For budget-conscious travelers looking to stretch their dollars farther, the Southwest Low Fare Calendar is an indispensable tool. This ingenious feature allows you to easily identify the cheapest days to fly within a one to two month date range, all at a glance. By leveraging it effectively, savings savants can shave hundreds off the cost of their next adventure.
While the concept is simple—green represents the lowest fares, yellow means moderate, and red signals the priciest dates—there’s an art to mastering the Low Fare Calendar. With some insider tips and strategy, you can take full advantage of Southwest Airlines Low Fare Calendar commitment to affordable airfare and transparent pricing.
Getting Started with the Low Fare Calendar
You’ll find the Low Fare Calendar embedded within Southwest’s primary flight search functionality. Once you’ve entered your departure and arrival airports, simply select the “Low Fare Calendar” option underneath your chosen travel dates.
From there, you’ll be presented with a two-month matrix displaying the lowest one-way fares available on each date in simple green, yellow, and red coded cells. Scroll through your date range using the arrows and alternate between departure and arrival flight pricing seamlessly.
At a glance, you can quickly spot trends and patterns to identify the cheapest days for flying on your specific route. Often you’ll notice fare fluctuations that highlight new sales as cheaper dates appear in green. Saturdays typically (but not always) offer lower prices as demand decreases.
Pro Tips for Maximizing Savings
While the Low Fare Calendar delivers tremendous value from the outset, a few pro tips can help you squeeze even more out of it:
Be Flexible – Unsurprisingly, the biggest savings tend to be available for those with flexibility in their travel dates, even by just a day or two on either side. Weekday departures are nearly always cheaper than weekends.
Check Nearby Airports – Sometimes driving a little further to an alternate departing or arriving airport can unlock significantly lower fares. Click the “From” box to populate nearby airports.
Mix & Match One-Ways – Since Southwest doesn’t charge change fees, you can mix one-way fares to build your perfect itinerary rather than booking roundtrips. Look for half green/half yellow pockets to combine.
Stack With Fare Sales – The Low Fare Calendar dynamically updates to reflect Southwest’s frequent fare sales, surfacing rock-bottom deals. Subscribe to fare alerts to strike while the iron’s hot.
Use Points Conversion – Southwest Rapid Rewards points redemption rates correlate fairly closely to cash pricing. Low points fares may make sense if cash rates are astronomical.
Pair With Companion Pass – Turbocharge savings by booking the cheapest available fares while enjoying two-for-one travel courtesy of the legendary Southwest Companion Pass.
Consider Open Jaw Routes – One-way flights between nearby airports sometimes unlock lower starting points than traditional roundtrips. The Low Fare Calendar optimizes for lowest total pricing.
The benefits extend far beyond just scoring the cheapest tickets too. Cost-conscious travelers can be strategic in building multi-city routes with longer layovers in fun destinations and more conveniently timed itineraries at a low price.
So whether you’re a family of four trying to maximize that summer vacation budget or a solo wanderer looking to stretch retirement funds across more trips, make sure the Southwest Airlines Booking Low Fare Calendar is your first stop. A few simple clicks can reveal incredible money-saving opportunities that’ll have you jetting off in style—without breaking the bank.
