Ding Rocks!

[barbnbrian]

Before I went to bed tonight, I just had to check my email. Well I had new DING specials showing, so I had to check them too! Well.... Hartford to Orlando fares came up again. I quickly checked my dates and availability and then went ahead and cancelled my current reservation and rebooked at the new DING fare. I've done this twice and lowered my fares. It really does add up in savings. My reservations for 6 tickets, BDL to MCO, were originally $1123.00 when I first booked them at the SWA website. My first DING fare special lowered our tickets to $833.00 so we saved $290 which is in airline credit for future travel. After rebooking my tickets with tonight's special, our new final rate for 6 tickets is $767.40!!!! Tonight's special lowered my tickets by $65, but hey, I'll take that too!

Even if you get a great rate on SWA, keep checking. Sometimes lower fares will come out. Just had to share my excitement. Now I can go to bed for the night!

 

[barbnbrian]

I just figured out I have $355 in future travel credit. Looks like I'll get another trip to WDW out of this! I'm going to need more DVC points!

 

[bugbugmom]

Congratulations! Glad you were able to lower your airfare. Ding is great.

 

[Tigger By The Tail]

Hi!!

What exactly is DING? Anything that will save you $$$ on airfare works for me!!!

 

[inkkognito]

Ding is a little program you download from SW. It runs in the background on your PC and notifies you when a special is going on. Then you have a limited time to buy the tickets, and if you already have tickets, you can get a credit for the difference. We LOVE Ding!
Barb

 

[Tigger By The Tail]

Thanks for the info!!! I'll definitely have to load it on my PC

 

[riu girl]

inkkognito or any other SW savvy people:
Hypothetical plan:
1)What if you book 4 SWA fares (ex. fun fares)
2) Then a lower DING fare shows up for your flight date and time.
3) but the new DING fare is showing no availability
4) since you already have a SWA fun fare for this date/flight can you call SWA and have them change your fun fare to a ding fare (since it is the fun fares that do go on sale as DING fares)?

Sorry if this sounds confusing.

I am just wondering if I should book fun fares when my travel dates are released (sat dec 17 and sat dec 31) then when I see a DING call and have them rebook to the DING fare, or rebook on-line if there is availability.
I feel that we are going to be travelling on very busy travel days so I am trying to figure out now what I should do.

Suzy V.

 

[inkkognito]

Suzy, my husband is actually the Ding-savvy person, so here is what he says:
Nope, unfortunately you can't call. If Ding is not available, you're out of luck.
Barb

 

[robinb]

I also love Ding! I just rebooked my MDW->TPA leg today and saved another $30+. Most of it came back in a credit to my card, but I had to leave $7 with SWA. Not a big deal . I'm not as low as some people got on SWA, but I'm creaping down steadily. I'm at about $150 pp RT.

The only problem I see with Ding! is that there is the possibility of leaving a lot of $$ in SWA's hands while you swap Ding! fares. For instance, barbnbrian have over $300 tied up at SWA that they will have to use or lose in the next year.

 

[barbnbrian]

You are right about SWA now still holding $355 of my money that I will cause me to have to book another flight to use these travel credits and not lose my money. But, the way I see it is, I originally booked my tickets at a fare I was willing to pay anyways. Now that I've lowered our ticket prices twice and I have $355 in future travel credit, DH and I will have to make another long weekend trip away from the kids and spend quality parent-only time together! We are DVC members, so we'll just enjoy a weekend at our home resort, SSR, relaxing and doing the things we want to do that aren't necessarily kid activities.

 

[bcarson]

How often do you see things from Ding? I downloaded it last week and I have not seen anything yet!??

 

[robinb]

How often do you see things from Ding? I downloaded it last week and I have not seen anything yet!??

I get Ding!s about once or twice a day. I run Win XP Pro and there is a little SWA Plane Tail icon (orange and yellow tilted triangle) in my system tray to the right. When a Ding! special comes through the icon has a little check on it that shows new fares are available. If I click on the icon, a box pops up up that tells me how long the Ding! fare is good until. The current Ding! is good until 2:00PM today. Click on that box and it opens a window into SWA with all the fares.