The image is a flight itinerary for a trip from Los Angeles, CA to Phoenix, AZ. The details are as follows: - Departure: Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at 6:30 PM from Los Angeles, CA (LAX) on Southwest Airlines. - Arrival: 7:50 PM in Phoenix, AZ (PHX). - Flight number: 3216. - The flight duration is 1 hour and 20 minutes, and it is a nonstop flight. - WiFi is available on the flight. - The total price for the flight is $49.00. - The fare type is "Wanna Get Away."

Southwest 72 Hour Fall Travel Sale Starts Today – $49/$99/$129/$149

ByThe Miles Professor

Southwest Airlines just launched its big summer sale for fall travel. Many fares are a considerable savings over the usual rates and you can get a pretty good deal booking in the next few days.  To travel, you must book by June 5 for  travel August 25 through December 17, 2014.

The way the sale works is that fares are as low as $49 and are based on the route you fly. Travel on Fridays and Sundays is, unfortunately, excluded so you can’t really fly for a quick weekend. There’s also a blackout day of  September 1 (Labor Day) and November 21 to December 2, 2014 (Thanksgiving Week).

As an example, flights from Los Angeles to Phoenix are $49 each way on many dates. This is typically $100 each way so an opportunity to save quite a bit.

Los Angeles to Phoenix for $49 each way
Los Angeles to Phoenix for $49 each way

Date Restrictions

As I said, travel Friday and Sunday is excluded but there are a few more restrictions based on location:

  • Travel to Florida or Nevada is valid Sunday through Wednesday only
  • Travel from Florida or Nevada is valid Tuesday through Friday only
  • Travel between Nevada and Florida is valid on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only
  • Fares are not available from Richmond, VA

Using Miles and Points

Southwest Rapid Rewards points have a fixed value of 1.43 cents towards airfare. What that means is that when the price of the ticket goes down, the number of points needed to redeem drops too. Another perk of using Southwest Rapid Rewards points is that you can cancel without penalty. You simply receive the points back into your account.

You can also earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points by transferring them from Chase Ultimate Rewards. You can read about How to Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Airlines and Hotels. 

A final option is to use Barclaycard Arrival miles, which can be redeemed for any travel expense as a statement credit. The sign-up bonus of 40,000 miles is worth $440 in travel credit that can be used toward Southwest flights, among others. You can read my full review of the  Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard.

2 Comments

  1. Check your existing reservations. Southwest makes it relatively easy to cancel and rebook at the new lower price, refunding the miles spent directly into your account, and/or making any funds left over available for future bookings (remember to write down the confirmation numbers and names and amounts).

  2. Noticed you caught that the travel promotion isn’t available for Richmond, VA….. Wonder if there’s something brewing with SWA service out of RIC. (major flight cut-backs ahead, as part of consolidation?) Lately, they’ve tended to have really low fares on the two routes available from RIC, via ATL or MCO. Have also noticed that RIC seems to be the one airport where SWA has no plans as yet for starting international trips…. (even though you could with Airtran….. grrrrrr….) Instead, to fly to any of the new SWA destinations in the Caribbean or Mexico, one has to fly first from RIC to ATL or MCO, or start at Norfolk or one of the Washington airports…. Has me wondering if a nasty shoe is about to drop re. SWA service to Richmond….?

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