Cheapest southwest fare you have ever paid? (Cash or points)
 

I just booked the cheapest southwest flight I have ever booked. It cost me 2200 points and the cash cost of the flight was $45. I’m curious how low other people have booked SW flights.

$19 Intra-Texas back in the day. No points back then.

Someone with a better memory than I will explain further ;)

$29ow SMF-LAX, usually happens a few times a year. I never check the points cost at that price. Not the best deal I have seen but the outright lowest price.

$29 one-way / 1066 points multiple times in the past year

$39 one-way / 1766 points multiple times in the past year too

$19 not so recently before WN 2.0

Not on Southwest, but—- $9.50 LAX - SMF on the “midnight flyer” on PSA. No reservations. Just walk up and buy a ticket. If too many showed up, PSA just added another plane. This was ~1972.

I bought some $29 trips at 990 points per dollar of base fare. For a brief time in special cases it was possible to book a $29 fare for 753 points:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sout...er-dollar.html

I’ve bought LAS -> SFO/OAK multiple times for $29 each way. They spurred a few weekend trips that weren’t planned but why not at that price.

$29 Intra-California sales are fairly common. Been on few of those

I saw some $25 fares recently but I did not buy them.

I agree but the point value on this flight was over 2 cents per point. It was a great deal

what’s that in now dollars

I remember those fares, $19 TUL-DFW and included free beer

$29 for SFO to DEN in early 2018. I've gotten that for intra-California as well, but this one was the best per mile.

$29 intra-CA flights in recent years. Mostly OAK-LGB (which have been great when I needed some segment runs!), but also OAK-ONT.

I bought and flew a few quick-turn round trips for $52.36 in January to help me reach 100 flights for 2020 Companion Pass requalification. So much for that plan.

$29 each way but PFCs are charged only one way if your turn time is less than 4 hours.

Either Feb or Mar of 1980: $20 each way for a day trip HRL-SAT-HRL.

$29 MDW-CLE about 20 or more years ago. I think that was the lowest.

Back then you got one credit per one-way (nonstop or otherwise), another for booking online, and another for going through SWABIZ.

16 credits got you a RT redemption, with no restrictions as I recall, though that later changed.

$1000 on the WN CC also got you a credit.

So if I remember this right, 2.5 RTs plus spending $1000 got you the most expensive WN RT in the system.

100 credits in a year (actually a bit more) got the CP.

The good old days.

Now get off my lawn.

Is that still the case?

My one and only people's express flight, mid 80's, $19 EWR-JAX, then a 6+ hour rental car ride overnight to Pensacola. Young and foolish...

My wife and I flew Peoples Express SFO-Brussels for $99. At least I THOUGHT we had "reservations" for $99, but the fare was collected by the flight attendants on the plane. That day the fare was $149 (it was posted on a sign as you boarded the plane). I argued, but paid the difference. On our return from BRU we had a nearly empty 747. We were able to sleep on 4 empty seats each. Shortly after that the airline went bankrupt and was merged into Continental Airlines.

I was still pursuing my beef with the airline for the bait and switch fares and took it to Continental. I had zero hope that we were going to be reimbursed. But, the Continental rep listened to my story and said, "Hmmm...what do you think we should do?" I suggested she give us round trip vouchers on Continental. DONE!

Continental ("The Proud BIrd with the Golden Tail") was one of the great airlines. I miss them.

$28.80 Maui to Honolulu ... way better than Hawaiian, which was over double the price (plus checked bag fees)!

I took a bunch of flights on Frontier for $15 a few years ago.

By the way, HA stock is down 72% in 3 months.

If you think they will avoid bankruptcy, might be an interesting speculation.

Next week MON-THUR you can fly LAX-ATL for $53 6:45p-1:55a; FRI is $45

That is cheap

SJC - SAN - SJC 1,016 points ($29) each way booked in Feb for memorial day weekend travel. Though it remains to be seen whether USS Midway activities will still be taking place... We are hopeful!

Last fall got a $59 r/t MSY-BNA-MSY. Had a great weekend.

~$54 in 2020 dollars. But this was a dirt cheap fare in 1972 and was six years before the federal deregulation of airlines. PSA was not federally regulated and, thus, not bound by the fixed fares dictated by the Feds. PSA operated only within California and was regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). I presume the PUC did not care about fares.

The midnight flyer was very popular with college kids. I flew it for business. If I recall correctly the northbound route was SAN-LAX-FAT-SFO-SMF. It took a while but was really the only carrier serving the route at that hour, even if it resembled a bus route. I tried to avoid the Midnight Flyer and take a non-stop flight, if possible. Note that the non-stop LAX-SMF flight would be scheduled for 45 or 50 minutes, verses today's 1 hour 15 or 20 minutes. I guess you can firewall the throttle on the jet if the fuel is costing pennies a gallon.

Southwest would be $29 KOA-HNL but Spirit was offering $17 fares between EWR-LAS last week

PVD to MDW for July. Now to pray we don't have to cancel our trip!

Are you guys quoting the fares with taxes and fees included, or just the base fares?

When I first stared flying for fun in 1987 I bought bunch of $19 tickets throughout the Southwestern US that included the taxes and fees. It was $19 total out of pocket! I flew LAX-LAS LAX-PHX PHX-ABQ PHX-ELP PHX-LAS ELP-ABQ on WN at those prices.

In addition, I bought 10 of those $19 tickets on America West (HP) during their HNL inaugural promotion and got their points PLUS a FREE ticket JFK-PHX-HNL-LAS-JFK (no taxes or fees on that HNL ticket neither!).

Everybody in the southwestern US was matching these crazy $19 fares in those days (late 1980's) I flew also on Delta and Alaska airlines for those prices, total out of pocket.