My January LAX-OAK flights are my first in years to never go on sale for less than $70. Until now there was always at least one good sale at $49 or better.
Maybe it's a coincidence, but my January flights are the first in over a year to be less than 50% full. I'm paying more but getting 3 seats pretty much every time.
I doubt this is working out as Southwest intended.
Oakland seems to be the problem here along with some other combinations of SoCal - NorCal. You can book flights to San Jose for around $50 from LAX, BUR, or SAN during the sales. I noticed today that LAX-SJC and SAN-SJC is $59 and $49 respectively through May 7. I've pivoted to other airports or caught red banners to avoid the price hikes especially when the going rate this week on my regular NorCal-SoCal is $130 one-way. My fellow super commuters are doing the same. I've gone as far as fishing rides from my housemates to avoid paying $130 fares, $100 Ubers, or parking. On another airline forum, I saw that the $130 route is at 58% load which is pretty bad. It's only a short spitball away from Southwest's worst loads with the intra-Hawaii flights.