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Southwest Question

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blkshirt

blkshirt

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Oct 24, 2016
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Cleveland
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I used to fly Southwest a little bit for work, now basically strictly United.

When United merged with Continental I knew those of us that fly out of Cleveland would get screwed eventually. Three years later that happened with the de-valuing of CLE as a hub. Now we've lost the big direct flights to Vegas and other spots I'd travel to.

So, Southwest, Sprit and Frontier are the only ones that fly direct to Vegas. I won't fly the others, only Southwest. So when I had been looking at June flights I could get 2 tickets for right at $800 round trip. Perfect! I didn't buy them. Check today, almost $1000. So, I had heard that there were certain days of the week that it was better to purchase on SW than others. I can't find anything quickly so I thought I'd throw it out here.

Thanks in advance!

Is it June yet???!?!?!?!?!?
 
No sure about the right time of the week but with sw if you find a price you like book it.

You can change for free and get a credit that you can use within 1 year from when you originally booked.

When I book a sw flight I may it a point to check daily if I can.
 
Low fare days, in my experience, are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Also, it has to be 14 days in advance, or the "Wanna Get Away" fares go away.
 
Are you talking about day you buy or day you fly?

Day you buy is very unlikely to matter. My experience with southwest rates is that they are pretty stable and predictable. If a price goes up, a lot of tickets have been sold.

As for days of the week, I tend to find Southwest has a base price for a route for any day, but it will go up as they sell, and certain dates will sell faster.

If your dates are flexible, maybe look at their fare calendar?
 
Sorry, I should have been more clear.

Day of the week I book. I know various days are higher volume and thus higher prices. We were going to fly out on Sunday, June 11 and back on Thursday, June 15th but Saturday's flights were so much less expensive and even with paying for a room on the weekend (I couldn't get anything comped with MGM since we hardly play there), we decided to push things up to Sat (10th) to Wed (14th).

The price went up last Friday, but then came back down again. I'm hoping I can get it for $799 for two people and then grab it. $400 per person to Vegas out of Cleveland is about as good as it's going to get. Right now it's $951, which isn't horrible, but not $799.

We are locked in on those dates as my wife teaches and this is a group trip. So the low rate calendar won't really help here...

We really want to be there for a Sunday Brunch (I'm thinking Cosmo or Wynn) and there's no early Saturday direct flight out of Cleveland.
 
With those restrictions, you're kind of hosed. The day you buy (IMHO) doesn't matter as long as you're further out than 14 days. Inside 14 days, your "really" hosed, because "Wanna Get Away" fares are pretty much gone.
 
So are you only looking for a morning flight out? Looks like 850 if you take the saturday evening flight.
 
DaiLun said:
With those restrictions, you're kind of hosed. The day you buy (IMHO) doesn't matter as long as you're further out than 14 days. Inside 14 days, your "really" hosed, because "Wanna Get Away" fares are pretty much gone.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I figured. Damn it!

Nevyn said:
So are you only looking for a morning flight out? Looks like 850 if you take the saturday evening flight.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we have two kids and my parents and the in-laws are watching them. So we'd rather take a morning flight and have the whole day. I did see that and thought about it. Seems like a lot of the group may go home Tuesday (rather than Wednesday) and it's cheaper to do that. We want the extra night as 4 days is what we enjoy. 3 was too short on New Years.
 
Yeah, then I'd just book.

Then if the prices do drop, get a credit for the difference if you are likely to fly again in the coming months.
 
As said, Southwest has been profitable for a very long time, even with (sometimes) low fares. Part of that is being smart on pricing. High demand means higher prices. As said above, going forward - book a flight the day you see it. Unlike the others, you can change it easily.

Southwest has to make up for the lack of baggage revenue and the money other airlines make with heavy change fees and non refundable flights.
 
If you exclusively fly SW, you may consider their visa credit card. I`ve used it for many years and has worked well. There
are many pros and cons on the points usage vs cash back, but that`s whole other discussion. Of course pay it off monthly.
I fly to Vegas 3-4 times a year and like I said, it works for me.
Flying Tues or Weds are normally the cheapest days, times of day, and direct flight make a difference.
 
It varies by market. If you really wanna get a feel, you have to look at prices every day for a couple of years. I'm not kidding.

Southwest runs "sales" every week starting Tuesday mornings. The markets and routes that get price breaks vary every week. And just because they say that week's sale is for dates between A and B doesn't mean the price didn't drop the same day on a flight two months later than B.

And I've seen price drops on flights out of BOS happen on Saturdays a lot. And even the occasional Sunday.

The only thing anybody outside your market can tell you is that generally, Tue-Wed-Thu are the cheapest days to fly.
 
mcander said:
If you exclusively fly SW, you may consider their visa credit card. I`ve used it for many years and has worked well. There
are many pros and cons on the points usage vs cash back, but that`s whole other discussion. Of course pay it off monthly.
I fly to Vegas 3-4 times a year and like I said, it works for me.
Flying Tues or Weds are normally the cheapest days, times of day, and direct flight make a difference.
Click to expand...

Of course, getting the 50,000 or so for opening the card does net a few free flights. And if your spouse opens one, there is another and if a business, then another.

Still have some miles left from getting two cards a year or so ago.
 
You also might want to try just looking for 1 ticket at a time. I have noticed that the price for 1 ticket may be a lower price and when I search for 2 tickets the price goes up slightly.

- Linda in TX
 
mcander said:
If you exclusively fly SW, you may consider their visa credit card. I`ve used it for many years and has worked well. There
are many pros and cons on the points usage vs cash back, but that`s whole other discussion. Of course pay it off monthly.
I fly to Vegas 3-4 times a year and like I said, it works for me.
Flying Tues or Weds are normally the cheapest days, times of day, and direct flight make a difference.
Click to expand...
We do fly exclusively on SWA. We have received 300,000 miles applying for the cards. 3 each for the three levels of cards and now just got a business card back in December for another 50,000.

Out of Milwaukee, SWA flies non-stop to Vegas, Seattle, Phoenix, San Diego, Ft Lauderdale and Boston. The places we like to go. After coming into the Milwaukee market about ~10 years ago, they now have the biggest market share. Something like 60%.
 
LindaP said:
You also might want to try just looking for 1 ticket at a time. I have noticed that the price for 1 ticket may be a lower price and when I search for 2 tickets the price goes up slightly.

- Linda in TX
Click to expand...

This happens with all airlines that I know of. If there is only one seat left at the lowest price, they then look for 2 tickets at the next price. They are not able to show two tickets at two different prices. I always search for one first, and then for two. This is also important when searching for award tickets. If one is available, you know you might have a chance for two. Or can book one at the lower rate, and one at the higher rate.
 
I doubt that it really makes any difference what day you book. I have been tracking a flight that I booked in December.for the last two months the price for the outbound and return flight never changed, until today.
Both prices dropped and I re-booked. I had been checking prices every single day, two or three times a day. Nothing changed until today, Friday.
Best advice with SW is to book and keeping checking the prices.
 
runningonthehub said:
I doubt that it really makes any difference what day you book. I have been tracking a flight that I booked in December.for the last two months the price for the outbound and return flight never changed, until today.
Both prices dropped and I re-booked. I had been checking prices every single day, two or three times a day. Nothing changed until today, Friday.
Best advice with SW is to book and keeping checking the prices.
Click to expand...
To show you how fast things can change. The price on the the outbound flight that I re-booked this morning has now gone back up to the original price that I paid in December, just that quick.
 
Answers have varied. In my experience (and as someone else mentioned) you should check SWA daily as the price can fluctuate (sometimes significantly) in a day, or even half a day.
this applies within the 14 day mark as well. Flight prices can and will drop even on the day of the flight. There have been times when I was supposed to leave vegas on a friday night but decided to stay one more night, and the Saturday morning fare was still really cheap (i.e. $56 cheap).
I fly SWA exclusively with traveling to vegas and once i book a flight, i try to check it daily for a better rate. if the rate improves, I "change" my flight (same flight +lower price = SWA credit).

and +1 for the SWA visa..
 
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