jeffandnicole

That's what I'm not getting about NSX's complaint here. He's basing the entire Southwest company on his one intrastate trip that he seems to be inflexible with. While I don't think Southwest has offered as many sales as in the past, neither have other airlines. He thinks that people are flocking away from Southwest based on a single trip he wants to take where the fare difference is $50 compared to last year.

Very few others have said they are being priced out of Southwest, so it could just be nsx happens to be on a route that Southwest has priced higher for whatever reason.

If he wants to fly cheaper, there are several options.

nsx

Yes and no. This is the first year I have seen Southwest price gouging on advance purchase fares across all days of the week in the summer. (I have seen it for late December, but Southwest has always reduced those fares cloer to travel dates.)

I thought last year's summer pricing for intra-CA flights was high, at $99 IIRC for all flight times with occasional sales at $79 or $73. This year's summer pricing is absurd. But it's true that even last year's summer pricing was a departure from Southwest's historical practice of not exceeding what customers would consider a fair fare for off-peak travel.

As to options, they mostly involve other airports. Southwest has 80% to 90% market share for LAX-OAK and they are exploiting that monopoly. That's very new, having never occurred in the almost 20 years I've been flying Southwest. Maybe Southwest has been gouging customers everywhere but California for most of those 20 years, but I doubt it.

dsiderx2

To people who fly these routes often, the difference between OAK/SJC/SFO is huge. The difference between LAX/BUR/ONT/LGB/SNA is also huge and will probably make up most of the difference in the fares.

jiffer21225

I usually fly to Cleveland, new orleans and las vegas several times during the summer months and I have noticed the fares are much higher than past years. I can understand prices a little higher from year to year but these prices are considerably higher. I normally pay $69 each way from Bwi to Cle (during the summer months) and this year is running $139 each way.

nsx

I can't recall a time when Southwest failed to match or at least come down to within $10 of a VX or B6 sale fare intra-California. That is more evidence that Southwest is conducting an experiment in fare gouging this summer. Southwest will probably not know the results until mid-July. We may not know the results until next summer when Southwest either repeats the No Deals pattern or reverts to a normal 20% or so markup over spring fares.

Thanks for the evidence that the experiment is not confined to California. Misery loves company!

spongenotbob

I guess they figure that operating at 70% load factor with an average fare of 16 cents per seat mile is better than 95% load factor at 8 cents per seat mile.

And, they are right!

However what is the value of steering the kettles away (in some cases for the first time ever)? I dunno ... Companies tend to get greedy when times are good. What happens in the next downturn?

DonCarpenter

I can verify that everything is higher from MCI, too. Even DAL is $120+ each way.

spongenotbob

And as a bonus, CA-FL flights all went up another $30 each way over the past week or so.

solewalker

Prices really fluctuate quite a bit from day to day. I was on the SNA-SEA over memorial day weekend. I bought it for ~100 about 1.5 months before travel, and saw the prices fluctuate from that to ~300, then down to ~100 2 days out.

I also purchased another SEA-OAK-SEA for ~150 round trip, and now it's gone up to ~250 3 weeks out.

I sat on my hiney for a SEA-SAN-SEA flight and it doubled in one week. (mid June travel)

nsx

OMG Southwest finally relented some time after this morning!

LAX-OAK is now $69 for almost all dates this summer!!

This leaves me only 3 one-ways booked on points at the high fares, which I will replace using Avios at SFO if those seats open up late in the game as they typically do.

Maybe someone at Southwest read this thread and applied common sense. Or maybe the advance sales figures finally hit management's desk.

I am thrilled with $69, which is less than I paid in 2015!

dlaue

LAX - SMF is now $69 most summer days. Goes back to $95 in the fall, though.

nsx

Even peak hours are available at $69, but those buckets are selling out fast.

Dieuwer

What is a good fare for SAN-SJC?

bobunf

PHX-SNA-PHX and PHX-ONT-PHX wanna get away fares are still 20 to 30% higher than in 2015. It's kind of ironic with the website blaring, "Sun's out, low fares are in."

Boraxo

Poor: $123
Average: $99
Good: $73
Awesome: $49-59