Southwest fares drop below $100 round trip in 72-hour sale
Southwest rolled out a 72-hour, nationwide fare sale Tuesday (Oct. 13) in which the prices of its flights are roughly based on distance. Dozens of the carrier's shortest routes are available for fares of less than $100 round trip.
The sale fares are good on Southwest's nonstop domestic flights between Dec. 2 and Dec. 16 and between Jan. 5 and Feb. 10. Friday and Sunday flights are excluded, and additional day-of-the-week restrictions apply for flights to Florida, Nevada and Puerto Rico.
Still, for customers who can navigate schedule restrictions, the sale drops fares to less than $100 round trip on many U.S. routes. But bargain hunters must act quick; the sale concludes at the end of the day Thursday (Oct. 15).
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The sale mirrors similar promotions from previous years in which Southwest pegged sale fares to mileage thresholds. In those sales, for example, Southwest priced flights of 500 miles or less at $49 each way and increased from there. Flights of 501 to 1,000 miles cost $99 each way and flights of 1,001 to 1,500 miles cost $129 each way. Flights of more than 1,500 miles went for $149 each way.
While Southwest no longer uses a precise mileage component, its latest sales have appeared to closely mimic the distance-based sale strategy. The carrier's four advertised sale-fare tiers — $49, $99, $129 and $149 each way — are in line with the fares it offered on its distance-based sales of years past.
The broad distance-oriented fare sales, which Southwest rolls out twice a year, usually cover travel for periods where demand typically is weak. The latest sale, for example, covers the first two weeks of December, when travel slows between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The sale also covers the first month of the year, another period when both corporate and leisure travel typically is light. By reducing fares during such times, Southwest and other airlines look to stimulate sales when they would otherwise fly with many empty seats.
Whatever the details, travelers can snag advertised round-trip fares as low as $98 on short routes. Many routes, such as Chicago-Minneapolis, Los Angeles-San Francisco and Baltimore-Boston, showed fares as low as $98 (including taxes). Fares on longer flights generally increased incrementally in correlation to the distance flown.
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Despite the deals, the scope of Southwest's recent big sales appears to have become somewhat more limited than in previous years. Some of the carrier's sub-500-mile routes – such as Atlanta-New Orleans and Baltimore-Charleston, S.C – were not being sold for the lowest $49 fares. Instead fares on those routes – and a number of Southwest's other short routes – were going for higher sale fares of $63 to $73 each way. And there were several cities -- mostly ones where the airline offers few flights of 500 miles or less -- where there were no $49 sale fares.
Still, those details and restrictions also were true during the carrier's last big sale in June, when Southwest had to apologize and extend its sale after a crush of deal-hunters overwhelmed its website.
On the flip side, a small number of other short Southwest routes – such as Chicago-Memphis and Charlotte-Baltimore – were available for even less than $49. Those routes displayed at least some fares ranging from $44 to $47 each way. Four routes from California's Ontario airport were listed at $46 each way, including Oakland, Phoenix and Sacramento.
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Deal-seekers will have to move fast to lock in those prices. Southwest's sale runs only through the end of the day Thursday (Oct. 15), and the cheapest fares will disappear as they sell out.
For the short routes that are priced at $49 each way, that makes for round-trip fares of less than $100 on many city-pairs -- including taxes and fees.
Among Southwest's sub-$100 round trip options: Chicago Midway- Pittsburgh; Boise-Spokane, Wash.; Charlotte-Baltimore; Cleveland-Baltimore; Columbus, Ohio-Washington National; Dallas Love-New Orleans; Denver-Salt Lake City; Detroit-Baltimore; Houston Hobby-Memphis; El Paso-Los Angeles; Grand Rapids, Mich.-St. Louis; Indianapolis-Washington National; Los Angeles-Albuquerque; Nashville-Kansas City; San Jose, Calif.-San Diego.; San Francisco-Los Angeles; St. Louis-Omaha; Austin-Harlingen, Texas; and Greenville, S.C.-Baltimore
Tickets must be purchased Thursday by 11:59 p.m. in the time zone of the originating city.