We’re in the midst of one of the budget traveler’s favorite offerings: Flights as low as $29 on Southwest Airlines. It’s not always easy to find those Southwest $29 flights—but one traveler had a tip to navigate the site better.
The advice came from Austin, Texas-based TikToker Cari Elizabeth (@carielizabethh), who got more than 172,000 views on her video since putting it up on Wednesday.
The tip made it “so you don’t have to go city by city,” which is what some users do when trying to sleuth out a Southwest destination that will work with their interests and desired dates.
“And I’m also going to show you some of the $29 flights because some people are saying that they don’t see any,” she said, before adding, “And I recommend doing this little trick on your computer because it just doesn’t really work on your phone.”
@carielizabethh Replying to @Janell here’s a trick I use to find the $29 flights and cheapest options to every city Southwest flies to out of your departure airport! #travel #traveltiktok #southwestairlines #southwest #southwestflight #southwestpromo #discountedflights #cheapflights #traveltips #traveltipsandhacks #travelhacks #traveltipsoftiktok #traveltok #travelhack #caritravels #southwestcompanionpass #southwestair #flyingsouthwest #southwestdeals ♬ original sound – cari
She then advises, “So what you’re going to do is go to the Southwest website, and as soon as you get on their website, the deal is going to pop up right here, and you’re going to click ‘Book Now.’ Then it brings you to this screen, and instead of filling all this out, you’re going to go down here where it says, ‘Not sure where you’re flying yet? Get inspired by our full list of destinations,’ and you’re going to click ‘View All Destinations.'”
You’ll then need to select your departure city from the drop-down menu, but then you can see all the options. She goes on to note that Southwest’s $29 flights are typically for short hops. She used Austin as her takeoff location since she’s based there, and found $29 flights to Dallas and Houston. However, a quick look at the current sale prices shows options to get to three different Southern California airports for $89 and to Portland, Oregon or New York City for $119.
“Is this just by those specified dates though?” one person wondered. “Is it possible to do it with flexible dates?”
“Yes so when you click on location,” the creator noted, “it brings up the calendar for the whole month so you can see the price for every day!”
Another commenter sleuthed around on their phone and noted, “You can still do this on your phone, just go to Southwest website and scroll to the bottom and hit ‘view full site,’ and you can follow the steps.”
A few were disappointed that Southwest’s $29 flights weren’t offered from their cities but found deals worth considering all the same.
And a few folks were actually excited to traverse Texas via plane.
“I hate driving from Austin to Dallas,” one stated, “Wouldn’t mind flying.”
Responding to an interview request from the Daily Dot, Cari remarked, “I was surprised that not many people knew how to find the cheapest routes possible by viewing all destinations on Southwest’s website.”
She noted, regarding the video she made to feature her tip, “It’s the best trick I’ve found for finding the cheapest destinations whenever Southwest is running sales like this. I fly Southwest all the time so I’ve found tricks like this super useful!”
She also observed, “did notice after I posted the video that the shorter flight routes were the majority of the flights that were priced at $29, such as Austin to Dallas [and] Austin to Houston. The great thing is that even if flights weren’t as low as $29, they still had cheap prices on a lot of destinations and almost all flights were cheaper compared to normal.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Southwest Airlines via email.