Uh oh, I think I goofed!!!

[vascubaguy]

So a SWA Ding fare popped up for October... $39 one-way but it was only good Mon-Thur & Saturdays... I had booked my ressies at OKW from Sun-Fri... well I "thought" I had rooms ready to be booked on AAA for the extra 2 nights... so I went ahead and cancelled my other SWA tickets and booked the new ones and then hit the submit button at AAA to get the hotel rooms...

Well... now it comes back and says the rooms are no longer available... d'oh!

I tried the AP rates, but alas they do not appear to be good anymore... so I guess I'll be trying to get whatever I can tomorrow morning...

Might have to bite the bullet and see if OKW is available and just spend the 21 pts per night (*gasp*)... or maybe they'll be able to find some AP rates at AKL or somewhere! (Anyone have any extra room in their villa! )

Anyway... I was saving around $200 on airfare if I extended the trip by 2 days... so I figured why not! I was thinking I could get Pop for less than that for 2 nights... blasted AAA.com & AP rates!

 

[cristbaby]

Couldn't you check with member services to see if OKW has a cash discount room available? 25%, I think.

 

[ACDSNY]

I'm glad I'm not alone in travel messes. Last November on the night we where printing my DD & BF SWA boarding passes I noticed I had their flights reversed. Very expensive mistake. My great deal on ding specials went down the drain.

You're at the World too early for space in our villa. Hope everything works out.

 

[carol1231]

I couldn't get a passholder rate online for Oct. 6th, but when I called the passholder number, rooms were available with the discount. For some reason with the AP discount you seem to get a better deal the old fashioned way by calling, not online. Go figure?

 

[browniemtb]

I sure hope I didn't mess up....I booked SWA for a late friday evening flight to save $$. We have to spend 1 night at the Dolphin and then a short walk over to BWV to check in on Saturday. Do you think BWV will come over to the Dolphin and pick up our luggage??? That would be very helpful....
Brownie

 

[conciergekelly]

I'm glad I'm not alone in travel messes. Last November on the night we where printing my DD & BF SWA boarding passes I noticed I had their flights reversed. Very expensive mistake. My great deal on ding specials went down the drain.

You're at the World too early for space in our villa. Hope everything works out.

This was not with SW but NW but I did the same. I booked for the wrong weekend and had to change. My $119.00 tickets turned into $250.00 tickets. Oh well, live and learn.

To the OP... You'll find someplace to stay. If not, you can always find a nice hammock at the Poly for a two nights!

 

[CarolA]

I booked my extra nights for my Oct stay at the Hotel Royal Plaza for $79 each night. Just couldn't justify the AP rates or the Sat points for a one bedroom at BCV!

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I have goofed before. Once I booked a ding completely backwards. I just cancelled the flight and rebooked. I did feel kinda stupid.

 

[vascubaguy]

Whew...

On the phone with MS and they had a studio available at OKW for both of those nights I needed, so I just bit the bullet and used the points. For a studio it isn't as bad as if it were a 1BR, so I think we're ok (and now don't have to worry about changing resorts twice). I just have to look at the point total spread out over 7 nights rather than look at day by day.. makes it hurt less knowing that the 2 weekend nights cost more than the entire 5 night week....

Oh, and you folks had me worried about my airline tickets... I had to go back and double-check to make sure they weren't reversed... I think I'm okay there too!

Anyway, looks like I need to move my counter up by 1 day!

Ok, now I gotta shut down the computers again before Ernesto blows the power out again.

TTFN!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I'm glad it worked out for you!
Bobbi

 

[ACDSNY]

I sure hope I didn't mess up....I booked SWA for a late friday evening flight to save $$. We have to spend 1 night at the Dolphin and then a short walk over to BWV to check in on Saturday. Do you think BWV will come over to the Dolphin and pick up our luggage??? That would be very helpful....
Brownie

Brownie,
In July we went from BWV to Dolphin and bell services moved our luggage for us. We had great service from both places, I hope you do to. Have a great trip.

 

[vascubaguy]

Thanks!

But I have more to the story now...

Soo.... since I cancelled with SWA to get lower fares I had just under $200 in travel funds I could use to book our airfare for our December trip.... Well I tried to book those tickets today and it tells me that they expire 12/21/2006... I was like... WHAT!!!? (You normally get 12 months) I called SWA and they advise me that I had $2 in non-refundable ($12 in refundable) travel funds in my account and any "new" funds kept the same expiration date as the oldest funds in there... Well, the guy ended up telling me that he could extend it by 6 months BUT it would be in the form of a paper voucher. So I would either have to go to the airport and book the tickets (which means I can't checkin online and not likely to get any internet discount rates, or purchase them online and mail the voucher back in for a refund (but I wouldn't get it until after the travel was completed).

So I guess in the end it all works out...

Live and learn... I'll be more hesitant and cautious if I ever do anything like that again. I just saw that $39 and jumped at it since I only had about an hour to make a decision....

 

[patsal]

I feel your pain. Just learned that the kids get a 4 day weekend with Columbus Day. Got a ding for $49. Went ahead and booked it--not thinking Columbus day/F&W/MNSSHP=DVC all booked up--had Saturday at OKW when I called yesterday and the Tuesday night but no Sunday/Monday (at any DVC). Back to square one--I have tickets so I have to go--got an AP rate for all days at ASMu--it'll do, we won't be in the room much since we are only there for 4 nights with a late check in. I was hoping to use the few points I had on a studio and was willing to bite the bullet on the 21 points--I see you were able to get the room at OKW!
All's well that end's well, even if it does end up "costing" in the form of points for you or cash in my case!

 

[Elvis1515]

This might be a silly question but what is a Ding? Is this for DCV owners only?

Thanks for info.

 

[mmmcq]

Had to laugh....not at you but the fact that there are sooo many abbreviations used on this site you sometimes just have to say "WHAT?"

"Ding" is not just for DVC or DIS folks.

If you go on the Southwest Airlines website you can sign up for their "Ding" fares. Every so often they put a few fares on sale (I can't remember what day of the week it happens...but I think it's Thursdays) and they are usually really low fares with a limited number of seats.

As seen in the previous posts, the seats on SW can be great deals...but you have to be careful!

As for messing up reservations.....we've all done it. I posted earlier this week that I found a Disney envelope between some magazines. I probably slipped it there out of the mail so my DD's wouldn't see it. We have a Thanksgiving trip planned that is a surprise so far.

Well I've made a lot of changes as waitlists came thru and as I decided whether to add DDP and/or park tickets. I made several deposits earlier in August. But apparently when I made the last change, the CM refunded the deposit and did not reapply it to my last room reservation change.

So Tuesday I found the room reservation confirmation and it said "00" in the deposit area and that it would be cancelled 8/18. I called immediately and sure enough my rooms for Thanksgiving Day were gone. After a minor panic attack they were restored.......OMG.

This is what I get for trying to keep a secret. Little pieces of WDW paper hidden in all corners of my desk....so that not even I can find them.

 

[vascubaguy]

This might be a silly question but what is a Ding? Is this for DCV owners only?

Thanks for info.

Just as the other poster mentioned, DING rates are special discounted airfare rates for Southwest Airlines. You signup at Southwest.com and then download a program that will check for DING rates continuously each day. Sometimes the DINGs are for all fares, sometimes they are for specific flight numbers on specific days, etc. Oh, and you usually have only a few hours or so to book them (and by "few" I mean like up to 12 hours sometimes)

(Just to correct the last poster... it isn't only for Thursdays).

BTW mmmcq, I'm glad they were able to fix your ressies! That would have been horrible if you hadn't found that mail and gotten it taken care of BEFORE you got there!

patsal, looks like I got the studio at OKW and you got the AP rates I was looking for at ASMu. Looks like it's gonna be a busy time! Who ever said that October was a "slow" time for WDW?!!! Wait, n/m... forgot it's Colubmus week too... (what was I thinking!!!)... oh well, it'll be good practice for our upcoming NYE trip back to WDW in a few months!

Maybe we'll see ya there!

 

[Elvis1515]

Thanks for the info!

 

[leanne2255]

I can't tell you how many times I booked and re-booked our October airfare because the Ding fares just kept getting better. First booked into Tampa, then 2 extra days at WDW, waitlisted for those 2 extra days, another DING fare, this time for the exact dates I needed into Orlando, then un-waitlisted for BWV, not to mention the rental car ressies I kept changing. Gotta love SWA, but I did get some excellent fares from STL, $69 there and $49 back.

 

[mmmcq]

leanne2255

We're flying in and out of Tampa on Southwest for our Thanksgiving trip because it was less expensive than MCO. I thought I was all set....it didn't occur to me to check our FL flights. But today I was looking at flights I have via Southwest to Philly for a college tour trip and I noticed that the airfare dropped $10/ea way...to $39/ea leg.

I'll have to go back now and see if Orlando fares came down.... thanks for reminding me.

Nope, checked and nothing available....we'll stick with what we have. Wow 11/24 and 11/25 are completely sold out thru both airports going back to Providence so I'll consider myself lucky that I got these in the first place. A little extra driving never bothers us.

 

[Bribrittmom]

Do you have to go on the Southwest web site each day to check for Ding fares or do they e-mail you? Thanks!