Flying Southwest at popular times

[pinkpeony08]

Hoping someone might have some experience.

We typically go to Florida to visit family in March. We prefer to fly Southwest bc they are the only ones with a direct flight from our airport. I typically can find the wanna get away/lowest price fare if I check regularly for when they release more seats.

This year, due to factors outside our control, we need to go during spring break. Fares are higher. There is a perfectly timed, direct flight, but it seems they have not released any wanna get away fares. They release more seats, but only non direct flights that leave at like 5 am or arrive at midnight.

Should I just bite the bullet and pay $$$? Or just keep watching and be patient? Or fly another airline non direct?

Anyone who has been in this boat with advice?

[mccallister84]

I would just buy it - you can always get the difference in a flight credit if the price does go down.

But we flew to Punta Cana and I checked every day from the day routes opened for that date and they never had wanna get away fares.

[nicolewi]

I don't know what to tell you about that exact situation or where you are going. Probably book it if not too exorbitant and hope it goes down??

We have gone to Naples a few times to see DH's mom and last year we did it without a lot of lead time. I needed a really low fare to make it worth it so I looked at several possible airports. We ended up flying into Fort Lauderdale and driving across. You may be able to look for additional options if you include nearby airports.

We are looking at spring break options and fares to anywhere seem super high right now. My BIL & SIL are driving to Disney b/c flights are so expensive...I just don't know if we could manage that trip!!!!

[ssmjlm]

We already booked our spring break airfare on American because I knew fares are only going to go up.

FWIW, over the last several years, SW hasn't been the cheaper airline for us and rare to find decent prices on non-stop. Even with the free bags.

I would probably shop around, maybe setup an alert on google flights for trad carriers.

[pinkpeony08]

Thanks. I have an alert set and everything southwest drops, it’s only the non direct flights. Southwest is currently $750 each person one way for the direct.

[sdlaura]

I fly SW a lot personally and for work, often cross country at peak times. Their prices almost never go down at peak times. I would buy ASAP and then get a credit if they do go down.

[waverly]

Spring Break prices never go down.

[pinkpeony08]

They do keep releasing more cheaper seats for everything except the direct option. Grr. The flight times are awful with kids for non direct, but if I buy another airline I can’t swap later. Will have to figure out what we want to do.