i just checked jet blue, they have fares in september from NYC to Houston (hobby) for $168 AFTER taxes...
A good thing about SWA is that you can change your ticket very easily. At worst you get full credit for up a 12 months. It makes booking early even if your plans might change a great way to go. Also with young children it is a breeze. I don't like Delta or United much because of delays in Atl, Chi and Den. Delta's MD 80s or whatever (or how they configured them) seem to have even less space than SWA 37s. CO and AWA are ok as far as flights. But CO has a terrible frequent flyer program in terms of usability of awards--I can never even find seats on ordinary routes even on non-special times, quite ridiculous actually, I have over 50K unused miles and I refuse to use double miles for a basic ticket that should be easy to cash in. AWA was better on award tickets, but not sure after the merger. UA is easier to use for miles than CO too.
