Do Southwest flights get more expensive closer to date?

Though Southwest flights typically get more expensive the closer time ticks toward departure, if you keep your eye on the airfare price, you might get a deal.



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Specifically, plane tickets usually don't get cheaper closer to the departure date. Instead, flights tend to be the most inexpensive when you book between four months and three weeks before your departure date.

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The reality is that flight prices change constantly and at all hours of the day, adjusting to real-time demand. Airlines don't restock on the same day every week like a grocery store, so you won't find deals by waiting until Tuesdays to book.

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Airlines use complicated algorithms to set their pricing [...] The one factor which outweighs all of these and is the ultimate determiner for the price paid: demand, she said. Flight prices are all based on supply and demand, and when demand is high, so are the airfares.

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Watch for sales (They happen frequently) Southwest has an unofficial but predictable fare sale calendar that drops the prices on some routes nearly every Tuesday. While it's not a published policy, these generally run from Tuesday through Thursday and offer one-way prices on select routes as low as $39.

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Watch for sales (They happen frequently) Southwest has an unofficial but predictable fare sale calendar that drops the prices on some routes nearly every Tuesday. While it's not a published policy, these generally run from Tuesday through Thursday and offer one-way prices on select routes as low as $39.

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Is there a cheapest month to fly? If you're looking for a bargain month to travel, February is your best bet. Flights in January closely follow February for being most affordable. At the other end of the spectrum, December and July are the first and second most expensive months to travel, on average.

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Tuesday Around Midnight is the Cheapest Time to Book
In general, flights were slightly cheaper at midnight earlier in the week (Monday through Wednesday). However, this is only applicable to about 1.6% of U.S. markets, meaning that it's not likely you'll find the same savings on your specific route.

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The myth has been going around for years, but the truth is that flight prices don't go down on Tuesdays. To be fair, they did at one point in time, and savvy travelers could score a great deal late on a Tuesday night.

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No, Tuesday isn't the cheapest day of the week to buy flights. In the early days of online flight booking, airlines used to manually post their updated prices at a certain time of day each week.

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Travelers will find there's a window of time up till Tuesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time when Southwest makes an effort to match competitor sale prices, with the majority of sales ending by Thursday night. You might just be pleasantly surprised with some of the last-minute deals you come across within this timeframe.

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It's helpful if you can book flights as soon as they are released, but what time is that? Unfortunately, Southwest will not say what TIME on the release date they will release flights, though generally we have found that release times range between 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. ET.

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American Airlines and its partners – 2.81% of flights canceled. Frontier Airlines – 2.87% of flights canceled. Spirit Airlines – 3% of flights canceled. Southwest Airlines – 3.26% of flights canceled.

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Watch for sales (They happen frequently) Southwest has an unofficial but predictable fare sale calendar that drops the prices on some routes nearly every Tuesday. While it's not a published policy, these generally run from Tuesday through Thursday and offer one-way prices on select routes as low as $39.

MORE DETAILS