LAS bookings the landscape may have changed

The landscape may have changed regarding flights to LAS. I was on the phone with SW and they told me that the window would open August 25 to book flights up until April 6 right now it's March 6. Then September 25 for May 6. This may be there new booking policy instead of months ahead of time. Will other carriers do the same I don't know. That being said this makes me think fares will be higher and stay that way. Time will tell. Of course comments are welcome.

 

I might be missing something, but I thought SWAs booking windows were about this length? What changed exactly?

 

No usually when the window opened it was for a couple of months. Not one month at a time. Hopefully,this clears it up.

 

I just checked on AA and can see flights up to late July 2015. And it looks like the mid-June 2015 rates aren't too bad, I might have to book something.

 

So you mean the window used to be 8 or 9 months when it first opened, now it's closer to 5 or 6?

I generally haven't seen a flight price for "cheap" 6+ months out personally, but then again I really don't look that far in advance either. One of my cheapest flights to Vegas ever was on SWA 10 days out.

 

Standard rule on booking is around 45 days out for optimal consumer price.

 

If they're going to go to a system where each month they open the schedule for another month, that's better than waiting every two or three months to open another two or three months or however they do it now.

 

Unfortunately, that number is an average of an average of an average. It's really meaningless by route and airline.

Flying to/from BOS, JetBlue's non-stops and the best Southwest flights always hit their best prices within a month of their schedule coming out.

I booked SW flights for the end of Jan/mid-Feb a week after the schedule came out and one of them has already gone up $25. JetBlue's morning non-stop on my planned departure date hit the buy point last week. I know it will never be lower, unfortunately, I can't buy it yet because I can't lock in my dates yet.

Not a problem with Southwest - buy now, re-book later, just like a hotel, the only exception being if you don't think you'd be able to use banked travel funds before they expire (in which case you're better off keeping the original fare because you'll get more points).

 

Southwest seems to be the only airline that waits as long as they do. Other airlines seem to open up schedules much farther in advance.

 

Most other airlines use a model that allows you to book up to 330 days in advance so every day, another day is opened up to see airfares. This change by SWA only affects SWA passengers and I honestly think it's a better way to do it than their old way and doesn't, in any way, indicate higher airfares.

 

Except for SWA, the industry standard used to be 330 days. But, since I've only flown SWA for the last 10+ years, that may have all changed.

 

I'm missing something here. If the window opens Aug 25th to book for April, that is 8 months out, which is a lot longer than you can currently book in advance.
In Sept, if it opens to May, that is again ~8 months. To me that is a big improvement over the current 4 month system.

 

Nothing has changed in that regard over the last 10+ years as the industry standard is still 330 days. At least for online bookings. I have heard of people booking more than a year in advance so I don't know if you can call and book somewhat earlier, but I'm sure you probably pay a premium for that if it is even possible.

 

Also, Southwest seems to change flights more than other airlines. I mean it seems like Frontier flight 431 has been there for years, but each time I take a Southwest flight it seems to be a different flight number and the exact take-off time seems to change quite a bit.

 

This. In fact, the window used to be much shorter. They go farther out now than they ever have.