YIKES! SW prices keeping going UP!

[crazymomof4]

A few weekends ago I was browsing flights for our Jan/Feb trip (PHL to MCO) and flights/times I wanted were $89. Kicking myself for not booking then bc ever since they've been rising!
Currently at $142 for departing and $112 for return!
Geez!
This is the first time we've flown in winter so not sure what the pricing patterns are for this time of year.

What are the chances they will drop again?

 

[Jestocost]

I don't know about that time of year or about competition on that route but for us SWA fares almost never go down. Of course we generally travel at peak times and SWA is the only carrier operating non-stop flights between STL and MCO so that may account for the lack of discounting. YMMV.

 

[AngiTN]

A few weekends ago I was browsing flights for our Jan/Feb trip (PHL to MCO) and flights/times I wanted were $89. Kicking myself for not booking then bc ever since they've been rising!
Currently at $142 for departing and $112 for return!
Geez!
This is the first time we've flown in winter so not sure what the pricing patterns are for this time of year.

What are the chances they will drop again?

What is your departure? We fly out of Atlanta and the fares from there seem to change daily. Up/down/up/down.

 

[crazymomof4]

departure 1/28 return 2/4 (that's flexible)
I just read this and I'm feeling a bit hopeful. It's not about SW specifically but airfares in general
http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-tips/travelers-ed/want-the-lowest-fare-heres-when-to-book

 

[richmo]

Especially with Southwest, grab fares when you can. You can always take the credit if the fare goes down after you book (for use on a future flight, the drawback being that you have to fly within one year of your booking date). But, you're right, overall fares seem to be rising...just don't wait too long.

 

[crazymomof4]

Especially with Southwest, grab fares when you can. You can always take the credit if the fare goes down after you book (for use on a future flight, the drawback being that you have to fly within one year of your booking date). But, you're right, overall fares seem to be rising...just don't wait too long.

Sure wish I'd have booked that Sun night when they were $89! What held me back was that it was after midnight, I'd had a glass of wine and was really tired and was afraid I'd make a silly mistake in the booking process. Darn wine!!

 

[crazymomof4]

Going to leave a tab open with SW homepage so I remember to check daily. If SW stays high, there's always Frontier as 2nd choice. Not the best times or my fav airline but......

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

HUM.. my SWA for next week went down yesterday and I snagged the lower rate. Pays to look daily

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Sure wish I'd have booked that Sun night when they were $89! What held me back was that it was after midnight, I'd had a glass of wine and was really tired and was afraid I'd make a silly mistake in the booking process. Darn wine!!

You do have 24hrs after booking on SWA to cancel and get a full refund not a credit for a future flight but rather a 100% refund.

 

[crazymomof4]

HUM.. my SWA for next week went down yesterday and I snagged the lower rate. Pays to look daily

You can bet that I will be from here on out! According to reports by CheapoAir others, the "sweet spot" for best airfare rates is 104-30 days out. I'm at 102 today. So I'm going to be on the hunt!

 

[kydisneyfans]

HUM.. my SWA for next week went down yesterday and I snagged the lower rate. Pays to look daily

I just received a sizable credit on my flight for Nov 3. Was very surprised to see the price drop this morning.
Now we're considering whether to fly into a different airport for DL in January. SNA is $160, but ONT and BUR are both $129. LAX is $154 but I would rather avoid that one.
Our April flight to Orlando that was $387 2 weeks ago is now $94. I jumped on that price within seconds.

It definitely pays to check daily, and just after 8:00 PM seems to be the sweet spot for us.

 

[Sandi]

Our flights went down yesterday, so I now have a credit. Not much, but it will go toward a Spring Break trip.

 

[sam_gordon]

departure 1/28 return 2/4 (that's flexible)
I just read this and I'm feeling a bit hopeful. It's not about SW specifically but airfares in general
http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-tips/travelers-ed/want-the-lowest-fare-heres-when-to-book

Some quotes from your article...

While it's all well and good to aim for a booking date of 54 days in advance of your trip, keep in mind that these ideal booking periods are averages, based on heaps upon heaps of individual flights, and lots of other factors come into play such as seasonality and holidays.

CheapAir notes that the data from millions of flights and billions of price changes tends to smooth out volatility on specific flights, but when you look at price changes on a single flight, it becomes almost impossible to recommend a specific day to purchase.

You do have 24hrs after booking on SWA to cancel and get a full refund not a credit for a future flight but rather a 100% refund.

I think every airline does that, even Spirit.

Another suggestion is to not use your normal browser window to look for flights. In Chrome, use "incognito" mode. Firefox calls it a "private" window, and I don't know how to do it on IE. This supposedly makes so the airline thinks it's an original request as opposed to your PC knowing (via cookies) that you're looking multiple times a day.

I personally use https://www.google.com/flights/?f=0. No, they won't search Southwest, but SW doesn't fly into my home airport.

 

[crazymomof4]

OK thanks
I am familiar with all the "incognito" and "private" browsers since I do swagbucks
I never knew that would make a difference! Thanks for the tip!

 

[3darlings]

I happened to check last night on SW and some fares from Philly have dropped significantly. I was able to grab a $59 fare from MCO to PHL the second week in January. I haven't seen $59 fares in a long time. There was a number of different days with flights at this fare. Interestingly enough, our fare for our flights down went up from last week when I booked them. So as previous posters indicated, always good to keep checking with SW.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

One thing I would keep in mind is SWA runs sales a lot. I don't know your exact situation but it could have been that the $89 was part of a sale. If so once the sales ends or they have sold X number of seats at the sale price then the price will change.

 

[crazymomof4]

I happened to check last night on SW and some fares from Philly have dropped significantly. I was able to grab a $59 fare from MCO to PHL the second week in January. I haven't seen $59 fares in a long time. There was a number of different days with flights at this fare. Interestingly enough, our fare for our flights down went up from last week when I booked them. So as previous posters indicated, always good to keep checking with SW.

Came on to say....
I just BOOKED our flights! The original flights I was pricing only came down $3-4 since I originally posted. Today I checked an email from SW about a sale. Didn't apply to my original flights but I was able to look at the calendars and tweek my dates (to mid-week flights) AND.... my wonderful, loving DH (who is not coming on this trip) said he'd get up at 3:30am to drive us to the airport on departure day. Isn't he the best??
Soooooo....
I got $54 flights each way!!!!
Another little compromise is that we arrive back in Philly at 3:10pm so we will have to hang out at the airport for 2hrs or so til DH gets off work and can come pick us up.
Happy to have secured our flights at such a great rate and on SW!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Came on to say....
I just BOOKED our flights! The original flights I was pricing only came down $3-4 since I originally posted. Today I checked an email from SW about a sale. Didn't apply to my original flights but I was able to look at the calendars and tweek my dates (to mid-week flights) AND.... my wonderful, loving DH (who is not coming on this trip) said he'd get up at 3:30am to drive us to the airport on departure day. Isn't he the best??
Soooooo....
I got $54 flights each way!!!!
Another little compromise is that we arrive back in Philly at 3:10pm so we will have to hang out at the airport for 2hrs or so til DH gets off work and can come pick us up.
Happy to have secured our flights at such a great rate and on SW!

Now that's a good deal!!

 

[Timothy02359]

We fly Southwest alot, if you keep checking they will drop for a day or 2 then go back up. Usually on tues or wed in morning is when they drop... that seems to be their pattern.

 

[Timothy02359]

I happened to check last night on SW and some fares from Philly have dropped significantly. I was able to grab a $59 fare from MCO to PHL the second week in January. I haven't seen $59 fares in a long time. There was a number of different days with flights at this fare. Interestingly enough, our fare for our flights down went up from last week when I booked them. So as previous posters indicated, always good to keep checking with SW.

My wife just booked PHL to MCO for 37$ a few days ago for Nov. Orginally we booked at 87$ then rebooked at lower price...it pays to keep checking.