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Oct. 16, 2024

Southwest Flight Hacks: Tips and Tricks for Saving Big

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Points for Normal People by Katie's Travel Tricks

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Welcome to Points for Normal People!

In this episode, I’ll be going over all of my favorite ways to save money when booking flights with Southwest Airlines. I’ll give you background information on the Southwest booking process, explain what makes their ticketing different from other airlines, and give you step-by-step tips and tricks to save you lots of time and money. 

My family has been flying Southwest regularly for over a decade and we love it! Be sure to check out all my other resources for making the most out of flying with Southwest.

ACTION STEPS:

  • Establish a system to check and recheck for price changes. 
  • Keep a record (I suggest a note in your phone) of what you pay in points, the flight times, and the cash price the day you booked. 
  • If you’re new to a Southwest Companion Pass, here is a video with booking tips: https://youtu.be/cbfIf87ktcg 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

New Here?

Hi, I’m Katie from Katie’s Travel Tricks! I am here to help you learn the secrets that my family has been using for over a decade, using everyday expenses and welcome offers to supercharge your points earning. When you learn to do this, you can cover entire vacations every year.

Our family has been to Hawaii, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe — and more — all thanks to strategically earning and redeeming points. We've done this on a limited travel budget and now want to help you do it, too.


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Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the card links and other products that appear on this podcast are from companies which Katie's Travel Tricks will earn an affiliate commission. Katie's Travel Tricks is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. The content in this podcast is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available.


Chapters

00:09 - Maximizing Southwest Airlines Ticket Pricing

04:32 - Optimizing Southwest Airlines Ticket Pricing

11:28 - Strategies for Cheaper Southwest Flights

21:01 - Travel Points Management Tips

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:09.170 --> 00:00:14.987
There are some tricks to getting the best price on your Southwest Airlines flights and I want to walk through those today.

00:00:14.987 --> 00:00:21.846
Stick around to the end for the most advanced trick that can help you get peak travel at a fraction of the cost.

00:00:21.846 --> 00:00:26.881
Welcome back to Points for Normal People travel at a fraction of the cost.

00:00:26.881 --> 00:00:27.742
Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

00:00:27.742 --> 00:00:33.341
I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family, but I believe travel isn't just for the rich.

00:00:33.341 --> 00:00:50.390
That's why, on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that my family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire vacations every year.

00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:58.689
We've been flying Southwest for over 10 years and over time we've gleaned some tricks to getting the best prices that we can on our flights.

00:00:58.689 --> 00:01:05.248
These strategies can help you stretch your points further so that you can travel even more with the points that you earn.

00:01:05.728 --> 00:01:13.368
Before we get into the strategies, there is some background knowledge you need to know about Southwest's prices and booking process.

00:01:13.368 --> 00:01:19.224
First, it's important to understand that Southwest ticket pricing is extremely volatile.

00:01:19.224 --> 00:01:22.051
Prices can go up and down every day.

00:01:22.051 --> 00:01:30.012
There are statisticians whose job it is to maximize revenue for Southwest, so they're going to do their best to do that.

00:01:30.012 --> 00:01:38.974
And because Southwest uses dynamic pricing for its points tickets, you see all the same pricing variations as you do with cash tickets.

00:01:38.974 --> 00:01:48.468
Now some airlines have dynamic points pricing that isn't necessarily tied to cash prices, but with Southwest it is tied to cash prices.

00:01:48.468 --> 00:01:56.167
That means that when a cash price on a Southwest ticket goes up, the number of points to book that ticket would go up proportionally.

00:01:56.167 --> 00:02:03.284
And because pricing is ever-changing, the price on any given route can change up and down a lot.

00:02:03.284 --> 00:02:09.629
This is ultimately a good thing, because Southwest also allows you to change your ticket for free.

00:02:10.432 --> 00:02:14.022
This is the second important piece of background knowledge to understand.

00:02:14.022 --> 00:02:24.925
If your ticket has dropped in price and you paid with points, you can essentially click through and change your ticket to the exact same route and you'll get a refund of any difference.

00:02:24.925 --> 00:02:28.426
This is one reason we love paying with points on Southwest.

00:02:28.426 --> 00:02:33.864
It makes it so easy to get these refunds back to our account when ticketing price changes.

00:02:33.864 --> 00:02:49.151
With your Southwest points, you can pay for a Southwest ticket for anyone, not just yourself, and if you cancel that flight or change it for a refund, even if it was a ticket for someone else, you just get those extra points right back into your account again.

00:02:49.151 --> 00:02:52.449
If you pay for a Southwest flight with cash, this still applies.

00:02:52.449 --> 00:03:02.031
You can still change to the same flight and get a refund for the difference, but you'll get travel funds as a refund rather than a straight cash refund.

00:03:02.031 --> 00:03:13.929
Now, the good thing is that travel funds don't expire, but it's still your money being tied up as a travel fund, and those travel funds are tied, at least initially, to the person who had the ticket in their name.

00:03:13.929 --> 00:03:18.131
We'll talk about how to optimize this change policy throughout this episode.

00:03:18.822 --> 00:03:29.951
One more pretty unusual thing about Southwest that's important to understand for planning purposes is that they release their booking calendar in chunks and you can't book super far in advance.

00:03:29.951 --> 00:03:36.812
Most other airlines let you book flights out about 330 days in advance, and this is on a rolling basis.

00:03:36.812 --> 00:03:45.508
So every day they add one new day of flight schedules and you can book about 11 months in advance, but Southwest does things a little differently.

00:03:45.508 --> 00:03:53.324
As I record this, for instance, it's mid-October and Southwest has flights available to book only through June 4th of next year.

00:03:53.324 --> 00:04:01.669
Their website says that on October 30th they will open their schedule for sale for two more months through August 4th of next year.

00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:05.528
That means you can't plan quite as far ahead as you can with other airlines.

00:04:05.528 --> 00:04:07.828
So that's the background information.

00:04:07.828 --> 00:04:15.329
That's what we're working with First, that Southwest uses dynamic pricing for points tickets that will mirror the cash price of tickets.

00:04:15.329 --> 00:04:21.749
Next, that Southwest lets you change tickets for free and get a refund if the price has dropped.

00:04:21.749 --> 00:04:27.884
And third, that Southwest's booking calendar opens in chunks rather than on a rolling basis.

00:04:27.884 --> 00:04:31.632
So first let's talk about the best time to book a flight.

00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:40.293
You may have heard, and you may still believe, one of the biggest myths in cheap flights, which is that you should wait to buy your tickets till it is Tuesday.

00:04:40.293 --> 00:04:44.165
Now, from what I've heard, this stems from the early internet days.

00:04:44.165 --> 00:04:52.769
Back in those days, airlines would load prices into their websites once a day, and sometimes they would load lower prices in on Tuesdays.

00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:55.228
But we're not in the early internet days.

00:04:55.228 --> 00:05:00.747
We're in the 2020s and airlines are constantly pricing and repricing their flights.

00:05:00.747 --> 00:05:02.091
This is a myth.

00:05:02.091 --> 00:05:03.233
I wish it wasn't.

00:05:03.233 --> 00:05:04.906
It would make my life easier.

00:05:04.906 --> 00:05:10.235
But buying your ticket on a Tuesday isn't going to help you get the cheapest price Now.

00:05:10.235 --> 00:05:18.764
It is typically cheapest to fly on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, but the day of the week that you're sitting down to book your ticket is not really a factor.

00:05:19.526 --> 00:05:33.990
Some people swear by booking their Southwest tickets the day that the new schedule is released, so they might be sitting at their computer early on October 30th ready to book flights for next summer when the next chunk of Southwest's schedule opens up.

00:05:33.990 --> 00:05:37.891
And I don't doubt that this works for some people in some routes.

00:05:37.891 --> 00:05:41.769
I think it's certainly worth keeping on your radar as an option.

00:05:41.769 --> 00:05:52.862
In fact, I booked some tickets to Hawaii on the day they were released for spring break and we got some pretty decent fares, and since then I've only seen the tickets go up and up in price.

00:05:52.862 --> 00:06:00.264
But most of the time in my market, which is Chicago, the tickets released on that very first day are really really high.

00:06:00.264 --> 00:06:10.089
The day the tickets for Thanksgiving were released it was 70,000 points one way just one way from Costa Rica back home to Chicago.

00:06:10.149 --> 00:06:11.560
When we need a flight Now.

00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:20.889
Going over a holiday can always be a bit crazy on a route that has limited flights, but right now we're about a month out and the same tickets are down to 39,000 points.

00:06:20.889 --> 00:06:28.045
It's still really expensive, yes, because this is holiday travel, but at least it came down almost 50%.

00:06:28.045 --> 00:06:35.047
So if I had booked on the day the schedule was released and never looked back, I would have definitely overpaid for this ticket.

00:06:35.047 --> 00:06:37.942
I noticed the same thing on tickets to Cancun.

00:06:37.942 --> 00:06:44.567
When the winter tickets to Cancun were released from Chicago to Cancun they were 40,000 points each way.

00:06:44.567 --> 00:06:50.055
Now they're down to about 13,000 points each way, even on the nonstop flights, even on the weekends.

00:06:50.055 --> 00:06:53.470
So those are just some examples of how volatile the pricing can be.

00:06:54.012 --> 00:07:09.572
So I definitely think it's worth checking flight prices when the schedule opens up, but if you see a crazy price, you don't need to panic Because, especially if the Southwest flights are really out of whack, compared to other airlines on that route, we've found they almost always come down in price.

00:07:09.572 --> 00:07:18.641
So that's the first tip Check when new dates on the Southwest schedule are released, but don't panic if prices seem really really high.

00:07:18.641 --> 00:07:26.999
Now, if your dates are at all flexible, it's really helpful if you use the low fare calendar on the Southwest website, and I mean use it from your computer.

00:07:26.999 --> 00:07:32.699
The app lets you see a few days at a time, but the low fare calendar shows you a whole month at a time.

00:07:32.699 --> 00:07:42.641
So if you're just looking for a weekend trip to Denver, for instance, you might find that going on a different weekend or adjusting your flights by a day might save you a lot of points.

00:07:42.641 --> 00:07:49.562
So tip number two is just that Use the low fare calendar to find cheaper dates when you have flexibility.

00:07:49.562 --> 00:07:55.838
It's by using those two tips in conjunction with this next one that really help us get consistently good prices.

00:07:56.410 --> 00:08:05.723
I think one of the most important things that you can do to get the best price on Southwest is to be aware of flight prices and rebook as soon as your flight drops in price.

00:08:05.723 --> 00:08:10.982
Southwest runs a lot of sales and some of these are true sales, where a lot of flights drop in price.

00:08:10.982 --> 00:08:18.494
Southwest runs a lot of sales and some of these are true sales where a lot of flights drop in price, but flights also drop and raise all the time on their routes without official sales.

00:08:18.494 --> 00:08:27.161
So if you get an email from Southwest about a sale or you see a notification about a sale, it's definitely worth checking to see if your flight has dropped in price.

00:08:27.161 --> 00:08:37.732
But again, there are plenty of unadvertised price drops too, anytime you have a flight booked and it drops in price, you can rebook it and get a refund for the difference.

00:08:38.274 --> 00:08:39.918
You can also do this multiple times.

00:08:39.918 --> 00:08:50.912
I will link in the show notes a blog post that walks through the screenshots step by step of how to do this, but as a quick overview, you'll be going to your Southwest account and pulling up your reservation.

00:08:50.912 --> 00:08:55.410
You'll need to be in the account of whoever actually booked the flight with their points.

00:08:55.410 --> 00:09:01.831
So if we used Micah's points to book our tickets, I need to be logged into his account in order to do this.

00:09:01.831 --> 00:09:07.292
When I find the trip I want to check, I'm going to select it and say I want to change it.

00:09:07.292 --> 00:09:10.041
This prompts you to search for the flights again.

00:09:10.041 --> 00:09:13.783
You could change dates, but you can also leave the dates the same.

00:09:13.783 --> 00:09:16.653
They will default to the exact same dates that you already have.

00:09:16.653 --> 00:09:28.197
Then it will pull up a new window and this time it will list the prices, not as the absolute price, but with a plus or a minus sign that will tell you how much prices are up or down compared to what you paid for them.

00:09:28.197 --> 00:09:30.591
If you see a lower price, you can confirm that.

00:09:30.591 --> 00:09:35.631
You want to quote unquote change to the same flight, you should see a negative number.

00:09:35.631 --> 00:09:44.451
If you don't see a negative number, you don't want to make that change and then, as you keep clicking to confirm, you will eventually see the points credited back to your account.

00:09:45.152 --> 00:09:55.125
A little side note here with a tip is that we often tend to book one-way flights instead of round trips with Southwest in order to make it easier to manage these price changes.

00:09:55.125 --> 00:10:00.643
Unlike some other airlines, southwest really doesn't give a discount for a round-trip ticket.

00:10:00.643 --> 00:10:05.201
A round-trip ticket just costs the sum of the two one-way tickets.

00:10:05.201 --> 00:10:09.000
So there isn't an advantage of having a round-trip versus a one-way.

00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:10.378
Now this isn't an advantage of having a round trip versus a one-way.

00:10:10.378 --> 00:10:12.962
Now this isn't always true of other airlines, like if you're flying to Europe.

00:10:12.962 --> 00:10:19.879
Usually a one-way is hardly cheaper than a round trip, so buying a round trip almost always makes more sense.

00:10:20.539 --> 00:10:28.955
What happens with Southwest is if you have a round trip ticket and one half goes down in price and one goes up, it's just that you need to take a minute to backtrack.

00:10:28.955 --> 00:10:32.566
You can still get a refund for the half that went down in price.

00:10:32.566 --> 00:10:38.231
This happened shortly after I booked our Hawaii flights, which I did against my own advice, as a round trip.

00:10:38.231 --> 00:10:42.851
I was checking the prices and realized one way went up and one way went down.

00:10:42.851 --> 00:10:51.591
So I had to go back to a previous window and make sure the box was checked that I only wanted to change one half of my trip, not both halves.

00:10:51.591 --> 00:10:54.779
It just takes an extra minute to back up a few steps.

00:10:54.779 --> 00:10:56.023
Does that make sense?

00:10:56.023 --> 00:11:03.554
If you book as two one-ways, it's just a little bit more straightforward when you go to check the pricing and then change it.

00:11:03.554 --> 00:11:12.732
If you forgot what you paid for a flight, you can have Southwest resend your receipt, but this also really is only clear for a one-way flight.

00:11:12.732 --> 00:11:28.034
With a round-trip flight, they will send you a lump sum for the round trip, so it doesn't help you easily figure out what you paid for each half directly Rebooking your Southwest flights when prices go down is key to getting good prices, but you don't want to check every day.

00:11:28.942 --> 00:11:34.020
There is a way to slightly automate this process of knowing when your Southwest flights go up and down in price.

00:11:34.020 --> 00:11:36.635
It's not a perfect system, but it helps.

00:11:36.635 --> 00:11:38.841
It's definitely helped me save points this year.

00:11:38.841 --> 00:11:47.975
It's only become possible this year because now Southwest has allowed Google Flights and Kayak to show Southwest flights on those websites.

00:11:47.975 --> 00:11:55.946
Both Google Flights and Kayak also allow you to track flight prices for free and can help notify you as prices go up or down.

00:11:55.946 --> 00:12:14.837
If you want to use these tools to help notify you if prices drop, here's how to set it up the day that you book a flight, you should go to Google Flights or Kayak and search that same route, make sure you set up the filter to only show Southwest, and then you can toggle on the switch to track that specific route on that day.

00:12:14.837 --> 00:12:18.211
From then on, you will get notified if the price changes.

00:12:18.873 --> 00:12:27.297
Now you probably paid with points, but since points prices are tied to cash prices, any changes in cash should be reflected in points.

00:12:27.297 --> 00:12:39.678
The problem with Google Flights is that you can't set up a baseline price based on what you paid, so it will tell you any time the price changes, then it takes that new price as the baseline price.

00:12:39.678 --> 00:12:44.356
If you've gotten a few emails and you don't remember what price you booked at, it isn't as helpful.

00:12:44.356 --> 00:12:58.083
So a very simple step you can take is just to make a note of the cash price on the day and route you booked even just a note in your phone so that you have an easy comparison when you get a Google Flight price alert email.

00:12:58.083 --> 00:13:04.764
When you put all of that together, you can have a fairly streamlined system to help you get a good price on your routes.

00:13:04.764 --> 00:13:07.438
You'll check for prices when the schedule's released.

00:13:07.438 --> 00:13:11.360
You'll use the low fare calendar if you have any flexibility.

00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:17.003
When you book a flight, you'll make note of the price you paid in points and the cash equivalent.

00:13:17.003 --> 00:13:27.875
Then you'll set up a Google Flight Alert to track that route for price changes, and then, anytime you get an alert or see that Southwest is having a sale, you'll log in to check.

00:13:27.875 --> 00:13:34.461
If your flights went down in price, rebook to the same flight if it has gone down, to get a refund for the difference.

00:13:34.461 --> 00:13:37.173
That's the main system we use.

00:13:37.173 --> 00:13:46.802
Flying on holidays, though, is always more expensive, so even if you're using all of those strategies, you still might be seeing high prices on peak dates.

00:13:46.802 --> 00:13:50.850
So for that we have a more advanced strategy that I'll discuss here.

00:13:50.850 --> 00:13:57.371
This also isn't a 100% foolproof strategy, but if you have enough points, it's certainly worth a try.

00:13:58.033 --> 00:13:59.879
This is the schedule change trick.

00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:03.630
This works thanks to a little-known Southwest policy.

00:14:03.630 --> 00:14:09.981
This policy is that if you book a flight and the flight times change at all, even by a minute.

00:14:09.981 --> 00:14:21.496
Southwest will let you rebook onto any other flight between your departure and destination for no extra charge, any flight within 14 days of your original flight.

00:14:21.496 --> 00:14:28.317
So if you booked a cheap flight with a layover, you can rebook onto a non-stop at the time you actually want.

00:14:28.317 --> 00:14:34.235
If you booked a Wednesday night red-eye flight but would rather fly Thursday, you can change to that.

00:14:34.235 --> 00:14:43.503
The only factors here are that you need to have a schedule change and you have to rebook onto a flight within 14 days on either side of your flight.

00:14:44.130 --> 00:14:50.537
Now, one thing that's a pain with this strategy is that Southwest doesn't always tell you when your flight schedule has changed.

00:14:50.537 --> 00:14:55.250
So it doesn't always tell you when this has been activated and you have this golden ticket.

00:14:55.250 --> 00:15:06.212
And even if they do tell you, they usually just send you a generic email saying your flight has changed, and if you have multiple flights booked, it can be hard to figure out which one changed.

00:15:06.212 --> 00:15:14.443
There also seems to be only a two-week period now from when the schedule change is made to when you can change the ticket for free online.

00:15:14.443 --> 00:15:18.234
You can still change it after that, but you need to call in to do it.

00:15:18.234 --> 00:15:23.394
But it's still worth those small hassles, especially for expensive routes or dates.

00:15:23.394 --> 00:15:37.532
The reality is that Southwest makes a ton of minor schedule changes, and some major ones, and the earlier you book, the more likely you are to have a schedule change, giving you this golden ticket where you can change to any flight.

00:15:37.532 --> 00:15:40.940
Here's an example of how you can put this strategy into practice.

00:15:41.541 --> 00:15:45.000
Typically, I'd suggest doing this only when you have points to spare.

00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:53.121
We don't usually do this with cash tickets, because then we'd be locking up our cash in Southwest travel funds if we end up canceling and it doesn't work out.

00:15:53.121 --> 00:15:55.777
When we do this, we typically book two flights.

00:15:55.777 --> 00:15:58.155
First, we book the flight we actually want.

00:15:58.155 --> 00:16:14.107
If the flight we want is expensive, we will book a second flight within 14 days of the flight that we want and we'll pick the absolute cheapest one we can find, and then we just hold on to it and hope that cheap flight has a schedule change.

00:16:14.107 --> 00:16:16.964
It's important that you book for a different day.

00:16:16.964 --> 00:16:20.825
You can't have two flights on the same day on the same route.

00:16:20.825 --> 00:16:27.923
Southwest system will auto cancel the second one within about 24 hours, so it has to be for another day.

00:16:28.595 --> 00:16:34.125
Again, the earlier that you can book these flights, the more likely you are to have it affected by a schedule change.

00:16:34.125 --> 00:16:40.682
The more legs it has, the more likely it is to have a schedule change, because you have two different flights that might be affected.

00:16:40.682 --> 00:16:47.831
I also theorize, but have not confirmed that the later in the day it is, the more likely it is to have a schedule change.

00:16:47.831 --> 00:16:55.068
That's because when schedule changes start, it seems like it's kind of like dominoes, since they are scheduling a plane for a whole day.

00:16:55.068 --> 00:17:01.288
So if a plane gets to Denver one minute later, that means its next flight is one minute later or more, and so on.

00:17:01.288 --> 00:17:12.288
This is always a gamble, but there's no real risk if you have points to spare, because if your flight doesn't get a schedule change, you'll just cancel it and get your points back and then continue on with your expensive flight.

00:17:15.394 --> 00:17:18.434
We were able to use this last year to get really cheap tickets to Mexico, but so far have been unsuccessful with our trip to Costa Rica.

00:17:18.434 --> 00:17:25.726
So for me I have a cheap flight on the way home from Costa Rica that I've been hoping and hoping we get a schedule change on, but we haven't yet.

00:17:25.726 --> 00:17:35.436
If we do get a schedule change and I get that golden ticket, I would then look up that cheap flight and log in to change that cheap one that just changed its schedule.

00:17:35.436 --> 00:17:41.939
I should at that point see that any flight within two weeks should show as zero points to change to it.

00:17:41.939 --> 00:17:48.664
If it didn't and I know I had a schedule change I would then call in to ask an agent to book the change for me.

00:17:48.664 --> 00:17:51.896
Southwest's customer service agents are really some of the best.

00:17:51.896 --> 00:18:03.827
They are generally very friendly and really helpful, so I would change that flight to the one I actually want and then only after that is confirmed would I go back and cancel any other flights I had booked.

00:18:04.275 --> 00:18:13.005
The risk factor here is minimal if you have the points to float to try for a schedule change, but you do have to remember to cancel your flights if it doesn't work out.

00:18:13.005 --> 00:18:18.027
You'll need to cancel at least 10 minutes before your flight departs in order to get a full refund.

00:18:18.027 --> 00:18:26.604
I want to mention a few more quick tips and then I'll review some action steps and habits you can establish to help you keep getting these cheaper Southwest flights.

00:18:26.604 --> 00:18:32.167
If you have a companion pass, we often wait to add our companions till a few weeks before the flight.

00:18:32.167 --> 00:18:42.661
That's because anytime your flight drops in price and you want to change to the new price, you'd need to cancel your companion's ticket, then make the change, then add them back on.

00:18:42.661 --> 00:18:49.086
It takes about five minutes, so it isn't too bad, but I just find it annoying If I'm traveling at a peak time.

00:18:49.086 --> 00:18:58.105
I do usually add my companion right away though, in order to make sure that the plane doesn't sell out, but if not, I'll just wait to make those pricing changes easier.

00:18:58.105 --> 00:19:07.507
If you're worried you'll lose your companion spot with canceling and rebooking, you can always call Southwest and they can make the change for you and they will give you a refund that way.

00:19:08.256 --> 00:19:14.616
If you're paying with cash, it's worth noting that you can often buy discounted Southwest gift cards at Costco and Sam's Club.

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The cheapest seems to be about $430 for a $500 gift card, and that's often available around Christmas time.

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You should also check your Chase cards, as many of them occasionally include offers for 10% cash back on Southwestcom.

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When you're making any purchase, let's review the steps you can take to give yourself the best chance at the cheapest tickets.

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First, check prices as far out as you can to see if you can find a good price.

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It's worth checking when flight schedules are released, but don't panic if they're super high.

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Next, use the low fare calendar to help you find a decent price for your route.

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Right after you book, I recommend that you make a note on your phone or in a notebook of the cash price that was equivalent on the day that you booked.

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This will make it easier to track those price changes.

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Also, right after you book, set up flight price tracking with Google Flights to be sent to your email.

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If you have points to spare, and especially if your flights are expensive, use that low fare calendar to find the cheapest flight.

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You can, within 14 days of the flight that you actually want, monitor that cheap flight for schedule changes.

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Anytime you see a sale, or as often as you feel like, you can check Southwest's site to see if any of your flights have gone down in price.

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While Google Flights should automate this, I know a lot of people just like checking regularly, just in case.

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Book and rebook as often as you're able to.

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The action step today is more just about making a simple plan to start these habits so you can help get yourself cheaper flights.

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The most important one is to establish a system to check and recheck for price changes.

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You can do this manually.

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Maybe you'll check every Monday, or you can do this by setting up a Google Flight Alert every time after you book a ticket.

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Either way, I also suggest you get in the habit of keeping a record.

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A simple way would be notes on your phone of what you paid in points, the flight times and the cash price the day you booked.

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This will give you an easy reference to see if there's been a schedule change or a price change.

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If you're new to a Compan companion pass, I'm also going to link a YouTube video I have on companion pass booking tips, because, while it is fairly easy to learn how to use those companion pass as well, it's not always intuitive right at first.

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I'll also link in the show notes some posts that have step-by-step screenshots of rebooking flights.

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Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

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I look forward to seeing you next time, where we will continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.