Insane. The one word that describes airfare prices this summer.
I’ve never seen anything like it. After falling off a cliff due to COVID-19, we’ve now traded the era of deals for the era of pain.
It doesn’t matter whether you are looking for cash or award tickets. Both have been affected. Award travel searches for any summer destination has been brutal.
However, I did pull the trigger on a trip on Southwest Airlines before fares got even higher. It is by far the most expensive Southwest ticket I’ve booked with my Rapid Rewards points, even after considering the use of a Companion Pass.
Booking Tickets for Two, Then Three
If I told you I spent 113,156 Rapid Rewards points on Southwest tickets, you could honestly ask me whether I purchased as few as five or as many as twelve. I wouldn’t bat an eye. I should get you at least four. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than about 14,000 points per direction.
But no. That was for two tickets. Two domestic, summer tickets. At a cost of 56,578 per person, this is effectively 28,289 per direction. It’s not the worst Wanna Get Away fare I’ve ever seen, but it’s in the neighborhood.
Fortunately, this came out a bit better once I added my other son as the third passenger, thanks to my newly-minted Companion Pass. This comes to a cost of 37,719 Rapid Rewards per person, still making it the most expensive Southwest ticket I’ve ever booked.
Final Thoughts
If you would have told me it was going to cost ~$2,500 to fly three people round-trip between California and Missouri this summer, I would have thought you crazy. Sure, summer prices get high. But not that high. Silly me.
Thank goodness for miles and points. I don’t know what I’d do without them. This hurts in terms of the number of points spent. But it is also from a single card bonus. I’ll chalk up my most expensive Southwest ticket in the #wins column.
Unfortunately I got you beat. 2 x 31,197 Southwest points for a New Orleans to Orlando flight All of the Wanna Get Away fares sold out but this wasn’t even Business Select prices.
Ouch. That hurts. This whole summer hurts. Make it stop.
That is bonkers. My home airport is in Missouri and I think it’s a lot likely you can pull this trip off on Southwest for less points, especially if you are willing to drive a bit. Can you share your origin and destination airports and approximate time frame for this trip?
SMF to STL, flying out tomorrow. Booked the ticket 6 weeks ago, and added the companion later. Looked at all combinations of SFO/OAK/SMF to MCI/STL. SMF to STL was both cheapest and most convenient.
It is truly crazy. Never have seen anything like this summer.
Tomorrow is rough for fares. Normally the Frontier flights into MCI are a great source of last minute fares and price pressure but they’re not running the DEN flight on Tuesday and F9’s LAS-MCI doesn’t start for a few months.