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When will Southwest relent on insane summer fares? (Answer: June 3, 2016)

When will Southwest relent on insane summer fares? (Answer: June 3, 2016)

Old May 3, 2016, 8:10 pm
  #31  
 
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OAK-PDX is never cheap. Never.
returnoftheyeti is offline  
Old May 3, 2016, 8:20 pm
  #32  
nsx
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Originally Posted by returnoftheyeti
OAK-PDX is never cheap. Never.
I got 3574 points just before the recent devaluation. I think that's $69 equivalent.
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Old May 3, 2016, 10:18 pm
  #33  
 
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Originally Posted by returnoftheyeti
OAK-PDX is never cheap. Never.
News to me. I've been flying for $49/~2300 points on Tuesdays and Wednesdays Jan-end of May.
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Old May 3, 2016, 11:08 pm
  #34  
 
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Get used to it!

For the last few years there has been a "Summer No Low Fare Zone". As long as they are able to fill planes under the "halo" of infrequent flyers perception of low fares that will not change. The most likely challenger to unseat Southwest is Frontier. Their in flight product is not significantly inferior to Southwest's.

I abandoned Southwest for Frontier in the latter half of 2015. I saved a few thousand dollars and was anticipating becoming a loyal Frontier customer. Unfortunately Frontier's achellilles heal is their tendancy to premptorilty cancel new routes before they have a chance to mature.
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Old May 4, 2016, 12:14 pm
  #35  
 
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Of my next 6 one way legs, Southwest got 3 of them. One was only due to introductory pricing on MSP-BWI. In one instance the competition got my money solely due to poor SWA schedule and the others were price driven.

Once the ticket is booked elsewhere that money is not coming back to Southwest. ~$600 lost on those three legs and three legs not crediting toward A List. My goal was to fly Southwest first this year and get A List, that more unrealistic with each OAL booking. I am likely to just book on price and schedule for end of year travel.

The winter fares were amazing but I'll take a happy year round compromise between $41 for 900 miles and $300 for 600 miles.
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Old May 4, 2016, 9:17 pm
  #36  
 
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I use them out of MDW and have found that over the past 6-8 months, they are no longer consistently the cheapest option. DL offers better fairs in a lot of cases even though they only have 3 or so gates (compared to the 40+ WN gates) and route everything through ATL.

WN is no longer the low cost airline they market themselves as. At least not out of MDW.
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Old May 4, 2016, 9:26 pm
  #37  
 
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LAX-LGA-LAX in middle of the week in June is over $600 ... Never seen such BS prices from SWA before...I am switching to Jetblue which is $200 less for same dates..
MNSWEEps is offline  
Old May 7, 2016, 2:42 am
  #38  
 
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Yeah, legacies (DL, UA, AA) all seem to beating WN by about $200/rt on SJC/SFO-ATL. $600 R/T on WN, $400 R/T on everyone else. All summer long.

Weird...
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Old May 7, 2016, 11:56 am
  #39  
 
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Um, never?
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Old May 7, 2016, 2:08 pm
  #40  
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Just received a Yapta fare alert: $68 for SFO-LAX after June 15. Does not look like WN is matching. But the current one-way at $123 is not even competitive with the legacy carriers which are all pricing at $112 one-way (and many of us don't need the free luggage).

It's very frustrating because you know that off-peak TU/WE/SA will eventually be discounted, but the airlines seem to be playing a game of chicken with the leisure travelers and betting they will pay more now for certainty rather than roll the dice.
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Old May 7, 2016, 5:05 pm
  #41  
 
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One of the few remaining SAN WN monopolies is SAN-LAS, they appear to be taking full advantage of it. Anytime fare is $231 for the nonstop, there are NO WGAs available on 4 flights for the first Sunday in June (6/5), WGA fares on the 6 other nonstops range from $194 - $90 (cheapest for the 5:25 AM, which connects in OAK, turning a 1 hour flight in to a 4 hour adventure. I looked around, there are no major events in either city that weekend
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Old May 7, 2016, 6:20 pm
  #42  
 
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Just checked on a trip to MSP in June. $39 each way. Don't know why, but I grabbed it.
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Old May 7, 2016, 7:50 pm
  #43  
 
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Originally Posted by lougord99
Just checked on a trip to MSP in June. $39 each way. Don't know why, but I grabbed it.
That's due to the absolutely huge amount of demand and competition between Chicago and MSP. AA, DL, NK, and UA are all also on the route so there is a ton of demand and supply both ways. Good for you, although prices like that for a route like that make me wish it was also available for other routes.
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Old May 8, 2016, 2:42 am
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by diver858
One of the few remaining SAN WN monopolies is SAN-LAS, they appear to be taking full advantage of it. Anytime fare is $231 for the nonstop, there are NO WGAs available on 4 flights for the first Sunday in June (6/5), WGA fares on the 6 other nonstops range from $194 - $90 (cheapest for the 5:25 AM, which connects in OAK, turning a 1 hour flight in to a 4 hour adventure. I looked around, there are no major events in either city that weekend
Strange, I am seeing at least 7 non stops a day at $82, pretty much all of June through the end of the schedule.
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Old May 8, 2016, 8:15 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by diver858
One of the few remaining SAN WN monopolies is SAN-LAS, they appear to be taking full advantage of it. Anytime fare is $231 for the nonstop, there are NO WGAs available on 4 flights for the first Sunday in June (6/5), WGA fares on the 6 other nonstops range from $194 - $90 (cheapest for the 5:25 AM, which connects in OAK, turning a 1 hour flight in to a 4 hour adventure. I looked around, there are no major events in either city that weekend
It's all supply and demand. And the supply these days are low.

You want an example of ridiculous fares, try AUS -> HOU/IAH. WN's Any Time fare is $218 - for a 25-minute flight. And you think that's bad? UA's fully-refundable fare from AUS to IAH is $463! Four Hundred and Sixty three dollars! And to clarify, that's one-way!
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