On SW if a ding comes up....

[ptmmg]

that will lower my price how do I change my exisiting reservations. Do I cancel get the credit and rebook? I would be afraid in the time I canceled and tried to rebook the ding price will be gone. Has this happened to anybody before?

 

[DonnaL]

Personally I haven't done it, but, according to what I've read here, you need to pull up your existing ressie and then pull up a new window with all the Ding information. I guess you cancel your original ressie in the first window and then IMMEDIATELY make the new Ding ressie. You must cancel the first ressie in order to have the Ticketless Travel funds available for your Ding fare. I have $59 fares booked for early June, so, if a Ding comes up for my dates at less than $59 I may try it, but, I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive about it.

 

[dawnball]

You will need to cancel and rebook, yes. Ding fares don't show availabililty in the online fare adjustment tool. The Dings that I saw weren't *that* scarce, in that I took a few hours to decide to book the Ding, and then I spent an hour or so fiddling with flights and whatnot before I booked it and didn't have any flights run out of Ding fares. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

The method I use for changing flights is a little more complicated, but has worked for me in the past.

Open up two windows, in the first, bring up the new Ding fares and complete the process up to the point where you enter your payment information. This puts the seats in a temporary hold status while you supposedly get out your credit card.

In the second window, go into Travel Center and select Cancel Air Res. Complete that process until you get the confirmation that your ticketless funds are available to you.

Switch back to your first window and complete the purchase using the newly available ticketless funds.

I have done this several times in the past and it has worked each time.

Good Luck...

 

[Eganclan]

I also open both windows they state that funds may not be available right away but I have never had that happen. Just one more tip that I have learned in my now Ding obsession: Book each member of your party separately and each leg of your flight separately. It takes more time but gives you more options. I have had situations where I could not get the total # of ding fares that I needed. I also just recently had a situation where I needed to cancel my return but because I had booked everyone together I would have lost everyone's Ding fares down and back. It would have cost everyone alot more so I opted to lose my return. So my new strategy is to take the extra time and book everything separate. Best of luck.

 

[Lisa0503]

I am realativly new to flying and looking to buy tickets on SW when they release the rest of the Sept dates. My question is: If I book 'Internet Special' or 'Fun Fares' online..they are supposedly non-refundable right? Now what if a DING comes up that will work for our vacation needs? Would we be able to cancel the first flight ressies we made and book DING for a lower price...and if we can do that what happens to the difference in price. Would we get a refund even though the original internet purchase was non-refundable? I am so confused???

 

[PRINCESSMOMX3]

I would like to know this answer myself.

 

[castleri]

You will not get a refund- you will get credit for future flights that is good for up to one year from the date you purchased the original tickets. I have done this using the methods as stated above by other posters. The first time I did it I called and spoke to a reservationist and she talked me through it on the phone - another reason I love SW - they are so helpful even when the reservation could only be done on the internet to get the lower fare she was willing to help me change it.
Still waiting for those Sept fares myself.

 

[tolookaa5]

I know I must sound silly, but what is a DING??
New to the flying thing. Thanks

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

DING is a small application that runs on your computer that displays SWA airfare specials. you can download it from SWA's website.

 

[tolookaa5]

thank you, Mickey Maniac.

 

[lovingthemouse]

Good question, and before two days ago, I could not have answered you but... when i saw our reserved flights for considerably less on a Ding, i kept the computer screen open and called SWA. A lovely rep talked me through the process - credited our SWA account with the $100. and told me we had 1 year in which to use the funds. It was so very easy.

 

[pezpam]

If you fly Southwest reasonably often, you could also make the Ding reservation and THEN cancel the other one. You won't be able to use the credit for the Ding flight, but you can use it for another flight within the next year. If you almost never fly Southwest, it might not work, but if you're not flying again, the extra credit you have when doing what others have suggested would be wasted anyway unless you can talk them into a refund........