WOW - SW - what happened?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The airlines make a lot of money from last minute business travel. Convention visitors are probably not last minute and can shop around. Cities that eliminated non-stops, like Grand Rapids, probably don't have a large business travel demand to Orlando. One time my boss asked me to step in for him at a meeting in New Jersey, I got a call 2 days before. My PIT-EWR ticket was almost $900. That's the big moneymaker.

Another factor is frequent business travelers tend to favor the legacy carriers because of first class benefits and international travel. To be honest, I've never flown SW on business even though they get my leisure business.

And see for my husband's company SWA is a preferred airline. Normally for travel can be a few days notice to several weeks notice. He likes SWA because he can earn the miles. For a 2 1/2 hr equipment test it cost my husband's company around $700 from KC to EWR (RT though). They don't have change fees which helps immensely when it comes to his company since travel dates often change when it comes to equipment tests, etc.

Now granted Orlando is not a normal destination for them due to their work but speaking as a generality of preferred airlines

 

[JediBonas]

How could you even see the times for halloween? You can't book anything past Oct. 1st until next week when the new flights are released.

I can't see the flights for our dates but I can see up until late Sept and every year there have been multiple non-stop flights for these dates (as we tend to watch to get an idea on what time our flights will be). This year it seems one non-stop each way.

 

[happymommy]

Wow sorry that this happened. This was the case 2 years ago for spring break. We always take SWA out of BWI, but then it was like $600 round trip, so we took American out of Reagan National instead.

This year, for my trip next week it was 37,000 points for my youngest and me total round trip. Not bad (and we always go nonstop).

For my DH and me in May, it was $370 total for two tickets! And that included early bird check in! Round trip, for two! Over Memorial Day (it's our 25th anniversary, so he agreed Disney as it's where we honeymooned, although he's not so into it as much, most trips it's me and our youngest any longer). Seriously - one way was $70. I hadn't seen that fare in YEARS!

 

[alliecat523]

The airlines make a lot of money from last minute business travel. Convention visitors are probably not last minute and can shop around. Cities that eliminated non-stops, like Grand Rapids, probably don't have a large business travel demand to Orlando. One time my boss asked me to step in for him at a meeting in New Jersey, I got a call 2 days before. My PIT-EWR ticket was almost $900. That's the big moneymaker.

Another factor is frequent business travelers tend to favor the legacy carriers because of first class benefits and international travel. To be honest, I've never flown SW on business even though they get my leisure business.

Totally agree. My business travel has typically been booked 2 weeks out at the most. Mostly just days prior. The prices are a lot higher but it doesn’t matter when someone else is paying. I also favor legacy carriers for the free upgrades I get and lounge access. But I will book SW for leisure based on pricing. $500/ticket difference between SW and Delta for our spring break trip. No brainer!