Southwest already higher from last week?

Does anyone know the trends with Southwest as far as when they release their dates is right away usually lower? We got rates last week and they have already jumped today when we went to book. Do they usually go back down or is that a worthless guess?

Crap.

 

Sw has "sales" every week. They usually have 2 great ones a year. Last week was a st patties sale I believe. Just wait til next week for another "sale". Some of the sales will be no reduction in price for you but if your flight trip is more than 4 months away I would wait. When is your vacation.

 

It's a group of 50 for a wedding the trip is September 25. You think I'm fine still? I feel like I'm in meltdown mode and missed the good price

 

In my experience, the best SWA prices are usually about two months out or so. If you know the dates, it's best to just book and then rebook if the prices drop. Just check every week or so.

 

If you buy the web only deals ( cheapest deal) you can book now and rebook later but you will not be refunded. You will receive a credit and then you will have to fly somewhere to use that. The credit does expire too. My brothers wedding is in May and I held out until feb to book. I got 121 each way. They had 171 before. It's up to you bit you have some time. Don't stress. It's southwest they play a lot of sale tricks

 

[QUOT E=vokalml;924949]If you buy the web only deals ( cheapest deal) you can book now and rebook later but you will not be refunded. You will receive a credit and then you will have to fly somewhere to use that. The credit does expire too. My brothers wedding is in May and I held out until feb to book. I got 121 each way. They had 171 before. It's up to you bit you have some time. Don't stress. It's southwest they play a lot of sale tricks[/QUOTE]
do you get refunded the whole amount or just the difference? Say I was ably to find something for 200 less do they refund voucher the whole trip or the 200 I would have saved?

 

Just the price difference is credited and you have one year to use it.

 

do you get refunded the whole amount or just the difference? Say I was ably to find something for 200 less do they refund voucher the whole trip or the 200 I would have saved?[/QUOTE]

Whenever you change your itinerary on SW, you basically get the entire original purchase price back in the form of a credit. You then can apply a portion of that towards the new lower fare.
Remember, however that the credit is only available for 1 year from the original purchase date.
SW had a sale today where the price for my Sept. trip went down to $199 for the return but still $298 to get out to Vegas. It's early, so I can wait, but if your making wedding plans, maybe better to be safe then sorry.

 

Thanks for the clarification. See that's my stress right now it's only $35 higher than last week. Is it worth it? Mini Meltdown. Haha

 

I have been checking airfare daily as I wanted to take full advantage of comp rooms available during a limited time window. I was psyched to see Southwest @ $130 less round-trip than it has been, so I booked it this morning.

But Southwest changes so often, I'd be inclined to keep watching if you are not happy with the fare. Given your options, I'd probably want to fly Southwest. It's not my first choice by any means, but the best non-stop for me.

 

You have given no information about your desired flight.

Fare fluctuations vary greatly by market, season, and day of the week.

The only person who is going to be able to give you useful fare information is somebody who flies from the same city.

 

Southwest can go from 59 to 200+ in one day then 2 days later drop back to around 59 from Denver there is no typical cycle or best time I buy when it's a price I can live with then watch daily to see if it drops. If it is a really busy time in Vegas like superbowl ect prices rarely drop and sit fairly high less then 4-6 weeks out. This is my experience from Denver only your airport may differ.

 

I have a sense of what it will cost since I go to a trade show each year about the same time. They start out high and then drop a bit. Go to their homepage and look at their travel calendar. It will give yu the lowest prices and then check. As stated already some days are cheaper like tues, wed and sat. Some times are cheaper. This year when I though the price wouldn't get better I got a good price by taking a late flight sand took an earlier one back. I figure the price wasn't going to come down but I might be able to get a better flight time for the same price and I'd rebook. If you need a hotel check Southwestvacations.com. If you save some $$ it's good but your are not as flexible with regard to changing flights. Most of us do better booking separately. Incidently, better times dis become available on my atrip but I didn't have time to change them. Some prices are offered and withdrawn within hours! Good luck!

Jimbo338

 

10 or more people would qualify for group travel rates on SWA, far more flexible than standard rates as to payment/name changes. Check out the SWA site for details.

If you need to cancel a flight for a person, the credit vouchers on SWA run with the person for whom the travel was booked, i.e. not necessarily the same person who purchased it (expect if they utilized reward points/vouchers, then they would revert to the original account).

fyi, best rates/sales tend to roll out on Tuesdays but I've seen flights change quickly and sometimes only sale prices for 1 or 2 passengers.

 

Just speculation on my part, but I don't think there will be a sale of any magnitude until after the point devaluation. I expect there to be a pretty good sale shortly after. How far out it will go is anybody's guess. It is awfully early for any sales in September though. I have booked a flight for Sept, even though the price is higher than normal, simply to use my points before they are worth less. It will be interesting to see if any price drops offset the point loss.

 

booked last week for our september trip. 17xxx points for round trip. east coast - vegas. lowest points we spend in the last 2 yrs. but maybe it's just that we booked later the last years.

 

I check daily and am glad I booked 5 months out. I booked in December for May and they have not dropped since. I booked yesterday for August because the prices were all higher than I'm used to and I wanted a flight before noon. I will actually book October as soon as NFL schedules are released in April.

I have always been able to get MSP-LAS round trip for around 10-11k points, but now I am looking at 14k minimum if I am lucky. I am not sure what that equates to in cash price, but I am not impressed when I am booking so far ahead...

 

And that 14K will go up to over 16K next month, even if the prices don't jump. 14K is approximately $272 in fares if you paid for them (including taxes). That is what I am paying for my trips in June and Sept from SEA. That will be the most I have ever paid if it doesn't come down, but it will save me over $120 in points over the devalue rate.

 

I think it all depends. I just checked this morning, a number of flights are now $69 one way. They were around $102 yesterday. Unfortunately the return flight is still at $102. I think I will book the $69 now and hope that the rates go down on the return flight (I'm going to vegas in June so have a couple of months to wait on it).

 

Our Sept. trip started out at $462 R/T. It finally dropped to $400 R/T last week. Currently $400 is the cheapest route they offer so we bought our tickets right away. Air is higher and I haven't seen as much flucation as in years past. $400 is quite a bit higher than i've ever had to pay also.

At this point as long as you're comfortable with the price i'd buy and check back on occasion for a deal.