Southwest Joins Some Competitors in Matching New Delta Fare Hike

The third across-the-board domestic fare increase in six weeks may be falling into place as the weekend arrives. Some competitors, including Southwest, are matching a $10 round-trip increase put into effect last night by Delta Air Lines, says Rick Seaney of Farecompare.com

According to Seaney:

---Delta, Southwest, Alaska, Midwest, Frontier have increased fares $10 round-trip, $5 one-way over "the bulk of their route systems

---US Airways is doing "selective matching" on various routes.

---United Airlines is "dabbling in some limited matching."

---American and Continental remain "on the sidelines so far."

Seaney said, "The Southwest increase of $5 one-way was on mid/long haul routes and $2 one-way on short-haul routes (outside of sale fares)."

He added, "It is very difficult to get an exact read on this hike as there was some late week off-peak travel discounting that is mixed in with the increase activity.
Typically we will know if the hike attempt sticks by Monday afternoon.

"It appears at this point that the hike has a very good chance of surviving – I have never seen an airfare hike in 4 years fail when Southwest Airlines was in the mix."

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