1) You can always connect on another airline if the price is too steep
2) Published fares are going up on Jan 8th, but only to $220 all-in round trip (bookable most days in January). What appears to really be happening is that US is pulling 1-way fares with WN departing the market.
The cheapest 1-way fare is now $59, valid for travel between Dec 8 and actually into Feb, but with no availability beyond early Jan.
The cheapest published 1-way fare becomes $349 after this.
The Senator must be a WN flyer who thinks all fares are 1-way, and a round trip is twice the price of a 1-way. Either that or this is pure dishonest political grandstanding (not that a Senator would ever do that...). The other factor is that this particular news report seems like a game of telephone - one news organization is summarizing what another news organization said etc.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/134800278.html might be the original article, and presents a much more honest picture of the situation.
Ticketing flexibility is going down - cheap 1-ways are going away. Price is going up, but to a still reasonable ~$220 all in for a round trip if you stay a couple of nights.
The cost to fly the route roundtrip is not going up by a factor of around 6 for most people. It's not even doubling.
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