Southwest deal alert: Fares as low as $69 one-way to beach destinations

Calling all Southwest fans and even those of you who consider yourselves to be above the low-cost carrier airline (tsk tsk), because it is currently running a sale to various beach destinations such as Mexico, the Caribbean and Florida, with one-way fares starting at just $69.

There's another sale with fares as low as $59 that runs through Dec. 30, but the best deals we found were for the "beaches sale."

Be warned you'll need to hunt around to find these bargains and the sale ends tonight, so let's get to it.

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Deal basics

Airline: Southwest Airlines.
Routes: From any city SWA departs from to various beach destinations, including TZA/CUN/CZM/FLL/JAX/MIA/MBJ/SRQ/TPA/PBI and others.
How to book: Directly through the airline's sale page. You can also select your departure city to search for low fares.
Travel dates: Jan. 5-March 9, 2022, excluding travel to/from San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is valid Jan. 10-March 9, 2022.
Book by: 11:59 p.m. CT on Dec. 16.

Sample flights

As I mentioned above, you can search for low fares by setting your departure city of choice, which is where I would start with this deal.

From there, you'll find numerous one-way fares, in this case ranging from $69 to $203 depending on the route.

Some of the best one-way deals I found in the sale include:

• Washington, D.C. (DCA), to Jacksonville, Florida (JAX), for $69, nonstop.
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL)/Kahului (OGG)/Kona (KOA)/Lihue (LIH) in Hawaii for $99, nonstop.
• St. Louis (STL) to Jacksonville (JAX)/Long Beach, California (LGB), for $99.
• St. Louis (STL) to Savannah, Georgia (SAV), for $103.
• Washington, D.C. (DCA), to Fort Lauderdale (FLL)/Fort Myers (RSW)/Sarasota (SRQ)/Tampa (TPA) in Florida for $104, nonstop.
• New York (LGA) to Nassau, Bahamas (NAS), for $104.
• New York (LGA) to Sarasota (SRQ)/Tampa (TPA) for $114, nonstop.
• St. Louis (STL) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) for $114, nonstop.
• New York (LGA)/Washington, D.C. (DCA), to Orlando (MCO) for $121, nonstop.
• St. Louis (STL) to Fort Myers (RSW)/Sarasota (SRQ)/Tampa (TPA) for $121.
• Washington, D.C. (DCA), to Panama City Beach (ECP)/Pensacola (PNS) in Florida for $123.
• St. Louis (STL) to Orange County, California (SNA), for $129, nonstop.
• St. Louis (STL) to Miami (MIA) for $132.
• New York (LGA) to Pensacola (PNS)/Destin-Fort Walton Beach (VPS) in Florida for $133.
• Washington, D.C. (DCA), to West Palm Beach, Florida (PBI), for $135.
• New York (LGA) to Fort Myers (RSW) for $146.
• Washington, D.C. (DCA), to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (PLS), for $153.
• St. Louis (STL) to Los Angeles (LAX) for $153, nonstop.

Once you've found a flight that works for you, simply click on "select dates" to search the "Low Fare Calendar."

Related: TPG releases brand-new points calculator to make award bookings easier

In this case, I was able to find both legs of STL-RSW for $69 each way via the "Wanna Get Away" fare, so I booked a round-trip as normal. Otherwise, book two one-way tickets separately.

Rapid Rewards members can also use points to book this deal. TPG currently values RR points at 1.5 cents each, and you can use our new Awards vs. Cash Calculator to determine whether a deal is a better value in cash or points.

There's another advertised sale out there that runs until Dec. 30 with fares as low as $59 one-way, but we didn't find any screaming deals when we searched. Your mileage may vary!

Maximize your purchase

Don’t forget to use a card that earns bonus points on airfare purchases, such as The Platinum Card® from American Express (5x on airfare booked directly with the airline or through American Express Travel, on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year), Citi Prestige® Card (5x on airfare), Citi Premier® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve (3x on airfare), American Express® Gold Card (3x on airfare when booked directly with the airline or via Amex Travel) or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on travel). Or, use your Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card for 3x on Southwest Airlines purchases. Check out this post for more on maximizing airfare purchases.

The information for the Citi Prestige Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Bottom line

Act quickly because this deal ends in a matter of hours!