Southwest Ding Fares

[tomandrobin]

I forgot to post yesterday that Southwest had released Ding fares for October. We changed our airfare to $36 to Orlando, saving $212 that we can apply to more food and wine activities!

 

[tjhsr]

We had some credits to use up but our DS and DD and spouses were able to save about $50.00 each person.

 

[Hanover]

We also took advantage of Ding rates to book a last minute 3 night quick trip in October to take our boys to MNSSHP. We got $36 tickets from BWI to MCO. We always seem to have a running credit with Soutwest from our original bookings and then changing to ding rates. I don't think we've paid more than $45 each way the last 3 years.

 

[ebenmax]

WOW!! I am so jealous! Congratulations. If these types of fares were available to us, we would HAVE to buy more points!!

 

[edk35]

I forgot to post yesterday that Southwest had released Ding fares for October. We changed our airfare to $36 to Orlando, saving $212 that we can apply to more food and wine activities!

I saw that and flipped out. Our kids have off the 19th of Oct. and don't think for about an hour I almost took a trip down there. I have never seen the airfare that low. I wanted to do it soooooooo bad.

 

[ebenmax]

I forgot to post yesterday that Southwest had released Ding fares for October. We changed our airfare to $36 to Orlando, saving $212 that we can apply to more food and wine activities!

OK - so let me clarify since I have never done "ding" rates. Did you already buy a ticket awhile back and then switch it when the "ding" rates came out?
Did you have to pay a change of ticket fee? How does all of this work? We need to figure out how to get to Orlando cheaper than we are now!!

Thanks!

 

[dgaston]

SWA doesn't charge ny fees to switch to a lower fare. So if the regular fare drops there's a convenient screen under "Travel Tools" that lets you re-book. Ding fares are a little tricker. I use the two window method and fill everything out to the page where it asks for payment. Then I cancel the more expensive fare and pay for the Ding with my new Travel Funds. There's a moment of breath-holding, but not too bad.

 

[tomandrobin]

OK - so let me clarify since I have never done "ding" rates. Did you already buy a ticket awhile back and then switch it when the "ding" rates came out?
Did you have to pay a change of ticket fee? How does all of this work? We need to figure out how to get to Orlando cheaper than we are now!!

Thanks!

We bought our tickets earlier in the summer. We have the "ding" program loaded to our desktop. About 2 months out they will start to release the ding fares. We book our air fare as one way tickets, that way we can change the portion of the cheaper air fare. No fee is invovled. You get a credit that you have to use in a year (I think). The key is booking the air fare as one way tickets.

 

[tomandrobin]

SWA doesn't charge ny fees to switch to a lower fare. So if the regular fare drops there's a convenient screen under "Travel Tools" that lets you re-book. Ding fares are a little tricker. I use the two window method and fill everything out to the page where it asks for payment. Then I cancel the more expensive fare and pay for the Ding with my new Travel Funds. There's a moment of breath-holding, but not too bad.

Or if your like us, we have a rolling credit with Southwest....lol.

 

[wheelcap]

How do you change the fare?? Do I have to get a certain level fare in the first place, or do I pay the change fee, or . . . ? I never realized this could be done!

 

[Anal Annie]

$36! Wow! That's awesome! We just used SW for the first time from BWI in Aug & I watched & watched & watched for a Ding & never ran across one for either flight. We just booked on JetBlue from Dulles for MLK weekend. Believe it or not, the SW flights were like twice as much! and no seat assignment! Also, Magic Express doesn't handle the bags on your return! So we'll give JetBlue a try - I've heard good things about them! I was not impressed with the "cattle call" involved with SW...but for $36...I might could do it again!

 

[edk35]

$36! Wow! That's awesome! We just used SW for the first time from BWI in Aug & I watched & watched & watched for a Ding & never ran across one for either flight. We just booked on JetBlue from Dulles for MLK weekend. Believe it or not, the SW flights were like twice as much! and no seat assignment! Also, Magic Express doesn't handle the bags on your return! So we'll give JetBlue a try - I've heard good things about them! I was not impressed with the "cattle call" involved with SW...but for $36...I might could do it again!

I thought the same thing about SW when we first used them. I swore I would never use them again. Now I am used to it. I love all the flights they have from BWI ( I live so close to the airport too), the fares are just too good to be true sometimes. I almost always get between 49 and 79 all different times of the year. I have 79 right now for our Thanksgiving Trip.....but I did that round trip and I will never do that again. I have always done one ways...easier to make changes to ressie if fares go down than the roundtrip.

 

[vascubaguy]

I just rebooked my flights on SWA to MCO. I had paid around $99 one-way and the ding rate was $54. Like someone else mentioned, I almost always have a credit waiting with SW. I tend to book at the Internet rate, then a ding comes out about 2 months prior.

My problem is that the way the expiration dates of the credits run, I usually end up having them expire a month before I would use it. However, FYI... if you run into this situation, just call Customer Service (not reservations) and they will issue a voucher that will extend it for you.

Great thing about SWA, all of the bookings, cancellations, etc can be done on-line! And it doesn't cost a thing!!! They way they "get you" is that you book these tickets and you don't get a refund, instead you just get credits. So they are still gonna get the $$$. Even with that, they are still the cheapest way for me to fly non-stop. Most other flights out of Norfolk have a stop somewhere and I hate having layovers!

 

[Anal Annie]

I thought the same thing about SW when we first used them. I swore I would never use them again. Now I am used to it. I love all the flights they have from BWI ( I live so close to the airport too), the fares are just too good to be true sometimes. I almost always get between 49 and 79 all different times of the year. I have 79 right now for our Thanksgiving Trip.....but I did that round trip and I will never do that again. I have always done one ways...easier to make changes to ressie if fares go down than the roundtrip.

We live in upper Montgomery Co. so it's ABOUT an hours drive to either BWI or Dulles for us - so we're fortunate that we really can use either airport and since Jet Blue only goes out of Dulles that sealed that one for us. I would say that the risk for us with using Dulles is crossing the American Legion Bridge (traffic can be a nightmare). And of course those "Fastpark" places offer cheaper parking at BWI with their internet coupons! Anyway, I'm sure we'll use both SW and BWI again sometime - esp. if they would participate in the Magic Express program like I'm reading they may. By the time we got home tho I was thinking with all the baggage tips we handed out (to bell services to store the bags on our last day, to the ME bus driver who had to load & unload the bags and to the skycap guy at MCO...) we could've booked a regular flight on a regular airline with an assigned seat for the difference we spent in tips!

I was just shocked last week when the SW newest schedules came out that they didn't even offer their cheapest fares for the dates we were interested in. They all said "unavailable" on the first day and none of the times worked for us to try to go down after work! Oh well. Our NEXT trip after that will be in July - so I guess in the spring I'll be going thru this whole comparison / booking thing all over again!

 

[littlestar]

We rebooked our flights when I saw that Ding fare Saturday. $39 each way from Indy to Orlando. With taxes and fees it ended up being $98.80 round trip. I've rebooked twice now. So we've got $160.00 in credits to use by June of '08. Southwest is great.

Some of the family even decided to make an extra tip to Orlando when they saw those great fares.

 

[squirrlygirl]

We bought our tickets earlier in the summer. We have the "ding" program loaded to our desktop. About 2 months out they will start to release the ding fares. We book our air fare as one way tickets, that way we can change the portion of the cheaper air fare. No fee is invovled. You get a credit that you have to use in a year (I think). The key is booking the air fare as one way tickets.

I never thought of that! So far for me the return fare has always been the same price as the flight down--sometimes it isn't?
I did figure out I'll need to book the portion that uses credits separate from any I pay totally out of pocket to keep my travel funds from expiring earlier than needed..

 

[spiceycat]

orlando paper is reporting that by next year SW will join DME!!!!

so no more taking your own luggage back to the airport and standing in lines!!!

 

[tomandrobin]

orlando paper is reporting that by next year SW will join DME!!!!

so no more taking your own luggage back to the airport and standing in lines!!!

That would be execellent!!

 

[spiceycat]

here is the article if you want to read it
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-disney0107sep01,0,6974348.story