Saturday, November 1, 2008

Falling Airline Prices


I heard in passing yesterday (on the news or somewhere) that prices on holiday airfare were starting to lower considerably. We bought tickets on Southwest a while ago for Mitch to fly to Philly to pick up Sarah for Christmas -- on December 23rd. Ugh. It was the most we've ever paid for airfare for that trip! When I heard that prices were falling, I immediately headed to Southwest's website to see if our fare had lowered. Sure enough, it had!

We love Southwest for a number of reasons, but our favorite Southwest perk is the ability to go back later and "change" your flight so you pay LESS for the airfare. In this case I "re-booked" Mitch and Sarah on the exact same flight (same time and date) and because the airfare was cheaper today than when we bought it, we now have a $62 credit to use on a future flight. You have to use the credit within 1 year of the original date you purchased the flight, but that is not a problem for us.

We could have saved closer to $200, but that would've required a flight with two stops and we avoid that at all costs! Southwest does not charge for the change even if we had changed the date or the flight -- we still would've netted a savings in this case. On most other airlines, any change will incur a minimum of a $100 fee (if that hasn't gone up recently).

If you've thought about traveling over the holidays, I suggest going shopping for flights -- we definitely saw a drop in prices and saved ourselves some cash on our next flight.

6 Thoughts From Others:

Nerdy said...

I heard that also. But I've decided to drive home for the holidays. I want to take my babies with me and I'm guessing that since I have to drug Cooper for a drive, I may have to knock him out completely if I tried to fly him home. :)

Camille said...

I wish we were close enough to drive!!

ErinOrtlund said...

Nice! So does Mitch always go pick up Sarah?

Camille said...

Always. In 4 years he has missed one trip -- the day Ella was born. It averages about 3 trips a year.

Anonymous said...

Yes, prices did go down. I noticed that too... finally some good news!

However, I find taxes high as usual.

Camille said...

Zhu -- aren't the taxes awful? I don't mind paying for a service, but at the price we pay in taxes for our tickets, flying should be more enjoyable!

I saved ANOTHER $126 today by "changing" their Southwest flights again. Of course, the credit has to be used by June and we have no where to go between now then. But maybe now we will!

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