Airfare sales to capture immediately

A few of the major airlines are in the middle of a bidding war to fill seats this winter, and the big winner here is the consumer.

Leading the charge, Southwest and AirTran launched major sales this Tuesday. The fares are as low as $25 for a one-way ticket. If you are planning on traveling on busy days, like Christmas Eve or the Sunday after Thanksgiving, you will not capitalize on the sales. They are aimed at flights that would otherwise be largely empty.

Southwest Deals

One-ways sales are good for travel December 2-16 and January 5 through February 20. The sales are on for $25 on routes up to 375 miles, $50 on routes up to 549 miles, and $75 on routes up to 999 miles. Act fast! The sale expires on Thursday.

Book here

AirTran Deals

Traveling on AirTran through February 10 will save you some hard cash. One-way tickets drop to $39 on short routes. Longer routes range from $164 to $149 one-way. For this sale, you have until November 10.

Book here

The Catch

Aside from limited time to buy the sale tickets, both sales have restrictions. These restrictions include a limited number of seats, especially on the more in-demand flights. The tickets are also nonrefundable in the vast majority of cases. Southwest does have a great policy on travel vouchers, though, meaning you will likely be able to reserve the expense for another flight.

Discount Airlines

Southwest and AirTran are major competitors in the discount airline arena. Their conventional competitors do not offer the same sale benefits, and they also usually charge baggage fees and other additional penalties.

Extra charges are helping airlines get over the current travel recession, but they cost travelers about $4 billion in the first half of this year. Yes, billion. That’s nearly twice as much as the year before, and the fees are not expected to go away anytime soon.

Southwest and AirTran, though, do not impose these fees. You may opt to pay an additional charge on Southwest to jump to the front of the cattle-call seating line, but this is entirely optional. As airfares are creeping up along with penalties across the industry, these sale prices come at a needed time for consumers.

Hot TIPS

• You may also want to check out JetBlue and Frontier on routes that compete with Southwest routes. Often, these higher end competitors can offer reasonable prices that are very close to the Southwest charge.
• Priceline just created an iPhone application that will help you watch hotel fares. If you are traveling this holiday season and need accommodations, consider downloading this free app. You can even book hotels directly through your iPhone when you find a price you want to lock in.
• If its your birthday, be sure to let representatives at the ticket counter at Southwest know. They give away a lot of free drink tickets for people celebrating special occasions. People who like to travel cheap are always looking for free deals, and a free drink on the plane ride can put you in the right mood to get your holiday travels up and running!

Tags: airfare sales, priceline iphone application, southwest sales