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Seattle and Southwest flights


webzila
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This is me just wondering about something I noticed...

I am looking for round trip tickets from HOU to Seattle 2nd week of June on Southwest Airlines (In: Monday / Out: Tues of following week) and noticed that there are hardly any non-stop flights, prices are very high and up until May there aren't even any flights listed after ~12PM at all. 

 

Just wondering if someone happen to know if something occurred between Southwest and Sea-Tec?

I last did this trip 4 years ago and there were many flights and they were much much cheaper. Wondering if something happened like a contract dispute, etc...but couldn't find anything in the news.

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12 minutes ago, Husky61 said:

Why don't you consider calling Southwest and talking to them about this?😄

 

Then what's the point of this forum. I'm just looking for opinion or insights from anyone.

 

As far as calling the airline. Unless I can reach someone in corporate, it would do no good to contact their general customer service and ask oh why are your ticket prices higher than they were before 😉

 

Again, I'm just wondering and throwing it out there in a forum with other travelers.

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1 hour ago, webzila said:

Just wondering if someone happen to know if something occurred between Southwest and Sea-Tec?

I last did this trip 4 years ago and there were many flights and they were much much cheaper. Wondering if something happened like a contract dispute, etc...but couldn't find anything in the news.

Southwest had one of the biggest exposures to the 737Max issue and as a result had to reconfigure their schedule considerably to account for the fact that a large number of their fleet wasn't certified to operate-- about 5% of their planes are 737Max8. That could also be part of it. 

 

Alaska Airlines and to a lesser degree Delta are the dominant players at SEA-- might want to check them as they will most likely have more direct flights and possibly better pricing. 

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2 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Try United for non stops from Houston.

If you search one of the flight travel booking sites you will find all kinds of information.

 

Thanks. I tried United as well. Its similar result. High ticket prices and lack of daytime (non-stop) flights.

Same with Alaska Airlines.

I just used Southwest as a topic since I have been on that route before and can see a big change.

 

Main reason why I decided to ask is to me it seems that this change is with Northwest destinations like Seattle - others are OK.

I have trips planned to LA and Vegas - ticket prices were great. Recently I flown to Boston, Denver, and Ft. Lauderdale - lots of options and cheap prices

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Summer travel is peak travel time to Seattle, so ticket prices will reflect that.  An average day in August will have 149K folks passing thru SeaTac (arriving and departing).  SeaTac is the 8th busiest airport in the US.  Every day is August is busier than the day before Thanksgiving - really!

As for the non-stops, they just cost more.  Most of them leave their originating city very early in the morning, so the planes can either turnaround for the return trip, or continue on to another destination.

Hope a good sale pops up and you can find a good deal.

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6 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Summer travel is peak travel time to Seattle, so ticket prices will reflect that.  An average day in August will have 149K folks passing thru SeaTac (arriving and departing).  SeaTac is the 8th busiest airport in the US.  Every day is August is busier than the day before Thanksgiving - really!

As for the non-stops, they just cost more.  Most of them leave their originating city very early in the morning, so the planes can either turnaround for the return trip, or continue on to another destination.

Hope a good sale pops up and you can find a good deal.

 

That's a fair point about May through August which I considered. So I looked up first week of April just as a test. Cheapest ticket to fly to Seattle from Houston is 300 and no non-stop flights at all. Then to fly back cheapest is 178 but at 7 AM and there are 0 flights after 12 pm which is strange.

 

* Checking Southwest only. Hence wondering if something is going on between them and the airport in Seattle

 

Maybe it's the MAX aircraft but that's just 5% of their fleet.

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Seattle isn't a hub for Southwest.  Alaska and Delta have more gates assigned to them because SeaTac is a hub for them.  Also, my spouse mentioned that he didn't think the Southwest flight info would show up on airplane flight booking sites like Kayak because Southwest won't pay the commission to the booking site. 

Good luck!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, liketraveling said:

The last two years out of SFO there have not been very many flight on Southwest that are non stop.

 

i have used Alaska or Delta.  I have a credit card for both that allow for the first piece of luggage free.

Ah...the OP is asking about IAH-SEA.

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6 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Ah...the OP is asking about IAH-SEA.

I realize that!  
 

Just trying to show that Southwest has cut allot of their non-stop flights in other places

other than IAH.

 

They have also cut them to San Diego and Salt Lake City from the SFO Airport.  
 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Looking at random dates in July, I see 5 United nonstops spread throughout the day...from about $290-340. IAH-SEA. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

 

Thanks all for the input. I will monitor the prices.

There are 2 airport in Houston so I'm specifically looking for flights from HOU to SEA and back to HOU.

 

For me HOU is 15 min away while IAH is 1h15m

HOU is pretty much all SWA so that's what I'm checking directly through them which is the only option. *Also HOU is one of the major operating bases for Southwest (they don't operate from IAH)*

 

Last time I flew to SEA few years ago I paid around 170 per person each way so 290 seems like alot. I found 1 good flight to SEA for 156.

Right now the issue is coming back.

 

Only direct flight back to HOU I see is 10:15 am. I don't think we can make that. My wife and I are usually first off the ship but even then that's cutting it close and we will have our 8 yr old. He slows us down.

😁

 

Then only other reasonable fights are $180 which are late afternoon and have stops and with 2 hr time change don't arrive until following day past midnight.

 

Doesn't seem like I have any choice here because I seriously doubt that SWA will add any additional flights. My only hope is that they lower the price even more.

 

Thanks again

Edited by webzila
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15 hours ago, webzila said:

 

* Checking Southwest only. Hence wondering if something is going on between them and the airport in Seattle

Theres no issue between Southwest and the airport. Southwest has clearly made a business decision that these flights weren't generating the yield they needed to keep them in place or that the competition on the route from other carriers was more than they wanted to challenge. 

 

10 hours ago, webzila said:

Doesn't seem like I have any choice here because I seriously doubt that SWA will add any additional flights. My only hope is that they lower the price even more.

What you see is what you get at this point-- Southwest's schedule is baked for June and won't be adding any flights. The reason for not adding any additional flights is so they can try to keep prices higher on the existing ones. Adding additional capacity would cause them to possibly have to sell it at lower rates. 

 

10 hours ago, webzila said:

Only direct flight back to HOU I see is 10:15 am. I don't think we can make that. My wife and I are usually first off the ship but even then that's cutting it close and we will have our 8 yr old. He slows us down.

I agree with you on this one-- even if you didn't have an 8 year old in tow everything would have to work out perfectly for you to make that. 

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How feasible is 11:25 AM flight out of SEA on a Tuesday?

We are pretty good with getting off the ship ASAP. I remember last time we had a 1 PM flight out of SEA and made it to the airport so early that check in wasn't even allowed yet.

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1 hour ago, webzila said:

How feasible is 11:25 AM flight out of SEA on a Tuesday?

We are pretty good with getting off the ship ASAP. I remember last time we had a 1 PM flight out of SEA and made it to the airport so early that check in wasn't even allowed yet.

11am is commonly discussed here as the earliest recommended flight.

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On 1/19/2020 at 8:57 AM, webzila said:

 

Then what's the point of this forum. I'm just looking for opinion or insights from anyone.

 

As far as calling the airline. Unless I can reach someone in corporate, it would do no good to contact their general customer service and ask oh why are your ticket prices higher than they were before 😉

 

Again, I'm just wondering and throwing it out there in a forum with other travelers.

What are the exact dates?  There is a nonstop from HOU to SEA on Jun 8;    There are many flights leaving after noon, but none are non stop.

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1 minute ago, awhcruiser said:

What are the exact dates?  There is a nonstop from HOU to SEA on Jun 8;    There are many flights leaving after noon, but none are non stop.

 

Its SEA to HOU on Jun 16. There are no nonstops except for one at 10. It's not a huge deal in the long run. Just prefer to get home as quickly as possible especially with a kid.

 

Going to track and consider the 11:25 AM flight. Thinking we can make it. It was $230 just a day ago and now it's $180

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28 minutes ago, awhcruiser said:

Good to know.  Do you have mobility or other issues that prevent you from taking a one stop flight?

 

Nope, just the desire to get back home before my son's ADHD meds wear off at night 😱😁

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