Southwest-Non Stop

Sounds like Southwest took away a 'long, thin' route where they feel more comfortable routing everyone headed west through Houston, Dallas, St Louis, etc. Just because your flights have always been full doesn't mean the airline has made money on the route, they could've been $75 fares and with the price of fuel they don't feel this specific flight is needed. It sucks but it's also why we have other airlines to choose from

As far as the fares, pricing is based on inventory and demand. So if southwest cancelled the Vegas flight but you still have the same number of passengers from Birmingham, now they have less seats overall and their prices jump up. Again it's a pain in the arse, but there's a few tips I've found and I'm posting those below.

First, if you see a flight price that works for you this summer/fall, book it. All the airlines allow you to rebook for free currently and receive an ecredit and Southwest is especiy good at this. For timing of booking flights, this has changed during COVID. Ive been booking 4-6 months in advance and having a few schedule changes. Once the schedule changes hit around the 3 month mark, then the pricing severely increases until the 1 month mark. At that point, they're realizing oh shite we're too expensive and they lower pricing on flights that need more tickets sold.

Example-Booked a one-way Nola to Seattle on Southwest for memorial day weekend in late February for $250. Shitty flight times and two connections so I've been looking at changing ever since I booked. Flight prices went way up between February and current until yesterday. Looked online and found a perfect 1 stop connection through Denver for $225. So I got a $25 credit and was able to get better flight times, but we're only 3.5 weeks away from the flight. There's no way I would've waited this long to book any flights if it was for a trip I knew I had to take (wedding, funeral, family trip, etc) so that's likely what the airlines are banking on. They know you need to take a trip and you're not waiting until the last minute to book. Hope this helps in some way

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You can also check repeatedly up until the day of your flight to see if SWA has lowered the fare

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Only book one ways for this…

I’ve played the southwest game for a while and have more miles than I can ever use…. However, I’ve switched over to United now.

No reason to have status with SW when they allow 10-20 “pre boarders” on before you if your A-16 position and you end up in row 4 or 5 bc of it.

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I pretty much only fly Delta now,

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Like I said, I’ve rolled over to United due to SW’s bullshite and how their best customers get treated. And I’m not the only one, have run into numerous people recently who have left SW.

I’ll give my 15-20k this year to United, although wish Delta was more prominent here.

Just booked this same r/t 05/14-05/17 for $209

The last several times I’ve checked SW flights out of Bham, the nonstop or one stop flights were all more expensive than Delta. This goes back 2 or 3 years. Could have just been the routes I checked.

Back in the late 90’s, we used to be able to get RT, one way tickets to Chicago for under $100. We’d fly up early one morning, go to a Cubs game, and either fly back that night, or stay up all night partying and fly back the next morning. Flew to Vegas around that same time for a little over $100. It did stop in Houston though.

I do t know this for sure, but my guess is when SW started servicing Atlanta, prices here went up.

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Whats funny? When you travel for business, spend 15+k on flights with a carrier, have to hop off quick to make meetings, etc… you should be primary and in first few rows like every other carrier.

SW treats their best customers like shite. At least they fixed one issue, assigning companions the same boarding position as primary.

Southwest sucks.

I had a companion pass for 10 plus years. Lost it last year with work travel reductions, and now since not "married" to SW any longer, I am over them too.

What has been your issues with SW? I haven't had a huge issues with them lately.

I fly routinely for work (probably $20-25K in airline travel a year). SW is convenient out of MSY. I qualify for A-List Preferred and the Companion pass every year so that helps with points, family vacation (free wife ticket, etc). I have found many more delays and issues with their WIFI lately, but this has been an industry wide issues post-covid.

I would prefer Delta (or United) but the SW rewards program has been hard to beat.