Flying Southwest....

[ClaraOswald]

I have only flown on Southwest once (2015) and I booked our flights about 6 months in advance.

Southwest just released flights for our Disneyland dates in February. The prices aren't awful but they aren't that great either.

To those who have booked with them often...is there a "best time" to book to get the lowest price? Should I book ASAP? Wait a while to see if they go down?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[Baklava]

The big savings with SW comes when you're traveling with luggage. I looked at a "cheaper" Delta flight and once we factored in bags it was several hundred dollars more for our family.

We also followed prices, so whenever our flights became cheaper we rebooked (you can do that on SW) and ended up with about $100 a piece in credits which we used for another vacation.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Yeah, the credits thing is nice...except we won't be flying anywhere else in the time frame they would have to used.

Southwest really has the only decent flight for us. I just need to figure out the best timing when booking it.

 

[Angrose]

I would wait to book flights for Feb. They should go down. They are never at their lowest when first released. Their sales are released on Tuesdays but if there's a flight I really want then I check everyday. Get on their mailing list to receive sale announcements. Do you have the SW credit card? If not, they often have promos for 50,000 miles when opening a new account. You have to spend a certain amount in the first few months to earn the points, but it has worked out very well for me and my family and we have received many free flights in the past few years with them.

 

[cooldude4000]

Internet lore states that--in general--the absolute cheapest time to buy plane tickets is 54 days in advance. A little research indicates that it's more or less true, with a few exceptions. Frankly though, I don't know that the savings is all that great when you do so, and probably not enough to justify the stress of cutting it so close.

 

[Boopuff]

If your dates are flexible use their calendar view all daily prices at a glance. We found that if you can fly mid-week you can get great reates. I just booked a Sept. flight and got $79 one way (leaving on Thursday)

 

[ClaraOswald]

$79...wow! Never seen them that cheap from where we fly.

Our trip is on hold now so I'm glad I didn't book flights already!

 

[Indiana Scott]

We ended up booking our flight 60 days in advance and couldn't get the exact flight times we wanted. This ended up costing us time in the parks on both ends of our trip!
So there's a trade off between timing and price. It may be worthwhile to schedule a flight earlier, pay a bit more and get the exact flight you want.

 

[Boopuff]

Very true! Yes we got the awesome fare but it's at a crummy time (IMO) and usually I like the 6am flight so I get a huge chunk of the day to spend in the park.

 

[LizzyS]

We ended up booking our flight 60 days in advance and couldn't get the exact flight times we wanted. This ended up costing us time in the parks on both ends of our trip!
So there's a trade off between timing and price. It may be worthwhile to schedule a flight earlier, pay a bit more and get the exact flight you want.

Totally my philosophy with booking flights as well.