Southwest--will costs drop?

[daisyduckie]

Is there a good chance the costs for Southwest's flights will come down. The booking window opened up for the flights I need, and ouch! Not sure if I should snatch them up or wait and see if the costs drop to a more reasonable level. I know there are no guarantees, but does anyone have a good guess?

 

[Hakunamatata]

Is there a good chance the costs for Southwest's flights will come down. The booking window opened up for the flights I need, and ouch! Not sure if I should snatch them up or wait and see if the costs drop to a more reasonable level. I know there are no guarantees, but does anyone have a good guess?

If it's Wanna Get Away Fair, most likely no. I've taken flights that were 2/3 full that were full price all the way. Regular Fair and Business Select might change but not usually in my experience.

 

[daisyduckie]

Shoot. If I book and the price does come down, how does getting a credit work?

 

[Hakunamatata]

Shoot. If I book and the price does come down, how does getting a credit work?

If you book wanna get away, you get flight credit that has to be used within a year. If you book regular or business you can do flight credit or refund.

 

[Nemo14]

Prices can change, but generally not if you're trying to book at a high demand time of year (Christmas or Thanksgiving especially)

 

[JourneysEnd]

The past two years Southwest has run a sale on fall flights. Sale is usually announced towards the end of June. I'm waiting.

 

[Clamman73]

I'm looking now at the days in the fall I want to go...$132 down and $132 back. That's around what it was last year...I think it was $120 something, maybe a flight was $108. Contemplating.....

 

[DarthVader]

Like any airline, the cost will fluctuate, so I'd be surprised if it didn't go down.

 

[PhilharMagician]

I saw on the news last week that even with low fuel costs, airlines are searching for ways to bump their pricing. Check pricing every morning to see if they put some seats on sale, but it looks like the prices will again start to trend up.

 

[Rachel S1321]

I booked our Southwest flights this morning for September. At 5 am for some reason the prices were $120 was per ticket. I felt that was pretty fair and I'm afraid they will be going up instead of down. I checked again around 11 this morning and the prices already went up....strange how it works! Good luck!!

 

[NeverEnufDisney]

We booked this week for October as their sale fares brought the price down for non-stops enough that my points covered the fare. Coming from upstate New York it was too good to pass up!

 

[everado]

My question is:if gas and fuel prices in general have gone way down why haven't airfares dropped as well?

 

[NeverEnufDisney]

Very simple airlines don't have to and will continue to go for the profit unless demand drops. Airlines have consolidated and have limited the number of flights so they have lowered the supply below demand hence higher prices. On the bright spot this also could allow start up bargain airlines to get into the mix if they see an opportunity.

 

[Rob562]

In addition to the simple answer of "because they can", there's also the factor that because they're large consumers of fuel, airlines will often pre-purchase their fuel in bulk for the next 6+ months. While it makes the accountants happy because their fuel budget is steady, it does get tricky when the price drops below what they've already committed to paying.

That happened with home heating oil here in New England a few years ago. People pre-purchased x number of gallons of home heating oil before the season started to lock in the rate, but then they were trapped by the contract when heating oil prices plummeted two months later.

-Rob