You may have read about the awesome 40% off Southwest fare sale that launched today, but if not, it is a pretty good sale. To get the 40% off you must enter the promo code “BIGDEAL40″ and travel round trip between 11/28 – 12/12 or 1/7 – 2/14. The discount is taken off of the “Wanna Get Away” fares and is not valid on Sundays or for travel to/from Ft. Myers, and a few other routes/dates have some blackout periods as well. You must book by October 11th.
I played with the sale some and found Houston – New York city round trip for $155 in December! That means you could experience all the magic that NYC has during the Holiday Season for an extremely reasonable price! We already have our tickets to NYC in December, but if we didn’t I’d be all over this sale.
If you are lucky enough to have a Companion Pass, then that means that two of you are flying for that price! If you want to book using Rapid Reward points you won’t get the 40% discount.
I love this sale, but I will love even more if it starts a fare war among the other major US carriers. It appears it already has. I have nothing against Southwest, but United is just a more convenient option for my family, so I am anxious to see what routes they will match. It seems like there are some good deals prompted by this sale. For example, The Flight Deal has posted Washington DC – Ft. Lauderdale for $133 all in round trip on United from 11/29 – 2/14. The Flight Deal has also posted about another United sale from Boston – New Orleans RT for $166. I’m also seeing Houston – Atlanta for $167 RT on US Airways and Houston to NYC on American for $179 RT in December.
Basically it’s an airline sale festivus today. Hop on ITA, Hipmunk, Kayak, Southwest, or wherever you like to do your airfare shopping and see what you can find. I would also keep an eye on The Flight Deal and on the Mileage Run forum on Flyertalk.
These fares won’t last long, so take full advantage of 24 hour free cancellations, free 24 hour holds on American, and even FareLock on United. Let me know what deals you come across!
“airline sale festivus”? That means the sale doesn’t end until you pin Frank Costanza. Don’t do that!
CLT to BWI r/t $89, various dates Nov – Jan on UsAirways.
Thank You, Thank You, MP! Your suggestion that there was a fare war had me searching for paid tickets to a family wedding in December. Our family of 4 will fly DFW to IND for $148 rt per person on American. I had recently bought AA gift cards on PlasticJungle for 9% off (and TopcashBack 4%). This brought our per person cost to $130.
@Linda, that’s awesome!! Congrats on scoring a great deal.
In case you have points with Southwest that you would like to use, check out that flights from Houston to San Francisco, Reno and Key West. Flights are pricing out at under 6,000 Rapid Rewards points each way and offer mixed availability from October to April.
SFO to SNA for $108 round trip on United to take the kids to the Happiest Place on Earth. Used Citi thank you points. 8300 points per ticket. Sorta feels like the old days when southwest used to have $29 each way fares.
Wow- booked RT tickets to SFO in Feb. for $230/pp and RT tickets to Charleston for $222. All on United which is great for me since I live in Houston.
Thanks Southwest!
@Shari, awesome! I scooped up some deals out of Houston on United as well.