Bizarre WN fares

Old May 28, 2014, 4:02 pm
  #46  
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Originally Posted by hazelrah
This seems to me to be a rather silly thread. The carping without substance gets old.

Still no assigned seating, still low fares, still no bag fees, still good employees, still 737s, and still throngs at BWI lining up with an insatiable appetite for Southwest. Not much has changed.
Silly thread? Carping without substance? One of my entire itineraries was just canceled and I was rerouted to another carrier by my employer because Southwest was deemed much too expensive. And this isn't the first time it's come up at the office -- but it is the first time that action was taken.

I don't think it's silly to point out that, from a frequent business flyer's perspective, WN is starting to price themselves out of the market for people like me.

Their WGA fares are almost always just fine. $400 - $600 for a round-trip ticket is easily absorbed into most business project budgets. However, WN seems to be shutting down access to WGA fares earlier and raising the prices on the higher tiers of fares. It has the appearance of being a squeeze on business travelers. They've jacked up the price of the "Anytime" fare so much that most are now more than double the price of WGA fares and maybe only 10 - 20 dollars cheaper than the BS fare. There's very little graduation upwards -- once they shut down the WGA fare it's all monumentally expensive.

Last edited by flyerfmaz; May 28, 2014 at 4:12 pm
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Old May 28, 2014, 4:58 pm
  #47  
 
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Originally Posted by flyerfmaz
Silly thread? Carping without substance? One of my entire itineraries was just canceled and I was rerouted to another carrier by my employer because Southwest was deemed much too expensive. And this isn't the first time it's come up at the office -- but it is the first time that action was taken.

I don't think it's silly to point out that, from a frequent business flyer's perspective, WN is starting to price themselves out of the market for people like me.

Their WGA fares are almost always just fine. $400 - $600 for a round-trip ticket is easily absorbed into most business project budgets. However, WN seems to be shutting down access to WGA fares earlier and raising the prices on the higher tiers of fares. It has the appearance of being a squeeze on business travelers. They've jacked up the price of the "Anytime" fare so much that most are now more than double the price of WGA fares and maybe only 10 - 20 dollars cheaper than the BS fare. There's very little graduation upwards -- once they shut down the WGA fare it's all monumentally expensive.
You are correct.

And most flights continue to be monumentally full/oversold. On all carriers.
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Old May 28, 2014, 5:31 pm
  #48  
 
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Originally Posted by flyerfmaz

Their WGA fares are almost always just fine. $400 - $600 for a round-trip ticket is easily absorbed into most business project budgets. However, WN seems to be shutting down access to WGA fares earlier and raising the prices on the higher tiers of fares. It has the appearance of being a squeeze on business travelers. They've jacked up the price of the "Anytime" fare so much that most are now more than double the price of WGA fares and maybe only 10 - 20 dollars cheaper than the BS fare. There's very little graduation upwards -- once they shut down the WGA fare it's all monumentally expensive.
Since my wife and I mainly fly Anytime fares (reimbursed through employer), I looked back a year and found that the AT fares back then weren't any cheaper for the routes we fly. I think you're probably correct that this year WGA fares are more expensive and selling out faster, but I don't think you can make the claim that AT fares are jacked up.

Moreover, have you actually compared the price of fully refundable fares on legacies to Southwest? I think you'll find that WN's AT refundable fares are quite competitive to those of legacies as many others have reported here.
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Old May 28, 2014, 7:08 pm
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by texashoser
Moreover, have you actually compared the price of fully refundable fares on legacies to Southwest? I think you'll find that WN's AT refundable fares are quite competitive to those of legacies as many others have reported here.
But the valid point, is that within a week or 2 you can only buy AT fares on Southwest and you can buy much cheaper non-refundable fares on other airlines.
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Old May 28, 2014, 7:11 pm
  #50  
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Thanks for the input and feedback, all. I'll keep pursuing WN at every turn at the office. Maybe part of the issue is my location (Tucson) -- possibly there aren't as many favorable fares out of here. Got a TUS-MDW-CHS run on WN tomorrow, then back Friday. Almost to A-List Preferred. I'll do my best to make some productive contributions to these forums rather than just whine. :-)
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Old May 28, 2014, 7:22 pm
  #51  
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Looks to me like WN cannot really claim any more to have "low fares," compared to the legacies. Yes on some routes/times, no on others.

Plenty of posts here about this phenomenon of the last few years.
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Old May 28, 2014, 7:28 pm
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by flyerfmaz
Thanks for the input and feedback, all. I'll keep pursuing WN at every turn at the office. Maybe part of the issue is my location (Tucson) -- possibly there aren't as many favorable fares out of here. Got a TUS-MDW-CHS run on WN tomorrow, then back Friday. Almost to A-List Preferred. I'll do my best to make some productive contributions to these forums rather than just whine. :-)

A friend that does LAS-TUS-LAS weekly opined recently that "fares are way up in the past few years". Well duh.

He also reports that his run has gradually dropped to only 4 legs a day (not sure how many there used to be, but apparently more than that). Yet another factual report of how the smaller stations/shorter routes keep getting nipped-at so as to (presumably) grow the longer/more profitable routes.

As for whining, well....that's what we DO here is whine. Well, at least some of the people some of the time

Please report back on your trip and let us know how it goes (timeliness, etc.)
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Old May 28, 2014, 8:02 pm
  #53  
 
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Originally Posted by lougord99
But the valid point, is that within a week or 2 you can only buy AT fares on Southwest and you can buy much cheaper non-refundable fares on other airlines.
I'm not debating that. I'm simply debating the point about jacked-up refundable fares on two points: they aren't any more jacked up than last year and they compare with those of legacies.

If the point is that there are often last-minute (or within a week or so) fares on legacies cheaper than Southwest, no one is debating that. In fact, I recently posted that would have flown AA to MSP for $450 rather than burn $1,100 worth of AT points on WN.

But no matter the argument or debate, the solution/problem is the same: WN is charging a lot for their seats because their planes are full. If anyone doesn't want to pay that premium, fly another airline with a better fare. No one will fault you for it. I was going to same thing. And many other WN supporters/FF's will as well.
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Old May 28, 2014, 8:29 pm
  #54  
 
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If fares are the same with a full service carrier, why would a frequent business traveler choose WN? AT=Y typically means an automatic upgrade to first or at least a reserved seat in premium economy. At least on AA it also means free changes, including same day standby. Most importantly it also means a higher probability of an on-time flight --- priceless to road warriors, anxious to get home.
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Old May 28, 2014, 8:58 pm
  #55  
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Originally Posted by diver858
If fares are the same with a full service carrier, why would a frequent business traveler choose WN?
This question has been asked and answered literally hundreds of times in this forum.
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Old May 28, 2014, 9:08 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by steved5480
Please report back on your trip and let us know how it goes (timeliness, etc.)
Will do. I'm normally fairly calm about flights - most are uneventful (fortunately). My only pet peeves are passengers that talk at high volume for the entire flight (God bless noise canceling headphones), or someone sitting next to me that invades my space with either their elbows or body odor. :-) I never have the guts to say anything about it -- I just wish they would shut up or get their elbow out of my ribs. At 55, I'm starting to become a grumpy old man.

I've got a three hour layover at MDW tomorrow right around lunchtime -- time to check out Harry Caray's in the food court.

Last edited by flyerfmaz; May 28, 2014 at 9:14 pm
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Old May 29, 2014, 4:47 am
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by flyerfmaz
Thanks for the input and feedback, all. I'll keep pursuing WN at every turn at the office. Maybe part of the issue is my location (Tucson) -- possibly there aren't as many favorable fares out of here. Got a TUS-MDW-CHS run on WN tomorrow, then back Friday. Almost to A-List Preferred. I'll do my best to make some productive contributions to these forums rather than just whine. :-)
Indeed, as one poster notes in #52, I think a part of it is the very pronounced phenomonon now in the U.S. of small cities really getting hit hard by airline consolidation.

Several years ago I found TUS fares to be outrageous and schedules to be inconvenient. I wound up flying to PHX and drove from there to my business in Sierra Vista.

WN, like all the airlines, seems to be no longer in market expansion mode. It's not WN that's changed it is the airline biz.

Last edited by hazelrah; May 29, 2014 at 6:41 am
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Old May 29, 2014, 7:06 am
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by hazelrah
Are you Atlanta based?
No MSY but I travel to and work in Atlanta a lot.

Last edited by rsteinmetz70112; May 29, 2014 at 10:35 am
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Old May 29, 2014, 9:36 am
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by diver858
If fares are the same with a full service carrier, why would a frequent business traveler choose WN? AT=Y typically means an automatic upgrade to first or at least a reserved seat in premium economy. At least on AA it also means free changes, including same day standby. Most importantly it also means a higher probability of an on-time flight --- priceless to road warriors, anxious to get home.
perhaps to qualify for a Companion Pass, its an awesome benefit
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Old May 31, 2014, 10:15 pm
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Originally Posted by john398
perhaps to qualify for a Companion Pass, its an awesome benefit
Perhaps the single most awesome frequent flyer benefit offered anywhere.
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