SWA Airfare guidance

[anniem923]

Hello all!
New to the boards and have been watching the SWA discussions about fares. My daughter and I are making our first trip to WDW Jan 14 -19th. SWA doesn't have fares out yet for those dates so I am holding off on taking another airline until I see what SWA does.
Tell me if I have this right in regard to booking SWA flights.

I should book one way trips for the two of us. BUF/MCO and MCO/BUF
I should take the lowest fare that fits my schedule and hope that they later DING the flight.
If either of the reservations get dinged then I cancel that one (or both) and re-book at the lower fare. This can be done online or by phone.
SWA will give me a credit toward another flight on the refunded amount even if the ticket was non-refundable. (usable within 1 year of original booking)
Other airlines may not necessarily give me a credit and may charge me a re-book fee on a canceled flight.

How am I doing so far?
Thanks!
Anne

 

[iluvflorida8]

You got it down Anne.

I am sure you will get a DING for your airport Buff-MCO. I think you will be able to get a DING in the $39-$49 range with no problem. But I would book your seats now even if it is around $59-$79.......then you could always re-book at the lower rate.

 

[DVC Grammy]

I'm not sure you can do the Ding change by phone; I seem to remember that it has to be done online (however, those really nice people at SWA customer service are more than happy to "walk you through it" if you call them while you're online ). SWA=

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

Anne-

To give you the added incentive to watch those DINGS...I am flying SW from BUF to MCO and back in September. I got N/S flights both ways.

For 3 tickets, our final cost after the last DING I had last Friday: $309.00 with tax and fees.

So we are flying round trip for $103 pp!!!

I will be watching the February fares, too!!!

I love SW!

 

[taimgxe]

You definitely got the information down pat!!! Just remember for any change with canceling and rebooking of internet/DING, you will need to do it online.

Go for it! I just booked yesterday, yeah!!! HOU - MCO one-ways.

 

[anniem923]

I am hoping to get the fares for around $100 ea. I've got my DING machine fired up every morning. Just waiting for SWA to put on more Jan. dates...
Have fun everyone!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

don't forget to check-in online exactly 24 hrs. prior to your departure time so that you can get in the "A" line at the gate and you can easily sit with your daughter. That is, unless she's 4 or younger then you can preboard and not worry about when you check-in. Your dates are during non-peak time so you should have no problem getting awesome prices from Southwest!
Have a great trip!

 

[Hoosier Mom]

I'm assuming dings are a discount on a flight.

Are there certain days of the week that get dings more than others? In other words, weekdays might be discounted more often than weekends?

I've not been brave enough to download ding.

 

[katiedid0801]

I'm assuming dings are a discount on a flight.

Are there certain days of the week that get dings more than others? In other words, weekdays might be discounted more often than weekends?

I've not been brave enough to download ding.

Download it! You can always uninstall it later, but you won't get the great deals without it-thanks to Ding my husband & I are flying from Nashville to Orlando 2 weeks from today for $81.50 each round trip!

 

[anniem923]

I'm assuming dings are a discount on a flight.

Are there certain days of the week that get dings more than others? In other words, weekdays might be discounted more often than weekends?

I've not been brave enough to download ding.

Good Morning!
I have only had DING for a couple of weeks. (Since I found this board) So far, there have been DINGS every day. Not sure on the timing of them but usually there is one when I get home from work in the evening. This past weekend there were some too. It is easy to download the program and it sets up in just a few minutes. If you want to save $$ on flights this is one way to do it!
Have a wonderful day!
Anne

 

[ybcart7]

If you book the exact same flights - you can call a refund specialist at 214-792-4223 and they will credit your credit card. I got a Pittsburgh - MCO ding last weekend and was credited $136 to my credit card yesterday...

 

[anniem923]

don't forget to check-in online exactly 24 hrs. prior to your departure time so that you can get in the "A" line at the gate and you can easily sit with your daughter. That is, unless she's 4 or younger then you can preboard and not worry about when you check-in. Your dates are during non-peak time so you should have no problem getting awesome prices from Southwest!
Have a great trip!

Thanks for the reminder! My daughter is 14. We flew SW last spring for a class trip to DC. The teacher had made the arrangements and didn't check us in early. Since I had never flown SW before, I didn't know about the seating arrangements. We were in the C group for both flights. The second flight I did not get to sit with my daughter, but she sat with some friends from her class and had a fine flight. I committed to sit with a girl from our group who was afraid of flying and we couldn't get 2 seats together on the return flight so I asked the FA if there was something she could do since the girl was about to freak out and she made an announcement asking if someone would mind moving so we could sit together. Some kind SW employee did just that and the flight went fine. I was impressed with SW and their attitude. They're funny too!

 

[Milldew]

Can you explain why we should book one-way trips instead of round trip. I thought I had this SW stuff down but I missed that tip along the way! ;-)

 

[iluvflorida8]

Can you explain why we should book one-way trips instead of round trip. I thought I had this SW stuff down but I missed that tip along the way! ;-)

If you book 1 way tx and then the a DING comes out you can lower the price of your original ticket.

If you book a roundtrip ticket and the DING comes out, and the dates only go to your departiing(opening leg of your trip) date, you wouldn't be able to change both ends of your ticket. With 2 one way tx, it is much easier to always get the cheaper DINGS.

I have ONLY booked 1 way tx with Southwest for the last 14 months and I fly them 2-3 times a month, and have never had a problem re-booking for a cheaper tx.

 

[**Tinker*Bell*7**]

I'm not sure you can do the Ding change by phone; I seem to remember that it has to be done online (however, those really nice people at SWA customer service are more than happy to "walk you through it" if you call them while you're online ). SWA=

i rebooked with a ding! fare for 6 tickets JAN to MCO last year & called SWA to see how to go about doing this. here's what happened. i told the rep who answered the phone what i needed & she told me that ding! has to be booked online but she would help me. she had me go through the ding! booking up until it says purchase this ticket. when i got to that point, the tickets were secure so she THEN cancelled my previous booking & immediately the funds were available for the new purchase. this prevented me from having to pay the entire amount again plus not be able to get a refund (only a travel voucher) on the original tickets PLUS did not risk my already purchased seats in case i could not get the tickets on ding! it was most helpful!! especially since it was a holiday weekend and there is only one flight JAN to MCO each day!

 

[Milldew]

Thank you for your responses...it helped explain alot.

Since there are a few experts on this thread let me try another question... do you know what time of day new fares tend to come out (I'm waiting on February fares). Meaning...should I be checking at Midnight every night? or is it pretty random?

 

[DonnaL]

All you really need to do when booking a Ding fare and planning on using the funds from a previously booked fare is go all the way through the Ding screens to the purchase screen and then open up a second window to www.southwest.com. Go to Travel Center and scroll down to Cancel Air Reservation ......cancel your original ressie and then immediately go back to your first screen with your Ding fares and your ticketless travel funds from the original ressie will be available to use.......sound like it takes awhile but in reality it's all of about 30 seconds. Conceivably I guess you could lose your ressie if a lot of people are booking that particular Ding at the same time, but, so far it's never happened to me and by going all the way to the purchase screen you're minimizing that possibility since you really only need to show what funds you're using to purchase those tickets and your purchase is made.

 

[walter]

Airtran now has a non stop flight on weekends from Buffalo to Orlando. Has anyone experienced this new program and any comments would be greatly appreciated.