DING! Agent says better rate can't be applied...

[Goofy4]

...to our group reservations because the DING rate is an "Internet Only" price.

I thought someone posted that they were able to apply the better DING rate. Anyone have experience with this? The DING rate is currently $20 less (each way)

 

[PoohHappens]

I have no first hand experience, however I was told today by SWA what they could do was cancel my existing while I was on the phone with them and then I could use the credit from that flight to "pay" for the internet flight ding. So I would have to verify availiblity of the ding for the number of people that were flying while I was on the phone with them set it up as if I was booking and then they would cancel my existing res and I would use that confirmation number as payment. So the ding price cannot be directly added to your existing ressie. We could not get the same time with the ding so I had to leave it as is even thought it would have taken a total of 400 off my total bill for 5 passengers. Good luck.

 

[PoohHappens]

hey I just noticed you are in indy, todays ding is awsome, unfortunately we couold not work it out. If we flew a day earlier round trip taxes and fees would be $90. Great deal. It was acctually more than 20 dollars less when you try to book it. The ding says 55 and we paid 74 but when you process thought it comes up as like 40 each way + taxes and fees. It expires at 7 so you better hurry

 

[DeeDeeDis]

Going thru a travel agent may be different but I was able to change to the DING rate. Had ordered our tickets for our August trip, then approx month later received DING notification about sale. This is what i did

Went online to see if same flights were available. they were.
Call SW Customer Service (they are very helpful), explained what i had and that i wanted to change over to the new price.
She walked me thru doing this. first i cancelled my original tickets, then using the "credit i now had on file" i ordered my new tickets.
Total savings on 5 tickets was 197.00. We have this amount in credit which we will use for our trip in December.

This is what i LOVE most about Southwest, that and direct flights, i was able to do this without paying penaties. who needs a tv, its a 2hr 40 min flight, give me a book, trashy magazine (Star or National Enquirer) or a game boy and i'm happy. Want a 'special seat, get to the airport early.

Travel agents may not be allowed (or may not want to bother) to reorder tickets for a cheaper price or maybe yur to close to your departure date?
Have a great trip anyways - when do you leave??

 

[PoohHappens]

I think where I ran in to trouble is that the exact same flight was not avail. I would have to change times.

 

[Goofy4]

I tried the processing a DING ressie and indeed it does come up for less than the $55 on the main DING page -- $36 base rate!!!

Unfortunately, the availability on the return trip drops to about 0 when I increased to the max of 8 persons (instead of 1) on the return trip. It is interesting to see different availability if I reverse our plan and go from Orlando to Indy and back.

I think that especially since we have a group contract (not through a TA) it's not trivial to cancel, then add DING ressies (one at a time for 13 people ). So, perhaps it's best if I just stop watching DING