sammy

(running now to create a new counter!!)

 

[Sandi]

I'm another one who is glad I bailed when I did. The Delta flight I bought has better times and I can fly out of Lansing instead of driving to Detroit for SW. Price is about the same.

 

[maminnie]

Did anyone get any good prices for Presidents week; Feb. 17,18, 19 down to Orlando from Providence and Feb 24, 25, 26 coming back to Providence from Orlando? How about Tampa????

I had to have gotten into reservations very close to when they released as I was working on my computer and kept checking all the time. All I saw was an early flight back on the return for something less than full fare otherwise it was $204 plus taxes and fees each way. As stated above my guess too is that they never released many reduced fares.

Any lucky New Englanders out there?? Just curious.

Thanks, maminnie

 

[maps]

no such luck for me from manchester but my friend was able to get a $69 rate for one leg of her trip

i was literally on hold with my credit card company (getting my frequent flyer miles redeemed) and i watched as the fares were quickly going in a matter of minutes

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Did anyone get any good prices for Presidents week; Feb. 17,18, 19 down to Orlando from Providence and Feb 24, 25, 26 coming back to Providence from Orlando? How about Tampa????

Any lucky New Englanders out there?? Just curious.

Thanks, maminnie

From what I can gather from the other posts, I dont think any of us got lucky this time around. I know I checked within about 15 mins of the new fares getting released and they were all already gone. Guess we'll have to keep checking those DINGS and hoping for a sale.

We had to leave a day early although we didnt want to pull DD out of school even for a day. Even doing that, we could only get the 7:50pm flight out, arriving at 10:55. Way too late for my taste, but at least we got them relatively inexpensive $57/pp on the way down, $157/pp on the way home.

I'll keep checking like I always do and hope something opens up.

 

[dbertola]

I was able to get Feb 15-23 for $79 each way from BDL to MCO. We were originally going to go the 17-24 but adjusted it for the cheaper fares.

 

[Terry in NJ]

My sister and I have been watching since August, everyday at some point either of us were checking.
She called me at 7:30 tonight and shouted, they opened up the flights on Southwest! Through March 31st!
We both were at our computers, credit cards in hand. We were able to get Philly to Mco, RT for 222. I am happy with that, but amazed that the two best fares sold out in like, 3 hours?????? geez. We got the best fare coming home at least.
HEY WE ARE BOOKED, WE ARE STAYING AT BOARDWALK, WE ARE READY TO ROLL!!!!

 

[Third times a charm]

I can't say I'm all that happy with my rates. I checked AirTran and JetBlue again. JetBlue would have been $50 more per person, and AirTran would have been $54 less PER PERSON I really didn't like getting back into BUF at 11:15 at night with AirTran though, so I bit the bullet and booked our 16 seats with SW. The times with SW are exactly what we wanted.

So the good news is we have our flights, the bad news is we will have to rework our budget a bit. I thought we could cut out the food, maybe. Do all the girls need to eat everyday, or could they take turns???

 

[Shelby5514]

We're going to Disney!

RT from Indy to MCO for $156!

 

[canwegosoon]

Should we start a new thread for April or just keep this one going and change the title?

I'll change the title if you like if I don't see a new thread in a day or two.

 

[gigi1313]

So the good news is we have our flights, the bad news is we will have to rework our budget a bit. I thought we could cut out the food, maybe. Do all the girls need to eat everyday, or could they take turns???

have you considered the dining plan (if you are staying onsite)? we found it to be a savings...

it kills me to pay $137 each way when i paid $49 in august... c'mon DING!

 

[lilstint]

Did anyone get any good prices for Presidents week; Feb. 17,18, 19 down to Orlando from Providence and Feb 24, 25, 26 coming back to Providence from Orlando? How about Tampa????

I had to have gotten into reservations very close to when they released as I was working on my computer and kept checking all the time. All I saw was an early flight back on the return for something less than full fare otherwise it was $204 plus taxes and fees each way. As stated above my guess too is that they never released many reduced fares.

Any lucky New Englanders out there?? Just curious.

Thanks, maminnie

By 1pm I was refreshing at 15 second intervals - so it is safe to say that I was on within 15 seconds of the schedule release. There was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from Albany for those dates except the highest "refundable anytime" fares! I never saw so much RED in my life! So, as I feared, unless something that I sure can't figure out happened, the low fares are never offered for those dates. We have several teacher in our family who cannot juggle dates so we were stuck as far as they were concerned.

 

[cocowum]

By 1pm I was refreshing at 15 second intervals - so it is safe to say that I was on within 15 seconds of the schedule release. There was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from Albany for those dates except the highest "refundable anytime" fares! I never saw so much RED in my life! So, as I feared, unless something that I sure can't figure out happened, the low fares are never offered for those dates.

I did the exact same thing and found nothing for Albany. I didn't book anything. I have a little flexibility in my dates, so I'll wait. Hopefully I'll get a good DING. If not, we'll drive.

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

If anyone does happen to see another SWA April watch list post besides this thread, could they post it here?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Holy Cow! I've never quite experienced anything like I did last night with SWA.

Have been waiting with the rest of you here. Went on yest afternoon and booked our own flights (PVD-MCO, around President's week). The friends we're traveling with went on an hour or so after us to book and they were not able to get the same flight home as us, was already full. Departing flight was avail at a good price, though, luckily. However, as we were discussing it on the phone, even that went away. This all occured in a couple of hours. I've been checking things for them ever since (even got up at 4am) but no luck.

So our friends are on the same flight down as us but at a much higher price; and they could not get the same flight as us home. They wanted non-stop so they'll have to wait until the end of the day to go home which will be rather difficult after a week long cruise preceded by 3 nights at WDW. My friend is also a teacher so the dates were pretty solid. I hope they add some more flights that day and/or perhaps lower their prices a bit. They still beat all the other airlines I checked that week, though, as well as have non-stop flights.

Quite a difference from last week when our family of four flew to WDW and back for $450, LOL.

 

[takemetoo]

Joan it looks like we're flighing out of PVD on the same day! I'm surprized at the number of RI fliers here. We're on the 5:45 or so flight. I'll have to wear something green incase any other disers are on my flight!

My dh is a teacher, too, but works for a private school so he's allowed to use personal days just before Pres week. I feel for all those who have to fly out that weekend.

Maybe we should do a RI roll call for Pres week?

 

[Muffy]

I bought 4 tickets from SW yesterday. We will be flying out of PVD to MCO for presidents week. The tickets were $204 ea. one way. Since Delta and Jet Blue wanted $600 R/T ea., I am happy to get these tickets for $408 ea plus tax. We got the times we wanted and non stop flights. We also got extra points by booking all the tickets one way. SW has a promotion right now that offers an extra point per OW ticket, not to exceed 3 points per person. It was no fun booking 8 OW tickets at 1pm yesterday though! It required logging in and logging out, etc. There is more info about this on www.flyertalk.com.

 

[2boyshere]

I was watching for a neighbor for Feb break, they were flexible and are going Wed 2/15 thru Wed 2/22. $653.40 for 4 of them with non-stops from ALB. They had a $560 credit so it's costing them $93 and change! Lucky, lucky now I wait for APRIL!

 

[canwegosoon]

For anyone planning April there is a seperate thread....Good luck to everyone

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Holy Cow! I've never quite experienced anything like I did last night with SWA.

Have been waiting with the rest of you here. Went on yest afternoon and booked our own flights (PVD-MCO, around President's week). The friends we're traveling with went on an hour or so after us to book and they were not able to get the same flight home as us, was already full. Departing flight was avail at a good price, though, luckily. However, as we were discussing it on the phone, even that went away. This all occured in a couple of hours. I've been checking things for them ever since (even got up at 4am) but no luck.

So our friends are on the same flight down as us but at a much higher price; and they could not get the same flight as us home. They wanted non-stop so they'll have to wait until the end of the day to go home which will be rather difficult after a week long cruise preceded by 3 nights at WDW. My friend is also a teacher so the dates were pretty solid. I hope they add some more flights that day and/or perhaps lower their prices a bit. They still beat all the other airlines I checked that week, though, as well as have non-stop flights.

Quite a difference from last week when our family of four flew to WDW and back for $450, LOL.

Wound up having better luck this morning. Checked the SWA site and found I could get our friends the cheaper rate for the flight down (saving them $352) as well as move them up to an earlier flight home. We were happy with that!

So overall feel we did pretty well considering the prices on other airlines which I've been checking too (almost all up above $2K, not ideal times and some with connecting flights only). End result: RT, non-stop flights for family of 4, at the times of our choices, around President's Week: under $1200 (our friends will have a SWA credit for the difference). It was kind of hairy booking this time but in the end it worked out very well.