How far in advance should I purchase Southwest tickets?
I'm going to be in D.C. this summer, and I wanted to fly home to Texas a couple times during the summer. I've been looking at Southwest to fly out of either the Dulles airport or the Baltimore airport and to fly into the Houston Hobby airport. I'm looking far in advance, at like mid-June or mid-July. Earlier this week (around Tuesday) I looked at some of the flights between Baltimore and Hobby. They ranged between $110-144 one way at just about all times. These prices started in the last week of April and went on as far as I could see into September. I looked today (Saturday) at prices and they started at $188 one way. Does Southwest raise the prices online on the weekends, or have I missed out on the $110-144 deal even though I am looking at purchasing two and three months in advance? When is the best time to buy Southwest tickets?
Air Travel - 4 Answers
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1 :
Go ahead and purchase so you can get the best deal & the flights you'd like. They feel up fast especially during the summer months.
2 :
southwest sells their tickets based on seating capacity and how far advance you purchase. the absolute cheapest fares are put out 6 months prior to departure. these are usually snapped up fast. especially when they are 49 to 99 one way. after that, the far goes up in small increments until they get to the last seats. the fare will keep going up closer to departure based on the following time periods, 3, months, 2 months, 45 days, 30 days, 21 days 14 days, 7 days, 3 days and walk up fare. unlike most airlines, southwest does not usually discount tickets at the last minute even as they run a 90% on most flights. in other words, they know flights are going to fill irregardless. the fares will however fluctuate from week to week, day to day because people cancel or change their plans so seats open up. but it's best to book as soon as you are 100% sure you need the ticket.
3 :
You should have bought the tickets when you saw the $110-144 price. Airlines sell their tickets in blocks beginning with the lowest fares, when that allotment is sold out, they sell the next highest fare and so on. There's not usually an exact date or timeline when prices start going up, but usually a month or less is when cheap prices are much harder to get. Try a website like Kayak.com to see what other airlines are charging and if you see a good price, don't wait, buy it. http://www.kayak.com/flights
4 :
well first 2-3 months in advance is NOT "far in advance". flights for june, july, and half of august have been up since about november. typically you want to purchase tickets as soon as possible. i have found that on southwest.com on every other tuesday they do seem to lower their rates. i'd definitely check back this tuesday and if they are not lower again then perhaps wait until the next tuesday and if they are still not lower then buy them anyways.
