freebee

While checking fares on my already booked ISP-PHX flight in mid- January, with a stop in MCO, I was surprised to see Wanna Get Away fares were unavailable, thus anyone crazy enough to book that itinerary today would have to pay a whopping $522 for an Anytime Fare. However, WGA fares were still available on each individual segment of that trip ($115 to MCO and $287 to PHX), totaling a still high $402. Does this Southwest math make sense to anybody? Meanwhile, you can fly LGA -PHX with one stop for $147! I predict Southwest will then claim its passengers prefer LGA (which is even worse than the third-world country described by VP Joe Biden) and have even more excuses to further reduce service to ISP.

ursine1

Increasingly, Southwest math makes sense to no one... except Southwest.

Tanic

MLK holiday would explain limited availability.

joshua362

I'm in your boat, buddy. They are really trying hard to screw ISP (and have been for several years now). They built a beautiful 8 gate edifice to themselves only to abandon for the hell that is LGA. If the airport was smart (a complete LI contradiction), they should offer free parking to combat this...

steved5480

If the airport was smart, they would have built the "beautiful 8 gate edifice" on the third world landfill that is the island of Manhattan. Where the greater demand for air travel apparently is.

freebee

Free or cheaper parking would certainly help, but parking even off-airport at LGA is at least as expensive, so I'm not sure if the ISP parking rates have been a deterrent to passengers. For me, the biggest issue, especially in the dead of winter, is that you're much more likely to encounter delays or even flight cancellations at LGA than at ISP. If Southwest really marketed ISP's advantages, it would have been more popular.

MorePtsPls

PHX fares at that time (Jan 15 to Feb 3 are running into Pro Bowl and Super Bowl traffic. Not sure that it's because of your origin in this case.

freebee

[QUOTE=MorePtsPls;23720221]PHX fares at that time (Jan 15 to Feb 3 are running into Pro Bowl and Super Bowl traffic. Not sure that it's because of your origin in this case.[/QUOTE

If that were the case, the lowest fare from LGA-PHX on the same day wouldn't be $147.

rtalk25

[QUOTE=freebee;23720382]But WN does discount MDW-BWI-ISP fares and maybe a few more.

Within the 7 day window of today, one way fares are:
MDW-LGA: $424 Anytime. WGA not available.
MDW-EWR: $421 Anytime. WGA not available.
MDW-BWI: $348 Anytime. WGA not available.
MDW-BWI-ISP: $301 WGA for upcoming three days, then $221 WGA.

So, there is a hidden city discount booking through ISP, and lower fares in short window between MDW-ISP.

For comparison, I checked Spirit's ORD-LGA though and Spirit is better for the VFR traveler who books on last minute notice. I found fares of $183 to $138 (for returns), but that's before all of Spirit's fees. Even JetBlue's ORD-JFK had low fares.

But using Southwest's choices only, the connect in BWI to ISP is discounted unlike the itinery through LGA.

In general, ISP has a BWI flight that connects to many Southeast US markets like RDU and CLT well, and ISP has the Florida flights. To go from LGA to CLT or Florida, one has to fly longer out to MDW. Perhaps Southwest wants those flying far westbound to not use ISP as much as LGA on the other hand and that's why discounting is not offered on an itinery like ISP-PHX.

TravelerMSY

Full fare seems high, but keep in mind an A list preferred member is getting close to a 40% rebate in points.

formeraa

That's also the PEAK time for PHX travel in general. With the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl, it just adds to the demand for travel to PHX.

freebee

Just to follow up on my original post - Wanna Get Away fares have just been reinstated on the ISP-PHX flight in question, with a plane change at MCO. It's still steep at $370 (I originally paid $246), but that sure beats $522 and is at least consistent with the two individual segments of the trip, which offer WGA fares.

InkUnderNails

I just booked a BNA-PDX RT via 2 OW's and the cost was about $900 total. I had to buy one leg as BS. I had a bunch of TTF's to use up, so I got all of those in the system.

I checked an Orbitz grid and everything else was about the same except Frontier. After buying stretch and refundable fares, it was $700. I guess that is what I get for last minute, close to holiday.

My memories of Frontier are bad. I tried two round trips of which only one segment ended up leaving and arriving on time. I even switched one to WN BS at check in. Walk up to check bag, told best they could do was 14 hours late, I stepped over to WN counter bought BS ticket, went back to Frontier and got a refund.

So, I did think about it. I decided that $200 was pretty cheap insurance. If you think IROPPS are bad on WN, it can be worse. One glitch on Frontier and you may be as good as stranded.

As A List Preferred, one leg BS and with the double points promotion, the points more than cover the $200 difference. So really an easy decision.

Often1

I'm no WN fan, but it seems that people way over-personalize things. WN is a business, not a high school clique. Fares are set based on sophisticated RM/IM software. If the better deal is xLGA than xISP, that's likely because there is less competition xISP not because somebody at WN has it in for the Island.

And, just for the record. LGA isn't in Manhattan !

Reindeerflame

A question about WN's sophistication.

In looking at an award booking around Memorial Day, SMF-ABQ-SMF, it appears that more points are needed to book a one way SMF-ABQ than to break up the trip through the connecting point by booking SMF-LAS and LAS-ABQ, using the "add segment" opportunity. Is it legitimate to save points by doing this, and why would the sophisticated software allow this?