Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar: A Complete Guide

Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar: A Complete Guide - Southwest Airlines has long been an industry favorite for its often lower fares and some of its standard inclusions on each ticket—including an astonishing two bags checked for free for every passenger. For any Southwest newbie, however, there may be a little initial shock when boarding begins, as there’s no assigned seating and passengers can just claim any empty seat. Every seat is the same (the entire plane is economy class), but you get to board earlier if you pay the higher “Business Select” fare.

If you’re a Southwest Airlines frequent flyer and want to get even more value from your Rapid Rewards points, you’ve come to the right place. Read on as we delve into the airline’s Low Fare Calendar and share some additional Southwest booking tips to help you maximize savings.

For more information on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar, call Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.

What is the Southwest Low Fare Calendar?

The Southwest Low Fare Calendar provides a way to look at the lowest fare available on the airline for any given month and find cheap flights on Southwest. You can search for one way, round-trip or multi-city trips and view the results in dollars or Rapid Rewards points.

How does the Southwest Low Fare Calendar Work?

Southwest uses a fare-based award system, which means that the number of points a flight will cost is based on the cash price of the ticket instead of a fixed award chart. If your dates are flexible, you can book the same trip for fewer Rapid Rewards points depending on when you travel. That’s where the airline’s Low Fare Calendar comes in.

This calendar tool helps you compare prices for different days for an entire month, and you can see multiple months at once. It’s easy to find the price difference if you're considering travel on a different day than you had originally planned.

For the most part, prices are constant each way. However, some days are more expensive than others. But if you are flexible, you could save some points.

You can see the cost to book in points up to six months (or 180 days) in advance

For travel with fixed dates, this calendar view will show you the cheapest award travel available to you on your specific travel dates. If you have some flexibility, this tool is clutch for shopping even more smartly for the cheapest Southwest flights.

For more information on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar, call Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.

How to find Southwest Airlines Cheap Flights with the Low Fare Calendar

To find Southwest’s Low Fare Calendar, head to the airline's desktop website.

• Input your destinations and rough travel dates. When the page displays flight options, click on the green Low Fare Calendar button for a broader view.
• The next screen will display the lowest-cost flights available per day. You can then click into a date one-by-one to see which flight operated that day is the cheapest Southwest flight.
• The cheapest Southwest flights are typically flown in the early morning hours or late in the day.
• Though Southwest has a user-friendly mobile app that’s helpful for tracking flights, changing your bookings, and checking in, you can only search for the lowest fares in a calendar view on the airline's website.

For more information on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar, call Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.

Other Tips for Booking Cheap Southwest Flights

Book flights through Chase's travel portal rather than transferring points

Southwest Airlines is a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, but it doesn’t always make sense to transfer your Chase points to Southwest.

For instance, if you’re a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder, you probably won’t want to transfer points from Chase. That’s because that card has a value of 1.5 cents per point when you book travel through Chase's travel portal. Airlines Ticket Policy values Southwest Rapid Rewards points at 1.5 cents each, so you won't lose value if you transfer your points to Southwest, but you will lose the opportunity to earn Rapid Rewards points on your flight.

When you book a flight through Chase's travel portal, Chase pays the airline for your ticket. In the eyes of the airline, it’s a paid revenue ticket instead of a point’s redemption. That means you’ll earn Rapid Rewards points on flight segments booked through Chase. If you have Southwest status like A-List or A-List Preferred, that status will still be recognized if you book with your Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

If you don’t have the Chase Sapphire Reserve or you need some Southwest points to top up your account for a specific booking, then transferring points from Chase to Southwest is a great option.

For more information on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar, call Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.

Use the Low Fare Calendar to Rebook your Southwest flight when Fares Drop

Now that you've mastered the Low Fare Calendar, you can step up your booking game even more.

• Southwest has one of the most generous cancellation and change policies of any airline. There’s no fee to cancel or to change your ticket as long as you do so 10 minutes in advance of your flight.
• While there’s no fee to change your ticket, you will have to pay the difference in fare. If the flight you’re trying to change to costs more than the price you paid, you’ll pay the difference.
• If the price of the flight you want to change to is cheaper, then you’ll be credited back the difference.

With this generous change policy, you can even rebook the same flight you already have paid for and get the difference credited to you. Just find your flight on the website and select "change flight." If the price has dropped from what you originally paid, just "change" the flight and you’ll get the difference back.

If you paid in points, you’ll get refunded in points. If you paid a nonrefundable Wanna Get Away fare, you’ll get a credit in the form of a Travel Fund. Travel Funds are easy to view when you’re logged into your Southwest Rapid Rewards account, and you can apply them to the cost of future flights.

For more information on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar, call Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.

Find Sweet Spots using the Southwest Low Fare Calendar

You can also take advantage of the Southwest Low Fare Calendar to find sweet spots for your next trip. For example, Southwest allows you to island hop in Hawaii for less than 5,000 points per flight. Southwest flies to Hawaii nonstop from four California cities: Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and San Diego.

Southwest services Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Kona and Hilo on Hawaii.

Not only can you get to Hawaii using Southwest Rapid Rewards, but you can often do so cheaply. It’s not uncommon to find one-way tickets for less than 10,000 Rapid Rewards points from California to Hawaii.

Once you’ve reached Hawaii, it’s also easy to hop around to different islands. Inter-island flights can be found for less than 5,000 points each way. That’s rock-bottom pricing that even beats Hawaiian Airlines — you’ll pay at least 7,500 Hawaiian miles to fly around Hawaii. You could use 6,000 JetBlue True Blue points for a one-way flight on Hawaiian Airlines between islands, but Southwest is still the lowest points option. Aloha!

Final thoughts on the Low Fare Calendar from Southwest

If you’re looking to travel within the U.S. and to Hawaii, or to popular locations in Mexico and the Caribbean, chances are that Southwest flies there. You can use your Rapid Rewards points to book your trip, and even if your plans change, you’ll get your money or credit back.

Make sure you’re looking at the Low Fare Calendar and checking flights you've already booked to lock in the lowest fares. If you need to book a flight and have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, don’t transfer points to Southwest. Instead, book through Chase's travel portal to also earn Rapid Rewards points on that ticket.

For more information on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar, call Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.

Frequently Asked Questions on Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar: A Complete Guide