For at least the last few years, Southwest Airlines has offered $59 one-way flights from the Bay Area to Phoenix, with 21 days advanced notice. I can’t speak for all destinations, but at least for us, those days appear to be over.
We’re trying to get a couple flights to Phoenix for an event in February, and I was shocked to see that the cheapest price for two round-trip tickets was over $500. We normally pay about $270 for those tickets. Out of curiosity, I checked all the way out to June (the end of the online calendar), and the cheapest one-way I found was $99, and even that was fairly rare.
I’m so bummed. I want my cheap flights back.