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When does Southwest begin to sell tickets for December, 2018 flight?


MaiseyM
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Just to be clear, is Southwest half the price that other airlines are charging when Southwest bookings open, or is Southwest half the price that you could have paid on another airline several months before Southwest bookings open?

 

 

 

It's one thing to say that Southwest is now charging $300 for flights on the route when it would now cost $600 to book on another airline.

 

 

 

But what if you could have booked that other airline for $200 at an earlier time?

 

 

 

For us we much prefer to fly southwest, so I normally don’t look at other airlines. My in laws are cruising with us and already booked their flights out of Philadelphia on American. So I looked and both American and delta are really high, so I will happily wait until southwest comes out. We have the southwest credit card so we generally have points plus a companion pass, so we are happy to wait.

 

 

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Thank you all. I have looked at SW website and I can't tell when they will release Xmas travel dates. I question if they really will be that much less expensive than the other airlines. I typically have to pay about $6-700 per person at this time, since it's high season (Xmas, NYE, Saturday to Saturday). My gut says that Southwest can't be that much cheaper to make it worth waiting. That said, they will fly direct most likely and the other airlines all have stops somewhere. I wonder if the rates on other airlines (American, Delta...) are going to go up a lot by the time Southwest releases their flights. Right now they are starting at the low 600s per person.

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Thank you all. I have looked at SW website and I can't tell when they will release Xmas travel dates. I question if they really will be that much less expensive than the other airlines. I typically have to pay about $6-700 per person at this time, since it's high season (Xmas, NYE, Saturday to Saturday). My gut says that Southwest can't be that much cheaper to make it worth waiting. That said, they will fly direct most likely and the other airlines all have stops somewhere. I wonder if the rates on other airlines (American, Delta...) are going to go up a lot by the time Southwest releases their flights. Right now they are starting at the low 600s per person.

 

It's too late now but I would have looked at this last year to see what the price of the flights was same time in 2017 in December.

 

It all comes down to supply and demand.

 

Nothing is perfect.

 

Do factor in a couple of things with Southwest.

 

You can check in two pieces of luggage at no extra cost.

 

You can cancel your flight and use the money for another flight as long as you take the flight within one year from the time you booked the original one.

 

And if the schedule is an optimal one that is a benefit.

 

One of the down-sides is the way they release their schedule. At the same time they have learned that this provides them with lots of flexibility to assess how to set the fares and also allows them to optimize their schedules based on various factors including the competition.

 

Keith

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Just to be clear, is Southwest half the price that other airlines are charging when Southwest bookings open, or is Southwest half the price that you could have paid on another airline several months before Southwest bookings open?

 

It's one thing to say that Southwest is now charging $300 for flights on the route when it would now cost $600 to book on another airline.

 

But what if you could have booked that other airline for $200 at an earlier time?

 

I do check other airlines and I haven't found them to be cheaper. This is just my personal experience based on where I fly from. For example, the normal Southwest fare from MCO to SJU is $124 each way when they are first released. This is non-stop with free bags. So the total fare is less than $250 per person.

 

I'm looking at November 17 to fly from MCO to SJU and November 24 to return from SJU to MCO. Currently, there are ZERO nonstop flights using Delta or American Airlines and the cheapest one stop flight is $906 per person round trip. I always check spirit and jetblue as well but neither of those have released fares yet. Like I said, this is just my opinion. I have flown to SJU several times over the last few years and Southwest has always given me the best price. There is no way that the SW price will be more than $906 per person when it is released in a few months and if it is, I will cancel my trip.

 

As far as the OP, the best thing is to look at the SW calendar for flexible dates. Check out the "normal" price for what they charge from where you want to fly to where you are going. You can expect it to be a little higher based on it being Christmas. Then you should have a pretty good idea about booking ahead or waiting.

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We fly both SW and Delta. Just wanted to point out if you are taking a family trip on Delta just get a Delta AMEX gold card. Gives you one free bag for every person in your party. Card may have $75 annual fee but it saves you more in luggage fees.

 

 

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One thing that potentially could mess with Southwest release dates is their attempts to line up their Hawaii flights. Some of that is out of their hands as they try to get their planes certified, and when they are ready to go with it, they'll want to have their schedule coordinated to the Hawaii gateway cities. I've seen some speculation that calendar opening dates might not follow the same patterns as prior years to deal with this, but it's all speculation.

 

With respect to prices, I have noticed that airlines that compete on certain routes with Southwest often (not always) price their flights on similar routes pretty high when they have the competitive advantage of Southwest not having released dates yet, and then those prices often drop -- sometimes lower than Southwest -- once Southwest's schedules come out. I noticed this around Thanksgiving last year. American flights out of Phoenix were quite high -- I'd say unreasonably so -- but almost as soon as Southwest's schedule opened, things loosened up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Last couple of years according to flyertalk:

 

Through November 4, 2016: February 18, 2016

Through January 4, 2017: May 19, 2016

 

Through November 3, 2017: Mar. 17, 2017

Through January 7, 2018: May 18, 2017

 

Southwest has announced they will open the schedule through November 3 on March 8, 2018, so a bit earlier than last year but a bit later than the year before.

 

At that point, if past history is a guide, it won't be until May that Thanksgiving through New Years 2018-19 get posted.

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Thank you! That helps. I wish they would post now. I would rather do Southwest b/c they are direct flight and don't have luggage fees, but I am worried that I am missing out on not getting something now. I'll have to set my alarm for when they go on sale. Thanks for the info.

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They are already behind that schedule thought. They aren’t releasing thru November 3 until March 8.

 

Which is earlier than similarly in 2017 and later than similarly in 2016. Exactly as posted before.

 

So how they are "already behind" is difficult for me to understand. Do you have access to internal WN scheduling details?

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OK. Today is the day. I was told that they start booking May 31. I read somewhere on here that they start at 5AM Eastern time. Sadly, I am awake, no sales yet. ;) I called them, they said 10AM Central Time. That seems late, compared to the last December tix I bought. I remember them selling fast at 7AM Eastern time. I'll keep trying today.

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I keep refreshing. I called a few times, just in case. Next person told me that there is no set time. He said they are just uploading all the flights and we just have to wait and keep trying. The next guy told me that we can see the flights faster than he can on their end at Southwest. Go figure. I'll keep trying. I have 5 tix at the highest season (xmas), hence my focus on getting these soon. It may not be any cheaper than the commercial airlines, but at least we get some free luggage and direct flights.

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Done! Got it. I saved about $200 per person ($1K in my case), free luggage, and one direct flight! While I prefer the assigned seats on other commercial airlines, I'll take this. Flying to Florida at Xmas time isn't a cheap flight. Worth waking up early.

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For us, South West was more expensive than either Jet Blu or United so we are not flying with them this year. Their schedule was really bad too, the non stop flight was at 5:00 AM going and 8:00 AM returning.

 

 

 

We thought this last time and booked with spirit bc the price was cheaper. We ended up having to pay $50 per bag per way. We both had one bag and it ended up costing us an extra $200. So make sure you consider the cost of luggage when determining if one is better than the other. Looking back, I could have saved money by booking the higher fare on southwest.

 

 

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