Help Me Understand Southwest/DING

[Eyore4Ever149]

I have groomed every travel website I can think of for decent airfare out of the airports Id like to use. I really love JetBlue, but they are too high for us for the airport closest and not offering morning fares during Fall/Winter months to Orlando.
So flying out of Hartford is my next alternative, which brings me to Southwest.

Last night the tickets would have been $779 for 3 tickets
Today they are $100 higher for the 3 seats- so i will wait again for tomorrow.

But I see mentioned here discount codes and have heard of DING fares. How does it work?
Should I book my flights- then can I wait to see if a better fare becomes available?
We are looking to fly out Oct 10 (a Sunday)

What kind of prices do the DING fares get? I am getting nervous, I usually book at a healthy 3 months out ( I was initially told by JetBlue that they were waiting to release morning flights- but then was told they aren't offering them- blows my mind they are only offering 2 flights- a 9pm and 2:45pm out of Laguardia...

Any tips/help/advice is welcome!

 

[verticalchaos]

JFK isn't that much further than LaGhetto. And they typically have a good number of JetBlue fares. I'd check flights out of JFK - that's like their home base.

I should add...Southwest does fly out of LaGhetto (match made in heaven if you ask me). You have to go through Baltimore or Chicago Midway, but they fly out of there if you want the cult airline. Haha.

 

[helenk]

Have you downloaded the Ding application? If so then you know the generally the Ding fares are offered just about every day. You sign up for the airports that you'd like to travel to and from and you are given fares for those locations, but not necessarily the to and from spot you want to go to.
I have Phila and MCO as my airports but the deals are for basically any trips out of PHL or MCO so you have to keep track of it each day.
Some times the fares are great, but other times I've gotten a better deal with the Wanna Get Away Fares.
The Ding fares are good if you plan on using flying with SW again within 1 year of the time you first book your trip.
If you book your trip now and a Ding Fare comes along that's a better deal you basically need to cancel your first flight and use the credits to book the Ding Fares. Now you are left with credits that must be used within a year of the date you booked the first flight.
So if you plan on travelling within that year timeframe the Ding fares can be a good deal. If you do not then you really are not saving any money.
I have a trip booked for September 5th and the Ding fares for September just started within the past few days. October Dings may not be along for awhile yet.

 

[MAYNARDS99]

Ding fares come out, it seems, one and a half months prior to the travel date.

Yesterday my September trip from Raleigh Durham to Orlando, one way fare went down from $109 to $76. In total, I saved $132 for two passengers.

You can download "Ding" from the Southwest.com website. It's called Ding, because it rings a chime when a sale price comes thru.

Southwest does NOT charge for checked luggage, so I saved at least $60 more.

 

[loveswdw]

DING is a program used to sell unsold seats. When you see a DING fare that is awesome, jump on it. There may only be 3 or 4 seats available on a DING at that price. And, you won't always see DINGs from certain cities. I don't see too many from Louisville to Orlando because they generally can sell those seats without the DING.

I see you are wanting to fly on a Sunday. You won't see too many DINGs that include Sunday travel. Look back through the "History of DING Fares" thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=957753&page=213 you'll see most (though not all) are for Monday-Saturday or Monday-Thursday & Saturday. Sometimes you'll see "valid for everyday" but not too often.

That being said, I would definitely download DING and watch. We have snared some great deals on DING in the past. Good luck!