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Just some food for thought, When tkt. sales for January to March opened up yesterday, ( I had a calendar reminder that pinged me,) I reserved my planned trip via points and was not surprised that the nonstop roundtrip was 40,670 points given the higher cost of everything.
The surprising thing was that by this morning the "fare" was 45,982 points, a 13% increase overnight. This is not a knock on SWA in any way just an observation.
My advice to everyone on the board, Book Early
Safe travels
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Never hurts to book early if you are using points.
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I would argue unless you are planning to travel at a peak time (holidays, spring break, etc) don't book when the schedule opens. My observation is fares tend to come down after a bit. With points bookings there's no harm in booking early and checking frequently to re-price since points are easily refunded, but a cash booking leaves people with travel credit they may not want. Lately the sweet spot for low price with my flights has been about 3-4 weeks prior.
--TheMiddleSeat
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@TheMiddleSeat wrote:
I would argue unless you are planning to travel at a peak time (holidays, spring break, etc) don't book when the schedule opens. My observation is fares tend to come down after a bit. With points bookings there's no harm in booking early and checking frequently to re-price since points are easily refunded, but a cash booking leaves people with travel credit they may not want. Lately the sweet spot for low price with my flights has been about 3-4 weeks prior.
--TheMiddleSeat
Thanks! I also had that question!
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I agree with themiddlsear . high fares won't stick during the dead travel season.
Example: when the schedule for Sept. Oct. And Nov dropped the fares were the same as the prime summer prices. I knew they wouldn't stick . so I bought NOTHING.
Now those fares are 60 to 70 percent cheaper.
The same will happen with January and February. The only travel season deader than September thru the first half of November is January after the first thru mid February/
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May be I was too vague in my original post , my trip is for pleasure in January, the week after this new ticket window opened up, to the Caribbean, for a Saturday to Saturday vacation.
For work purposes, I agree, the sweet spot is about 4 to 6 weeks out, but in this case I am going to bet the fares won't being dropping unless another "shutdown" happens.
Why? The hotels on this island are mostly booked up at this point and the rates have escalated based on the availability/occupancy for that week in January. All those folks are flying there.
BTW, for this particular itinerary as of this morning the Wanna Get Away and Plus fares are now gone and there only 3 Business Select Fares left on the outbound flight. Oh, and the point total for the roundtrip is 71,629.
Your mileage may vary
Safe travels