Everyone wants to know how to score the cheapest deals with every airline. Southwest makes it easy. Instead of hunting high and low for the best fares and constantly watching online travel agencies (OTAs) and metasearch engines, you can head straight to the Southwest Low Fare Calendar.
Is it truly that simple? All you need are flexible travel dates, and you can take advantage of superb deals to your destination city of choice. With the Southwest Low Fare Calendar queued up and ready to go, we’ll take you through all the ways you can use it to save on your next trip.
Table of Contents
- What Is the Low Fare Calendar on Southwest?
- How Do I Use the Southwest Low Fare Calendar?
- What Are the Benefits of Using the Southwest Fare Calendar?
- Are There Any Restrictions with Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar?
- Do You Earn Rapid Rewards When You Book Through the SWA Low Fare Calendar?
- What Southwest Flights Are Available?
- What About Changes and Cancellation Fees?
- When Should You Book for the Best Deals?
- How Far Out Can You Book with the Southwest Low Fare Calendar?
- What is a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass?
- A Review of the Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar
What Is the Low Fare Calendar on Southwest?
The Low Far Calendar on Southwest Airlines is the quick, savvy way to search for cheap flights on Southwest. Like other clever flight calendar tools, the Southwest Low Fare Calendar lets you see flight prices at a glance for any particular month and compare the best pricing/reward points.
The Southwest Fare Calendar is especially helpful because Southwest flight fares don’t appear on OTAs like Priceline and Expedia or even metasearch engines like Google Flights. Instead, you can only access them directly through the Southwest Airlines website.
Consequently, the Southwest Low Fare Calendar is the simplest way to compare prices quickly and cross-check the best travel dates. Users can also utilize search engine features to check for round-trip, one-way, and multi-city fares and toggle between dollar amount prices and rewards points.
All Southwest Airlines reservations come with two free checked bags and no-fee cancellations! So, while you can’t easily compare Southwest prices to other airlines and OTAs, booking through Southwest’s Low Fare Calendar still carries some obvious perks.
How Do I Use the Southwest Low Fare Calendar?
Using the Southwest Low Fare Calendar is simple:
- Enter your departure and arrival airports
- Choose your ticket type
- Pick out your departure (and return) month
- Select the number of passengers
- Hit “Search”
Note: If you plan to depart and return within the same month or buy tickets one way, you won’t need to select a return month.
After you fill out the Southwest Low Fare Calendar with your trip preferences, hit Search. The next page will show a calendar view of your departure and return months with the lowest pricing/reward points for each date.
After choosing your departure and return dates, the process looks like booking any other Southwest Airlines flight. You’ll see a list view of flight time options for your chosen date. However, not all flights listed on that date will have a low fare rate, so you’ll want to look for the low fare prices. Double-check that the date and time work for you, then enjoy all those low fare savings!
Pro-tip: Having some flexibility with your travel plans can come in handy here.
Flying out later, returning a day earlier, or pushing your trip back a week could dramatically cut the cost of your flight tickets and help you score the cheapest fares possible!
What Are the Benefits of Using the Southwest Fare Calendar?
The Southwest Fare Calendar makes it easy for travelers hoping to find the best flight deals to save time and money.
Travelers aren’t necessarily doing themselves a disservice using the regular booking service available on the website or app. However, the Low Fare Calendar tool provides the distinct advantage of offering Southwest Airline’s lowest fares again and again.
If you want to save money booking your travel with Southwest Airlines, then the Low Fare Calendar is the way to go. It’s also the only place to view Southwest’s cheapest fares since Southwest prohibits the pulling of their information to any other website.
As with any other Southwest flight, booking through the Southwest Fare Calendar allows you to rebook your travel at any time to take advantage of price drops that occur between when you book and when you fly out.
Are There Any Restrictions with Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar?
The Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar doesn’t come with many restrictions, but it’s helpful to know what they are in the event they may affect your plans.
- The Southwest Low Fare Calendar prices are not guaranteed until booked.
- Wanna Get Away fares are not eligible for a refund. Instead, they’re applied to your account as a future flight credit.
- Fares don’t automatically apply to multiple people. Some low-price tickets will only have a set number of seats still available, which may not cover all individuals in a party.
- You can’t use the Southwest Low Fare Calendar to book flight tickets for groups of ten or more people.
- “Unavailable” means flights are not available for that specific date (this could be because Southwest hasn’t posted their flight schedule for those dates yet).
- Southwest displays a “Sold Out” message when all seats under a particular fare type are gone.
As with most good things, nothing lasts forever. The key thing to remember is that dirt cheap tickets are always the first to go. So, be on the lookout for the best deals and be ready to snatch them up immediately.
(Though if constantly watching for price drops and deals isn’t your thing, we understand. Prefer to let others do the searching? Next Vacay has your back. Signing up means you’ll get notifications for all the cheapest flight deals delivered directly to your inbox! All you have to do is check your inbox and be ready to fly.)
Do You Earn Rapid Rewards When You Book Through the SWA Low Fare Calendar?
Booking flights through the SWA Low Fare Calendar allows you to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points just as you would booking any other way on the Southwest Airlines website. As long as the flight qualifies, you’ll earn when you book.
That said, a few reservations don’t qualify for rewards earnings.
- Flights booked/flown with an entity other than Southwest Airlines or its partners
- Flights paid for in part or full with Reward Points
The first is self-explanatory. As for the second, unfortunately, you can’t use points for your low-fare booking if you want to earn points on that purchase. However, as long as you don’t use points to book your low fares on Southwest flights, you’ll qualify to earn Rapid Rewards points, which you can use for future travel.
These points don’t expire until 24 months of inactivity on your Rapid Rewards account. So, if you don’t have any upcoming travel scheduled, no worries. Just make it a point to check in and perform any points-earning activity through Southwest or a partner to ensure those points don’t disappear on you.
What Southwest Flights Are Available?
The better question might be what flights aren’t available. No matter where you want to fly among Southwest’s vacation destinations, you can find plenty of options to get you there. The Southwest Low Fare Calendar covers all discounted flights, including Southwest’s three fare types: Wanna Get Away, Anytime, and Business Select.
You’ll notice on the calendar view that only Wanna Get Away prices are displayed on the Low Fare Calendar. After you’ve chosen your dates and moved on to the list view, you’ll be able to toggle through Southwest’s different fare types to view Anytime and Business Select.
What About Changes and Cancellation Fees?
You can kiss any worries here goodbye. Southwest doesn’t charge a fee for changes or cancellations. Ever.
In fact, you can make as many changes to your reservation as you’d like. Even last-minute changes are permitted; we’re talking right before takeoff here.
Let’s say you’ve already checked in for your flight when an emergency crops up. So long as you make and confirm your changes at least 10 minutes before your scheduled departure time, you’re eligible for a full refund.
The only thing you may be asked is to pay a fare difference. However, this only applies if you change your reservation to a more expensive flight than the previous one.
Note: Not all Southwest flight fares are refundable. Instead of a refund, Wanna Get Away fares provide travel funds that can be applied toward any future travel booked within a year of the original purchase date.
Suffice to say, the nonexistent change fees and flexible cancellation policy at Southwest are considered some of the best in the business.
When Should You Book for the Best Deals?
According to a 2021 study done by NerdWallet, 180 days out is the optimal time to book for the best flight ticket price. However, with fancy new algorithms that constantly adjust prices for the market, it can be hard to nail down an exact time. Unfortunately, that algorithm is in overdrive over at Southwest. While plenty of airlines alter their pricing periodically, Southwest adjusts its prices near-weekly, making it one of the most notorious airlines to do so.
Consider that the earlier you book may not guarantee the best price. However, you can watch the fare calendar for price drops and changes that fit your schedule and budget. Even after you book, take advantage of Southwest’s no-fee change policy to change your reservation to a cheaper option and receive the excess as a refund or credit.
A surefire way to get some of Southwest’s best flight deals is by taking advantage of their seasonal sales, usually offered in spring, winter, and fall.
Signing up for the Southwest newsletter or following them on social media will keep you up-to-date on all new offers.
How Far Out Can You Book with the Southwest Low Fare Calendar?
Southwest Airlines has established that it likes to do things a little differently. While most airlines usually allow travelers to book 11 months in advance, Southwest typically allows bookings within 90 – 180 days in advance.
You can navigate to the Southwest Low Fare Calendar main page for an exact date. Southwest includes a note for the date through which they’re currently accepting reservations in the bottom right corner. Additionally, a pop-up shows when new dates will become available.
What is a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass?
A special perk coveted by Southwest fans and travel lovers alike, the Southwest Companion Pass allows you to choose a companion to fly with you for free.
Well, almost free. You only have to pay taxes and fees on their ticket, which typically amounts to about $5 per one-way ticket. That’s still a mind-blowing deal. While other airlines also offer companion passes, none of these can compare.
The Southwest Companion Pass essentially boils down to a buy-one-get-one-free, so we may as well register it under the category of free flights. Even better, once you qualify, Southwest Airlines gives you access to the pass for the year you become eligible and the following calendar year. That can add up to some pretty sweet savings!
To earn a Southwest Companion Pass, travelers must meet one of the following criteria:
- Fly 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year.
- Earn 125,000 qualifying points in a calendar year. You can earn qualifying points with reservations bought on the Southwest Airlines website, with a Southwest credit card, and with points earned from Southwest Rapid Rewards partners.
Pro-tip: Aim to qualify for the Companion Pass in January, to take advantage of your buy-one-get-one-free tickets for two years.
A Review of the Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar
Southwest Airlines won’t pop up among your OTA and search engine listings, so the only way to find their best deals is by using the website.
The quickest way to find the cheapest deals is by using the Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar to quickly see the cheapest dates to fly out using either dollars or points in a one-month period. By remaining flexible with your travel dates, you can save big on Southwest tickets. And don’t forget you can change your Southwest reservation at any time, for no charge, so keep a lookout for opportunities to capitalize on changing ticket prices. You may be able to score your next trip for much cheaper than you thought possible.
