72-Hour Sale: Southwest Fares Fall Below $100 Round Trip

Bargain hunters, get ready.

Southwest’s big twice-a-year fare sale is back, with round-trip fares below $100 on dozens of the carrier’s shortest routes.

The sale fares also include longer routes, with the price of flights loosely tied to distance. Flights begin at $49 each way on the southwest’s shortest routes and increase to $79,$99 or $129 each way for longer flights.

The sale launched Tuesday morning and is good for travel from NOV.28 through Dec.19 and from Jan.3 through Feb.13. however, other fine print mirrors restrictions from previous years of Southwest’s big sales. Flights on Fridays and Sundays are excluded. Schedules for southwest’s Florida, Nevada and Puerto Rico flights have additional day-of-week restrictions, through the sale’s booking window for Puerto Rico extends through feb.28. orange country flights also were excluded from the sale.

The sale applies specifically to nonstop flights, though many connecting itineraries may also show lower-than-usual fares that mirror sale fares. Seats sold at the sale prices are capacity controlled, meaning the cheapest seats will likely sell out on individual flights as the sale progresses.

Some of Southwest’s international routes are also included in the sale, though those routes come with significant day-of-travel restrictions ( Tuesday and Wednesday only). One-way fares to international destinations were listed for as low as $99, but most were higher and availability scattered. The travel window for international routes is from Nov.28 through Dec.12 and from Jan.6 through March 12.

The sale ends on Thursday (oct.4) at 11:59 p.m. local time in the city of the departing flight.