Prices on Southwest Airlines

[6rugrats]

You can sign up on Southwest to get alerts when a new schedule is being released.

[Ashland]

6 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

They haven’t announced. I’d expect at least September. 

Thank you. I'll check occasionally.

[Ashland]

1 hour ago, 6rugrats said:

You can sign up on Southwest to get alerts when a new schedule is being released.

Thanks....just hate to sign up for things and get unwanted emails.

[soonernstlouis]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

Thanks....just hate to sign up for things and get unwanted emails.

Ashland, you are always posting helpful things.  Hope this link helps you since you don’t want to know about SWAs weekly “sales”.

 

https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-schedules/

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, soonernstlouis said:

Ashland, you are always posting helpful things.  Hope this link helps you since you don’t want to know about SWAs weekly “sales”.

 

https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-schedules/

Thank you so very much for saying so...I always try to return the favor hopefully in some small way for all the help I've been given over the years.

I much appreciate the link...very helpful.

[JTBCruiser]

On 6/1/2019 at 9:02 AM, FlyerTalker said:

Here's the first part of the "code".  Don't automatically wait until Southwest pricing is released.

 

Further instructions after you get that first part down pat.

 

OK, with you so far, what's the next step to get the better pricing flying out of STL 

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, JTBCruiser said:

OK, with you so far, what's the next step to get the better pricing flying out of STL 

 

Next step: Recognize that there is no quick fix or simple process to get good pricing.

 

Next step: Do your research.  If you know that you will be taking a particular route on some kind of regular basis (even if just once or twice a year), look at what pricing is for various times, dates, routes and carriers.   ITA matrix can help you look at trends and overall costs.  Develop reasonable expectations on what ticket prices you will buy.

 

Next step: Remember Econ 101.  Supply and demand.  Ticket prices respond to market forces.  When there are times of greater demand (such as holiday periods, or even on "cruise day"), expect to pay more.  Be happy if you don't.  Also know that these market forces work within a day.   Folks want those convenient times.  They want non-stops or timely connections.  That's market demand.  And you will often pay for those "benefits" simply because you aren't the only one who wants that.

 

Next step: Take those factors and process into a rational, reasonable plan and strategy for your purchase.  Decide what is the acceptable range of prices that you would buy.  What you would accept in terms of times and routings.  And seriously evaluate your risk tolerance.   Would you risk prices going up by X dollars, in the hope that it will decline by Y.  If you can't afford the risk of higher prices, will you buy at the one you have "in hand"?

 

Next step:  Understand that you never know if you got the "best price" for a ticket.  That price point is only known once the boarding door closes and the flight is leaving.  Until then, pricing is a dynamic process with no set "timing points".  So focus on getting a price that you are comfortable with - and understand the inherent risks in trying to squeeze those last few dollars of "savings".

 

Next step:  If all that is too much work to process, buy your ticket on the early morning 60 days before your flight, at precisely 3:01 am Eastern time.  The Internet says that's the best time for domestic flights.  For international, make that 72 days.  :)

 

 

[Zach1213]

20 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Next step:  Understand that you never know if you got the "best price" for a ticket.  That price point is only known once the boarding door closes and the flight is leaving.  Until then, pricing is a dynamic process with no set "timing points".  So focus on getting a price that you are comfortable with - and understand the inherent risks in trying to squeeze those last few dollars of "savings".

 

 

Understand the normal person will NEVER know if they got the lowest or highest price on any given flight, even after the door closes. It's like buying a car...you have no idea if the person who purchased that CR-V before you got it for the same price, a higher price, or a lower price. All you know is what YOU paid for it, and that's all you can control. You want that CR-V, but you're going to have to decide if the price they're offering is within your budget and if you find it fair. If not, you need to find a different car to buy.

[Hawaiidan]

On 5/30/2019 at 11:12 AM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

They might not open cheap seats at all - they have no obligation to offer cheap pricing!🙂

Airlines are going to 'Demand Pricing"   the demand sets the price and as demand rises so does the price.   If the Demand to San Juan  is high .... there is no rational business reason to offer cheap seats...why if there is massive traffic  you do not need to cut your profits..... but take advantage       If  you have a donut shop and make 50 donuts a day and every day you have 100 people wanting donuts you can price  what the market will bear. ..not cut the price !

[Globaliser]

13 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

Airlines are going to 'Demand Pricing"   the demand sets the price and as demand rises so does the price.

 

This is not an innovation. This is exactly how airlines have worked for decades.

[travelplus]

I'll add my 2 cents.   At the time when SW recently opened their schedule through January 5th I looked at flights  from TPA-SJC for  our  return from our B2B Trans Atlantic Cruise SJC-PHX-SJC for our Winter Break and a flight for myself from SJC-LAX-SJC in July.  The fares were reasonable but I waited and there was  an Anniversary Sale.

 

In the interim I was playing around with various websites including Cruise Air and Expedia.

From TPA-SJC I booked my Parents and I for $206 with bags. I will avoid Basic Economy at all costs. For $206 we have  2 days in Tampa with a 5:35 PM flight leaving TPA via PHX arriving SJC at 10:50 PM.  On Cruise Air they wanted $260  and Expedia $190 in Basic Economy with no bags and the potential of middle seats.

 

 

For SJC-LAX-SJC I booked r/t $107 with Alaska being $1 cheaper with no bags and Basic Economy with the same schedule.

 

SJC-PHX-SJC is $260 r/t with the SW Card $200 signup bonus I go tit for $140 per person with bags.. While we have an early flight home on the return I am still looking for later flights that are going for the same cost. The 11:45 AM SJC Departure arriving at 2:35 PM works perfectly and we have the 6:55 AM Departure but we save $$$. Flexibility is key.

Already I got price reductions on SW for use for the future. $20 off the PHX Flights and $4 off the TPA flights which I got by hawking the site.

 

You have nothing to lose by booking SW as you can switch to better timings or get fare decreases as time goes on. 

 

 

[travelplus]

On 5/31/2019 at 6:31 AM, Globaliser said:

 

Presumably you mean "the same price as everyone else now".

 

Sometimes, at earlier times in the booking cycle other airlines' prices were lower than they or Southwest are now. So maybe you could have got a ticket for (say) $200 on another airline a month ago, but now you have a choice between a $300 ticket on that airline or a $350 ticket on Southwest.

 

Southwest doesn't promise that its tickets will be cheaper than other airlines' tickets, nor does it promise that its cheapest fares will be available on all flights. Nevertheless, a lot of the market seems to have convinced itself that these are immutable truths about Southwest - and therefore wait for Southwest to open for bookings regardless of what other airlines are offering in the interim.

But Southwest has Early Bird Checkin which automatically checks you in. There is no Basic Economy and if you check in at the 24 hour mark more than likely you will not have a middle seat. There are no charges for sitting in the Emergency Exit or Bulkhead Rows.  They have some of the best prices for their Beer,Wine and Cocktails.   They offer free Bring Your Own IFE.  

 

Their legroom is better than most other airlines in Y and have the widest Y seats.   I will fly SW before flying Basic Economy anyday.

[travelplus]

One other benefit to Southwest. Say your cruise is cancelled,delayed  or diverted to another port.  I can cancel my SW flight up to 10 minutes to departure and get Travel Credits and immediately book a new flight. Yes it may be more $$$ but at least I don't pay the $200 stupid change fee other airlines do.

 

Again you can cancel nonrefundable tickets up to 10 minutes before departure and mileage reservations return your miles with no redeposit fee.   To me this is worth it. 

 

Name one airline in the world that does this!   Spirit and Allegiant are more expensive than SW with everything included.

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by travelplus

[fbgd]

9 minutes ago, travelplus said:

Again you can cancel nonrefundable tickets up to 10 minutes before departure and mileage reservations return your miles with no redeposit fee.   To me this is worth it. 

 

Name one airline in the world that does this!

 

Err, tons of them will allow this.

[travelplus]

Just now, fbgd said:

 

Err, tons of them will allow this.

Really? Which airlines? 

[Algebralovr]

One thing to remember is to use a private viewing window when looking at airline prices.  I’ve gotten a price, come back later and has it go up, then looked from a different computer and it was less.

 

[Zach1213]

11 hours ago, Algebralovr said:

One thing to remember is to use a private viewing window when looking at airline prices.  I’ve gotten a price, come back later and has it go up, then looked from a different computer and it was less.

 

 

I have really never seen any hard evidence of this, and I book countless numbers of flights each years (125,000+ BIS miles for myself, plus I book for many others too, all totaling probably 400,000+ BIS miles each year). On the surface, it might make sense to "nudge people" to book out of fear, but in reality it would likely just push someone to check other airlines and find a lower fare. I think United would rather get $200 from you rather than offer $200 one time, $225 the next time and push you to search and find that American is charging $215.

[FlyerTalker]

13 hours ago, Algebralovr said:

One thing to remember is to use a private viewing window when looking at airline prices.  I’ve gotten a price, come back later and has it go up, then looked from a different computer and it was less.

 

Another urban legend.  It completely fails to understand the dynamic nature of airline pricing - where inventory in various buckets can change in the blink of an eye - in either direction.

[slidergirl]

On 6/22/2019 at 9:40 PM, travelplus said:

But Southwest has Early Bird Checkin which automatically checks you in. There is no Basic Economy and if you check in at the 24 hour mark more than likely you will not have a middle seat. There are no charges for sitting in the Emergency Exit or Bulkhead Rows.  They have some of the best prices for their Beer,Wine and Cocktails.   They offer free Bring Your Own IFE.  

 

Their legroom is better than most other airlines in Y and have the widest Y seats.   I will fly SW before flying Basic Economy anyday.

but, you pay extra over the price for Early Bird, right?      I don't do WN because they are always more expensive than my preferred airline out of my home airport and I'm in no mood to drive 6 hours just to save $25...

[sumiandkage]

8 minutes ago, slidergirl said:

but, you pay extra over the price for Early Bird, right?      I don't do WN because they are always more expensive than my preferred airline out of my home airport and I'm in no mood to drive 6 hours just to save $25...

 

The times I've flown Southwest, I've also gone with Early Bird because I've typically been at a national park with spotty to no cell access at T-24 on the return. Current pricing on it is pretty much what the Legacy 3 charge for the first checked bag now so it's not like WN doesn't hit you with the fees coming and going as well and the fees rather even out in the end. The 'no change fee' line also tends to obscure that you still pay any fare differences when you change a ticket and changing a ticket that had been bought with a Wanna Get Away far bucket to one in an 'Anytime' or 'Business Select' fare, which are sometimes the only ticket types left close in, can actually end up costing more than change fee + more moderate repricing on a Legacy 3 carrier. 

 

And at least with Legacy 3, it's simple to get first bag fee waivers via entry level status or credit card with a low annual fee regardless of how much you paid (or didn't for award flights) for the ticket. I had something like $500 of waived bag fees last year due to the Amex Gold Skymiles credit card with a $95 annual fee. 

[Zach1213]

1 hour ago, sumiandkage said:

 

The times I've flown Southwest, I've also gone with Early Bird because I've typically been at a national park with spotty to no cell access at T-24 on the return.

 

Yeah it's always a flight-by-flight determination for me. If I know I'm going to busy with meetings, on a ship, in a national park, etc. 24 hours before my flight, I'll pop for the early bird. Or if it's like a 5:10am flight (which I did recently)...I'm a morning person, but frankly I'm usually at the gym at 5:10am so I will go ahead and pop the money. However, I'll do whatever it takes to NOT have to do early bird...I would say I do it about 30% of the time, and skip it about 70%.