Southwest Rapid Rewards - High Ding Fare Southwest

Ding fare sometimes extremely cheap or extremely high. After its introduction, southwest tracks that people books fare even the fare is high and re-books again when fare goes lower.
so there will be no lower fare sale if everyone booked high price in advance from Ding!!! if you are willing to book high price , southwest knows you and will send high price fare to you always!!!

This is very impressive/scary if true. Can you provide more proof?

This is very impressive/scary if true. Can you provide more proof?

NO he/she can't prove it. By creative several similar threads, it seems that are just trolling for the day to bad-mouth DING. :td:

NO he/she can't prove it. By creative several similar threads, it seems that are just trolling for the day to bad-mouth DING. :td:

While I share your doubts that the original poster likely cannot prove his/her claims, I must say that DING is fully deserving of the bad-mouthing that is has gotten.

For example, today DING generously offered my a $45 one-way from SAT-HOU. Wow, what a deal. :rolleyes:

While I share your doubts that the original poster likely cannot prove his/her claims, I must say that DING is fully deserving of the bad-mouthing that is has gotten.

For example, today DING generously offered my a $45 one-way from SAT-HOU. Wow, what a deal. :rolleyes:

Depending on your car, it may be cheaper than driving with prices approaching $3 a gallon. ^

Ding fare sometimes extremely cheap or extremely high. After its introduction, southwest tracks that people books fare even the fare is high and re-books again when fare goes lower.
so there will be no lower fare sale if everyone booked high price in advance from Ding!!! if you are willing to book high price , southwest knows you and will send high price fare to you always!!!

While I have no reason to doubt that some SWA database has all of this information, I have not seen this. I aggessively rebooked several Ding fares (got MDW to FLL down to $35) and got one of those "double dings" as recently as two weeks ago. My family (four of us) always get the same dings, even though two have never booked a DIng.

Breaking away from the anecdotal evidence, for a while one of the FTers was pasting each Ding offering and no one noticed any differences.

I aggessively rebooked several Ding fares (got MDW to FLL down to $35)

So, now you have a credit with SWA that earns no interest?

So, now you have a credit with SWA that earns no interest?

See that "CP" in ejmelton's profile? That means he probably flies a lot with SWA if he was able to accumulate 100 RR credits within 12 months. I doubt he has a problem reusing $35 worth of Ticketless Funds in the next few months. :rolleyes:

While I have no reason to doubt that some SWA database has all of this information, I have not seen this. I aggessively rebooked several Ding fares (got MDW to FLL down to $35) and got one of those "double dings" as recently as two weeks ago. My family (four of us) always get the same dings, even though two have never booked a DIng.

Ding has not yet begun to send personalized Ding fares out (with the "possible" exception of that one day when the 1,000,000th Dingbat registered and they sent out Ding fares from each user's home city). When/If they do begin personalized Ding fares, a scenario such as the one the OP mentioned is theoretically possible. If SWA knows you will buy a MDW-FLL Ding fare for $79, why would they send you one for $35 in the future? Or if they know you have already booked a $79 MDW-FLL Ding fare scheduled to fly out in a month, it would be stupid of them to send you a better Ding fare in the meantime for a $35 MDW-FLL. So the OP has a point, I just wonder if he pulling it out from where the sun don't shine or if he has some knowledge that this might actually happen in the future.

I think DING is Southwest's one major goof in its history, but when I read this I wonder how many morons actually buy tickets at high prices from DING. Perhaps their making loads off of it and its a good marketing endeavor. I installed DING again last week, giving it a second chance. Within two days I removed it. First, having a memory resident program on my computer is not something I want - there are already enough of those, two, its like a stupid game of can you beat the expiration date/time, and three, the fares generally suck when compared with the regular fares. At least my experience.

I don't believe WN needed DING to accomplish what the OP appears to be concerned about. The airlines -- every one of them -- have had a means of tracking our buying patterns (city pairs, price points, etc) for years: it's called our frequent flyer number. As long as my RR number is in each PNR, WN knows every flight I've booked, flown or not flown, no showed, cancelled, reissued at a lower fare, etc. [Just like the grocery chains know your purchasing patterns, brand preferences, etc., everytime you scan your 'preferred savings card'.]

The DING registrations may take the WN database to the next level and, instead of sending you an e-mail, they push the info right to your desktop. But make no mistake about it, they've had the data on everyone of us, so long as we use the RR number on our reservations.

As for DING having high fares... there's no doubt that, overall, fares are inching up, whether it is DING fares, Internet specials or even Refundable Anytime. For those of us that travel the same city pairs on a regular basis, eventually rewards (lower fares) do come to those who are patient. For most of the last three months, the lowest LAX/LAS fare was $49. A couple of times, and currently, there was a $39 Internet Special. And during the past three months, there have also been DING fares between LAX/LAS at $25, $30, $34 and $37.

Ten years ago, buying tickets via your home computer was a novelty to many (anyone remember Easy Sabre?). As the Internet developed, WN was a pioneer in moving airline ticket sales to the on-line world. I consider SWA a leader in experimenting in the use of push technology... and expect the other carriers will develop similar concepts over the coming months.

Depending on your car, it may be cheaper than driving with prices approaching $3 a gallon. ^

That's certainly true, but considering that the non-DING advance purchase fare between SAT and HOU is usually $39 one way (and sometimes $34), DING's $45 fare was a total joke.

That's certainly true, but considering that the non-DING advance purchase fare between SAT and HOU is usually $39 one way (and sometimes $34), DING's $45 fare was a total joke.

This morning's Ding! had three fares originating from SAN:

San Diego to Las Vegas for $45!- this is higher than the Internet one-way of $39.


San Diego to Omaha for $123!- this looks to be on par with, or slightly higher than, the Internet One-Way fare during the period. using shortcut-to-lower-fares, I found prices ranging from $109 to $127.

San Diego to Reno for $73!- $4 cheaper than the $77 lowest price I found online.

So, 66% of the fares out of SAN are higher than you'd obtain via the normal reservation methods. Sigh.

I don't believe WN needed DING to accomplish what the OP appears to be concerned about. The airlines -- every one of them -- have had a means of tracking our buying patterns (city pairs, price points, etc) for years: it's called our frequent flyer number. As long as my RR number is in each PNR, WN knows every flight I've booked, flown or not flown, no showed, cancelled, reissued at a lower fare, etc. [Just like the grocery chains know your purchasing patterns, brand preferences, etc., everytime you scan your 'preferred savings card'.]

The DING registrations may take the WN database to the next level and, instead of sending you an e-mail, they push the info right to your desktop. But make no mistake about it, they've had the data on everyone of us, so long as we use the RR number on our reservations.


But with traditional FF numbers, you don't have to put those in to search for fares. You can browse fares as a guest and have access to all the fares, find the cheapest and then put in you number. The airline can certainly track your spending and can also offer you specials, but they can't prohibit you from finding the lowest fare and buying it. At least in my experience I've never seen specific fares offered to customers based on their FF# through a link only they can access. Mileage offers certainly, but not fares.

Southwest seems to have created an application that will eventually allow them to be the first to do just that- offer customized fares based on FF#.

We'll see how this DING! plays out. I am sure WN is doing lots of testing/research so they can figure out how to increase revenue in the future.

Considering I won't bite on a Ding fare of above $25 on the PIT-PHL route or $30 on CLE-BWI, I think WN is out of luck in trying to get me to pay more on Ding. :D

We recently booked a trip for BUR-PDX at $76 EW. The only other fares available at the time were $138 EW and up. Right now an Internet Special is available for $89-109. So I'm quite happy with the fare we got through Ding!

On the other hand, some Ding! fares I've seen are, as people here have already mentioned, higher than other specials they've offered, but for the most part they're still lower than the normal fares.

Ding has not yet begun to send personalized Ding fares out (with the "possible" exception of that one day when the 1,000,000th Dingbat registered and they sent out Ding fares from each user's home city). When/If they do begin personalized Ding fares, a scenario such as the one the OP mentioned is theoretically possible. If SWA knows you will buy a MDW-FLL Ding fare for $79, why would they send you one for $35 in the future? Or if they know you have already booked a $79 MDW-FLL Ding fare scheduled to fly out in a month, it would be stupid of them to send you a better Ding fare in the meantime for a $35 MDW-FLL. So the OP has a point, I just wonder if he pulling it out from where the sun don't shine or if he has some knowledge that this might actually happen in the future.
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I must admit that I still love southwest. My original post was just my guess. I have been traveling with NW for two years fron San Jose to Phoenix. I always booked fare in advance up to the end of its schedule. Usually at price of $138 round trip. Since July, the fare for round trip went up to $218 or more, and Southwest never said they increased fare even AA and UA announced they increased fare up to $10 or $20 for RT due to high oil price. Ding send fares higher than internet one way at the same time. These two things are really bothering me.

I think NW is really testing the Market. If it see many FTFlyers booked tickets in advance at high price, For example SJC to PHX, there is no need to keep low fare on that route.
By the way SJC to PHX is only $175 RT with US airways from San Francisco to Phoenix.

Maybe I'm just being naive here, but I don't see why Southwest would spend the time and money developing a system to offer thousands or even millions of "custom fares" to people. After all, Southwest was the first and most successful airline in the industry at adapting a simplified fare structure.

Maybe I'm just being naive here, but I don't see why Southwest would spend the time and money developing a system to offer thousands or even millions of "custom fares" to people. After all, Southwest was the first and most successful airline in the industry at adapting a simplified fare structure.
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Some routes southwest really dominates after a few years real low fare. other airlines have to stay away. now it's up to WN to control the price. Believe or not, you will see this happening from now on.

Some routes southwest really dominates after a few years real low fare. other airlines have to stay away. now it's up to WN to control the price. Believe or not, you will see this happening from now on.

Not to burst your bubble, but this started on April 22. In the LAX-OAK market, where WN has a 90% share, WN stopped matching JetBlue's $39 and bumped the price to $49 then $67 over the summer. It's back to $49 now after a brief and partial match to UA's $39 for August and September. I doubt we'll see non-Ding fares below $49 intra-CA unless oil prices go back down.

WN can raise fares at will and make it stick. In markets it "owns", WN only has to be concerned with customers who decide to drive or cancel the trip entirely. The driving option is unattractive with $3 gasoline.