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Post by fuzzylogic on Aug 22, 2024 8:52:02 GMT -5
Southwest opened spring break weeks for sale today... and boy did they go fast! I think I got in at a pretty good time in that I could at least get a WGA fare for the Saturday morning "get the kids up at 3am flight". Already the entire morning is gone and most of Friday and Sunday too! This is crazy. Maybe they put out fewer WGAs than they used to. Anybody else planning on spring break? Seeing the same thing?
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Post by helenabear on Aug 22, 2024 9:18:07 GMT -5
I booked this morning and even changed flight time after booking since my kid said he wanted the 5am flight out versus the 10:40am. I didn't have issues switching. Prices seemed good for spring break. I chose a Monday through Thursday and saved a little bit of money then doing the traditional weekend fly in and out.
I did go back and looked and saw that the lowest fare on Saturday and Sunday departures of our spring break are sold out for the earliest flight, but the next level is still available for purchase. We have avoided certain days to fly out of just to avoid extra costs for spring break. Our spring break trip is not the longest trip. This one is just going to be me and my kid as well. So I think it looks normal compared to usual spring break time for us. Flights were a little cheaper than in the past too. I paid almost what we usually pay for regular trips. We had more flight choices than usual to which was nice.
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Post by brp on Aug 22, 2024 10:33:52 GMT -5
Anybody else planning on spring break? Seeing the same thing? Given how wide the definition of "spring break" is considering all the different schools, I'm surprised it went this quickly. Spring break is like a month, so there should be a lot of flights. It's not like Thanksgiving, for example.
As for us, not sure when the dates are this year, so not sure if we're doing something then. And not looking at WN, generally.
Cheers.
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Post by eandjmom on Aug 22, 2024 10:51:03 GMT -5
this year we have to shift due to my work calendar so we are Thursday to Wednesday. It seems to have helped with flight prices.
Our spring break is 3/31 to 4/4. This is pretty typical for the Midwest.
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Post by helenabear on Aug 22, 2024 11:00:17 GMT -5
Anybody else planning on spring break? Seeing the same thing? Given how wide the definition of "spring break" is considering all the different schools, I'm surprised it went this quickly. Spring break is like a month, so there should be a lot of flights. It's not like Thanksgiving, for example. As for us, not sure when the dates are this year, so not sure if we're doing something then. And not looking at WN, generally. Cheers. I live in an area where different school districts have different spring breaks, but when you look at the dates of the possible Spring Breaks that don't change much from Year to year, you can see trends. If I were to look at a spring break date that might be common in one area, but not here, I wouldn't see the differences and prices and such. I guarantee you that when they look at my home airport, they know which schools and how many people usually travel during those spring breaks. In my case, our school lines up with Ohio State spring break most years, so they know they're going to get a lot of people traveling during that time. |
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Post by brp on Aug 22, 2024 11:07:41 GMT -5
Given how wide the definition of "spring break" is considering all the different schools, I'm surprised it went this quickly. Spring break is like a month, so there should be a lot of flights. It's not like Thanksgiving, for example. As for us, not sure when the dates are this year, so not sure if we're doing something then. And not looking at WN, generally. Cheers. I live in an area where different school districts have different spring breaks, but when you look at the dates of the possible Spring Breaks that don't change much from Year to year, you can see trends. If I were to look at a spring break date that might be common in one area, but not here, I wouldn't see the differences and prices and such. I guarantee you that when they look at my home airport, they know which schools and how many people usually travel during those spring breaks. In my case, our school lines up with Ohio State spring break most years, so they know they're going to get a lot of people traveling during that time. Good point. I was thinking in a nationwide sense but, of course, it's the local timing that matter most and national may be less important, as you say.
Here in the Bay Area, with three airports and many schools, we have a pretty large distribution, so may not see it concentrated as much as a smaller region.
We target mid-week flights (because we can) and that tends to mitigate the impact. I know that not all can do that, so jumping in early, as some here have done, is great!
Cheers.
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Post by helenabear on Aug 22, 2024 11:16:48 GMT -5
I live in an area where different school districts have different spring breaks, but when you look at the dates of the possible Spring Breaks that don't change much from Year to year, you can see trends. If I were to look at a spring break date that might be common in one area, but not here, I wouldn't see the differences and prices and such. I guarantee you that when they look at my home airport, they know which schools and how many people usually travel during those spring breaks. In my case, our school lines up with Ohio State spring break most years, so they know they're going to get a lot of people traveling during that time. Good point. I was thinking in a nationwide sense but, of course, it's the local timing that matter most and national may be less important, as you say. Here in the Bay Area, with three airports and many schools, we have a pretty large distribution, so may not see it concentrated as much as a smaller region. We target mid-week flights (because we can) and that tends to mitigate the impact. I know that not all can do that, so jumping in early, as some here have done, is great! Cheers. We have one major airport for our large area which makes it easier on them to know when I think. Dates for colleges and major school districts are published enough that we all know when they are. We have roughly 3 different weeks depending on where passover and easter fall that they can follow. For spring break we tend to do weekdays as well to avoid super high, and we may or may not try in the summer when spouse joins. With newer job he needs to see how personal days really play out with vacation and all that |
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Post by tomandrobin on Aug 22, 2024 13:47:55 GMT -5
We had nothing to book on this release of flights.
Our next planned trip to book airfare will be over Memorial Day Weekend.
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Post by allanadale on Aug 22, 2024 14:03:31 GMT -5
Someone upthread say they thought prices were pretty good for spring break and...I very much did not. WGA fares approaching $300 one-way out of Chicago are, like, double what they were even last year, it seems. I admit this is all anecdotal and reliant on my ever-failing memory, but still. It was disappointing.
And as mentioned those '5 AM' flights were gone fast - one-way tickets in the mid $600s? No thanks. We'll drive.
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Post by jedimom3 on Aug 22, 2024 14:07:36 GMT -5
OMG, we have never really been a part of this kind of craziness, since we don't fly much, but today, DH was on early trying to book flights for Hawaii, for spring break in march. yikes, they went fast, and price went up before his mom could book her ticket!! It was crazy!! had no idea.
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Post by captjacksfamily on Aug 22, 2024 14:20:16 GMT -5
I feel for you guys, it is so nice to get to a point where you don't have to worry about school or sports team schedules!
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Post by capeokw56 on Aug 22, 2024 16:05:06 GMT -5
I feel for you guys, it is so nice to get to a point where you don't have to worry about school or sports team schedules! I agree. It's really nice not having to deal with school schedules..... until your daughter decides to become a school Social Worker. |
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Post by helenabear on Aug 22, 2024 18:10:07 GMT -5
We had nothing to book on this release of flights. Our next planned trip to book airfare will be over Memorial Day Weekend. Probably going to miss you by just days again aren't i? I think School this year gets out several days after Memorial Day so we won't be heading there until the Friday or Saturday after school gets out probably. |
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Post by amdev on Aug 23, 2024 6:25:52 GMT -5
We have to be in Tampa for a wedding in mid-March and I checked the flights today, whoa.....not happy. I too am seeing WGA fares close to $300 one way. Will have to check some other airlines. Definitely not spending close to $2000 for flights to a wedding.
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Post by bakerworld on Aug 23, 2024 8:12:39 GMT -5
We're flying in late Feb/early March and I haven't been thrilled with SW(WN) flight times at all. Think we're gonna go for American this time.
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