"Wanna Get Away" Fare Increase
 

Has anyone noticed a significant "Wanna Get Away" fare increase? I fly LAX-SAT/SAT-LAX frequently and in a little over a week's time, it went from $136 to $205 one way, which is quite a jump for SWA in my experience.

$205 is now the standard cheapest rate, even 2-3 months out. I'm looking to purchase for the weekend of April 12th-16th and now kicking myself for not buying the $136 tickets two weeks ago!

I was wondering if someone knows any news or information about this (like if the same has happened to you recently) or if you know of any upcoming promotions?

Thank you!

***Also, last Tuesday & the previous Tuesday, the fares didn't go down like they usually do... Anyone know why?

Higher fuel? SW used to have a great advantage due to fuel hedges. They're not necessarily the cheapest game in town anymore. I get their e-mails advertising "rock bottom" fares and laugh.

Yeah
 

I don't have a basis for comparison, I'm new to frequent travel and am trying to figure out the best airlines and routes, but have been searching SW fares for a mid-May trip for the last month or so from PDX to New York area. Had 7,000 one-way points 7 days ago, now is 18,000. Like I said, I'm new so maybe this is their standard summer price bump, or maybe as above poster said, it's a reflection of fuel costs?

Current and anticipated higher fuel charges probably at play here.

OAK-LAX jumped from $69 to $99 this past week.

LAX-SMF jumped from $60 to $100, WGA fare last week.

I have seen this happen before and the higher fares only last a few weeks before they are replaced with a fare sale or with more reasonable fares.

Note, too, that spring break covers several weeks now...schools have abandoned the standard "week before easter sunday" holiday. This has played havoc with reasonable WN airfares of late.

Spring break and fuel...and it's not just WN. My PHX-PDX-PHX flight last week on AS cost something absurd like $750. At least they were Y-up fares. Going to Dallas and HOU is $360+ o/w now out of TUS.

Even TUS-PDX in July costs $200 o/w. :eek: I wouldn't be surprised to see fares to come down somewhat, but who knows if we'll see $120 o/w fares anymore on the 1,000-1,500 mile trips.

About the only comforting thing with these high airfares is earning more points, especially if you're a A list preferred and flying out of CA with the DEQM promo.

It could be because of the new government advertising guidelines. The airlines used to show the base fare, when you selected the flight the next page would show all of the add on taxes and fees, thus a higher amount. Now they have to display the total fare on the first screen, so it suddenly looked like higher fares, but you will probably not find much of an increase over the older 'total fare' price.

I can't recall a California/Nevada short-haul flight under $59 in a very long time... not peak days of the week at least. $100 is the new $69 it seems, at least recently.

To think I get excited when I see a $69 Ding! fare now. Remember $39's were typical? To imagine that this is only 1300 points or so, can't even imagine seeing that available.

Just noticed this today and was about to start another thread.

OAK-BUR lowest fare for July thru end is now $100!! :eek: I've never seen WGA this high before.

Those RR 1.0 awards are becoming more valuable every day :cool:

Interesting that same flights in April/May are $69 and $91. So the incentive is NOT to make advance purchases anymore. Maybe time to take a look at VS and UA.

This is how it's going to be this summer: we play chicken with Southwest by waiting for the fares to drop before buying.

Could the high fares be a tactic to make Ding look more valuable with its $69 "hot deals"? ;)

I priced las-fll and end of may RT , SW is nearly double the price of airtran and delta

I don't know what the deal is with WN. I do know they are not dumb.

I am willing to pay 10%-15% more on WN in order to be able to cancel. I am getting 80-90% of my flights in that window.

Pricing at double does not cut it and I don't think WN thinks it will.

I've been watching AUS -> LAX fares for a couple of months. Last week you could get $145 and $175 OW fares in April and May. Now the cheapest is $200. From June 8 on, the cheapest fare was $200. Now it's $210.

I'm beginning to only see bargain deals whenever SW runs a promotion. Otherwise, many other airlines have been cheaper (bag fees included). Too bad.