WOW - SW - what happened?

[kristenrice]

Are you flying from Grand Rapids, MI by any chance??
Your thoughts mirror mine. Ugh.

SWA (AirTran originally) was amazing when they first came to GR because they were by far the cheapest and they almost always had non-stop offerings. I was hoping that they would force Delta, United and American to lower their prices a little, but no...still $500-$600 to get to/from Orlando...and now, SWA is falling right in line with the rest of them. I'm going to start driving to Chicago. Since I'd have a 3-hour layover there anyways, I might as well make the 3-hour drive and fly non-stop for half the price. In a similar vein, I mentioned the flight (on Delta) to Orlando to my daughter and said we'd have a 2-hour layover in Detroit. She looked at me and said, "We're FLYING to Detroit? Mom, it's like a 2-hour drive...why don't we just drive there? Why do we have to FLY to Detroit?" Unfortunately, the non-stops from Detroit on Delta are almost the same price as out of Grand Rapids so there is no cost-savings to make the drive just to fly non-stop.

 

[Ngwira]

I’m happy I snagged JetBlue flights several months ago for our August trip. People told me to wait for SW but glad I didn’t.

 

[MikeOhio]

I just booked nonstop from Columbus for 220 per person. No complaints from me.

 

[The Mayor]

Plus the Non-Stop times s$uck!!1 Early morning or late evening from the Manchester, NH airport and back.

 

[ladynmom94]

I had 2 of our 4 flights booked with points returning from MCO to MKE on an afternoon flight. I went to book another with more points & the wanna getaway option is sold out not only that flight but a few others that day too. So I had to cancel the 2 i previously booked. I looked at flying in/out of Chicago but it looks like the same issue there too. I've never seen so many sold out wanna getaway fares before. And I stalk SW a LOT!

 

[katallo]

Here is what doesn't make sense. If airlines are trying to fill planes by adding stops I get it. But, there is a flight on SW from Tampa to Richmond that leaves at noon and arrives at 9pm. Here is the wacky part, flight leaves Tampa, stops in Pittsburgh, change of planes in Atlanta and arrives in Richmond. LOL No wonder it takes so long!

 

[maxiesmom]

Here is an example of why Southwest is so ridiculous. I put in dates for a round trip flight to Orlando in June. Flying on a Saturday and Friday. On the way down, the earliest possible arrival using Southwest is 2:25 pm. There is one flight with that arrival, one flight with a 2:45 pm arrival, and the rest arrive at 7:45 pm or later. 7:45 pm or later!!!!! Not a single non stop either.

And both of those flights that arrive around 2:30 take over 6 hours to get you there. Because who doesn't want a 3 hour layover?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Here is what doesn't make sense. If airlines are trying to fill planes by adding stops I get it. But, there is a flight on SW from Tampa to Richmond that leaves at noon and arrives at 9pm. Here is the wacky part, flight leaves Tampa, stops in Pittsburgh, change of planes in Atlanta and arrives in Richmond. LOL No wonder it takes so long!

There's always been flight paths like that with many airlines.

Heck for me in KC there are times where a flight path goes down to TX only to east again and adds many hrs to the travel time. I just never take those flight paths that are always really expensive too for my airport and take me in crazy directions.

I'll admit though 9 hrs is a long time. Usually crazy flight paths for me hover around the near 6 to 7 hrs time frame when really a non-stop would be half to less than half that time.

 

[shoreward]

Flights have been flying full for at least the past year, with demand increasing. With only so many aircraft, the capacity is fixed. Southwest retired 79 of the "Classic" 737-300 planes, while continuing to add new larger capacity aircraft in a continuing process. Additional 737 Max aircraft with greater capacity will continue to be received over the next years, but with new routes and markets, existing schedules are being adjusted. Southwest is the largest domestic airline, carrying 125 million pax in 2017.

I noticed that MKE-MCO-MKE nonstops, and even direct flights, were reduced in the last schedule extension. That seems to be the pattern for smaller and mid-size markets. Once more aircraft are added and the schedule moves into the holidays, more Orlando flights might be added.

 

[DisneyZB]

I just booked nonstop from Columbus for 220 per person. No complaints from me.

Things are improving in Cleveland as well. Got a direct flight for $205 a person and the flight is at noon both ways!! I prefer not to start my vacation by having to get up at the crack of dawn to reach my plane.

 

[Denise W]

Things are improving in Cleveland as well. Got a direct flight for $205 a person and the flight is at noon both ways!! I prefer not to start my vacation by having to get up at the crack of dawn to reach my plane.

Direct, not non stop? Direct stops at an airport but you do not change planes. It is not the same as non stop.
Dense

 

[Jestocost]

STL-MCO-STL non-stops in August were as low as $212 PP, but that required a 6 a.m. STL-MCO flight. I went with an 8:30 a.m. STL-MCO and a 7:15 p.m. MCO-STL for $232 PP.

For quite a while we were paying $400+ PP for non-stop flights so this is a welcome change. In addition, non-stops were pretty limited for awhile but there now seem to be four or more per day.

 

[DebbieB]

Most week days in August now have only two non stops out of PHL. I know BWI is a hub for SW, but for years we had more direct flights out of PHL. Something changed....

Hard to compete with another airline’s hub (American). They pulled away from competing in many cities with other airline’s hubs.

 

[DisneyZB]

Direct, not non stop? Direct stops at an airport but you do not change planes. It is not the same as non stop.
Dense

My bad. Meant to say Non-stop. My vernacular is a bit out of date.

 

[focusondisney]

I had 2 of our 4 flights booked with points returning from MCO to MKE on an afternoon flight. I went to book another with more points & the wanna getaway option is sold out not only that flight but a few others that day too. So I had to cancel the 2 i previously booked. I looked at flying in/out of Chicago but it looks like the same issue there too. I've never seen so many sold out wanna getaway fares before. And I stalk SW a LOT!

I have seen this happen for the last year. I saw it for my trips last year in May & December & for our upcoming trip in April. We fly from Buffalo but when it first happened last year, I checked at least a dozen cities & it was the same in all of them. When they came back for me, I checked & they were back in every city they were previously gone from. I think this is SW's new business model personally. Open low, raise by the middle of the day, take away WGA fares & scare people into booking higher priced tickets. Bring them back randomly then go up & down a couple of times.

It used to be easy to book SW but they seem to be playing a lot of games lately. You can still get very good prices, but it means checking the website like a stalker. They still have several nonstops to & from Buffalo at good times & we just earned a companion pass last month. So we will be flying them at least thru 2019. I still keep playing the game tho to make sure I have the best price for the ticket we are paying for.

I did post about it a couple of times on other threads. Will try to find one of them.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Here is what doesn't make sense. If airlines are trying to fill planes by adding stops I get it. But, there is a flight on SW from Tampa to Richmond that leaves at noon and arrives at 9pm. Here is the wacky part, flight leaves Tampa, stops in Pittsburgh, change of planes in Atlanta and arrives in Richmond. LOL No wonder it takes so long!

It's almost as if SW is copying what other airlines did for years. We have flights offered with 2 stops - most expensive of the choices - right next to 1 stop flights for the same times and less $. Perhaps SW thinks it will make make me feel good about choosing the 1 stops? I guess - way back when - I would choose that because I loved the takeoff and landing part but now I am sane.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I have seen this happen for the last year. I saw it for my trips last year in May & December & for our upcoming trip in April. We fly from Buffalo but when it first happened last year, I checked at least a dozen cities & it was the same in all of them. When they came back for me, I checked & they were back in every city they were previously gone from. I think this is SW's new business model personally. Open low, raise by the middle of the day, take away WGA fares & scare people into booking higher priced tickets. Bring them back randomly then go up & down a couple of times.

It used to be easy to book SW but they seem to be playing a lot of games lately. You can still get very good prices, but it means checking the website like a stalker. They still have several nonstops to & from Buffalo at good times & we just earned a companion pass last month. So we will be flying them at least thru 2019. I still keep playing the game tho to make sure I have the best price for the ticket we are paying for.

I did post about it a couple of times on other threads. Will try to find one of them.

I will say though because SWA doesn't have change fees and you can easily get a travel credit people are much more willing to purchase tickets and change them when needed.

I'm not going to pay $200 to change my flight on Delta for example so if I book with them I'm going to make darn sure my plans are set in stone. When we flew to Hawaii via Delta in 2016 we booked our flights when the price was going up and we never looked back at the prices. When we flew to WDW via SWA in 2017 we booked on release day and a sale came out about a month later and we rebooked for lower fare and I stalked the heck out of SWA.

I don't know if SWA really is as you say 'take away WGA fares & scare people into booking higher priced tickets' or if it's more people are more fluid in their bookings with SWA thus causing more changes in availability of number of tickets at X price. They could have also adjusted the number of seats available at X price over time though. And as it has been if say there are only 2 tickets left at X price if you input 3 passengers you're going to pay the higher priced amount for all 3 passengers. If you're willing to book separate reservations you could get those last 2 tickets at X price and pay the higher price for only that 3rd one.

 

[focusondisney]

These are the posts I made about the WGA fares disappearing & then coming back for,my trips last May & December. Sorr, I don't know how to link to them in my iPad.


.

 

[Flayre]

It's almost as if SW is copying what other airlines did for years. We have flights offered with 2 stops - most expensive of the choices - right next to 1 stop flights for the same times and less $. Perhaps SW thinks it will make make me feel good about choosing the 1 stops? I guess - way back when - I would choose that because I loved the takeoff and landing part but now I am sane.

All depends on the size of your market. If you are in a city that is connected to multiple "hub" cities, you are won't see the 2-stop flights typically. However, if you are in a limited market the system will try to offer 2-stop flights that still have legal connections to give more options.

As others have mentioned, there is a lot of moving things around right now with the retirement of the 733s and the MAX-8s coming online. Things will get jumbled a bit when Hawaii starts since that will be a MAX exclusive market and they'll shift that equipment west.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Here is what doesn't make sense. If airlines are trying to fill planes by adding stops I get it. But, there is a flight on SW from Tampa to Richmond that leaves at noon and arrives at 9pm. Here is the wacky part, flight leaves Tampa, stops in Pittsburgh, change of planes in Atlanta and arrives in Richmond. LOL No wonder it takes so long!

This is how the other airlines have done it for years. Everything that is old is new again. LOL