My son, who is not a Ding subscriber, received this email this evening:
"Just make sure you download DING! (if you haven't already) before this weekend and then be on the lookout for some seriously low fares coming your way! These fares are only available for DING! subscribers and are so hot that they may be offered only for a day, or even just a few hours!"
Looks like they're going to repeat last weekend's extravaganza. I guess we'll see if they offer new dates and cities, or just repeat the offer.
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Judging from this pre-announcement, last weekend's sale, and today's earnings call (slower traffic growth), the Ding department has just been given much freer rein to aggressively sell summer seats. This is good news for customers.
If this strategy doesn't pan out for Southwest, Ding might fade away, an outcome that many of us wouldn't mind all that much...
As a retired and (mostly) leisure traveler, I've gotten quite a bit of benefit from Ding fares. I book well in advance and generally am able to wait up to 14 days to see if a Ding fare materializes. They usually do, and I save plenty.
Also, they sometimes are very valuable when they coincide with short term bookings (less than two weeks out). Example: I heard an acquaintance complain last week that when he tried to book SMF-MCI short-term, he could only get fares of $339 outgoing and $195 return (plus tax). I went on Ding and easily got him fares of $100 each way (plus tax). He was $334 happier
($200 vs. $534).
By the way, there must have been plenty of seats, or SWA would not have offered the Ding fares on those flights. In these circumstances, I fail to grasp the logic of Southwest discouraging all but business or urgent travelers by setting the bar so high.
I fail to grasp the logic of Southwest discouraging all but business or urgent travelers by setting the bar so high.
Quite simply, the only reason WN (or any airline) makes money is because of those travellers paying full fare, whether they're traveling at the last minute or on a very high demand route. WN just released their first quarter results, they made $33,000,000 carrying 22,000,000 passengers. I suppose you could look at it as $1.50 profit per passenger carried ... but realistically what really occurs is that they lose money on 95% of the passengers and only actually turn a profit on 5% of passengers who are paying full fare for a ticket, so they're really making a $30 profit on the profitable 1,100,000 passengers in the quarter and breaking even on the other 20,900,000 passengers (my percentages there are totally made up for example purposes only, but the idea still holds).
The numbers are pretty amazing when looked at in this context ... in the first quarter they flew 276,900 trips for that $33,000,000 profit ... so on average they made a profit of $120 per flight ... hardly seems worth it, does it! In the case of your friend, you took their $534 ticket and replaced it with a $200 ticket ... you wiped out WN's profit not just for that flight, but for another flight too!
WN just released their first quarter results, they made $33,000,000 carrying 22,000,000 passengers. I suppose you could look at it as $1.50 profit per passenger carried ... but realistically what really occurs is that they lose money on 95% of the passengers and only actually turn a profit on 5% of passengers who are paying full fare for a ticket, so they're really making a $30 profit on the profitable 1,100,000 passengers in the quarter and breaking even on the other 20,900,000 passengers (my percentages there are totally made up for example purposes only, but the idea still holds).
An interesting way of looking at it! Definitely a low margin business.
I've always wondered whether Ding was such a hot idea for them. In some instances, it MUST dilute their revenue because all WN frequent flyers I know watch Ding and either book it INSTEAD of regular fares or try to convert their regular fares to Dings.
On the other hand, they do get some wouldn't-have-otherwise-travelled customers, as well as some wouldn't-have-flown-Southwest-except-for-the-unmatched-Ding-fares customers.
I once sat next to the PM for the Boeing Super Sonic Plane. We were talking about WN and their profit. He was telling me that if Southwest gave away 2 bags of peanuts to every passenger, they would wipe away their profit.
Here are my thoughts:
1) I rarely use Ding. It is really a pain to keep track of etc. I wish they would just make more Internet fares.
2) The fares as of late have really caused me to re-look at what flights I take. Granted for Business I fly a good number of Full Fare Y, I have cut back on my leisure travel as the fares just arent good enough for me to go "wow, I dont have anything planned, let me take my family." Where before, last min and more flights were taken.
lastly, I avoid WN for Long Haul flights. There is another WN Fan in my office and he just took Jet Blue. He *raved* about the service and everything about it. If WN is going to keep up on the Trans-Cons, they will need to increase the level of service. For me, I stick with AA in order to get upgraded to first.
lastly, I avoid WN for Long Haul flights. There is another WN Fan in my office and he just took Jet Blue. He *raved* about the service and everything about it. If WN is going to keep up on the Trans-Cons, they will need to increase the level of service. For me, I stick with AA in order to get upgraded to first.
True, but given the percentage of persons upgraded to first on transcons relative to the total number of transcons, I don't think that the class of people who are regularly getting upgraded to first class on transcons and so are not flying WN will make-or-break WN.
Quite simply, the only reason WN (or any airline) makes money is because of those travellers paying full fare, whether they're traveling at the last minute or on a very high demand route.
That's not really true. A flight has a certain, essentially fixed, cost of flying. An airline that is breaking even on the flight needs the deeply-discounted passengers just as much as the full fare passenger then to break even. Obviously, the one person paying full fare contributes a bit more than one person paying the discounted fare, but the contribution of the numerous people paying the discounted fare is hardly zero...
My son, who is not a Ding subscriber, received this email this evening:
"Just make sure you download DING! (if you haven't already) before this weekend and then be on the lookout for some seriously low fares coming your way! These fares are only available for DING! subscribers and are so hot that they may be offered only for a day, or even just a few hours!"
Looks like they're going to repeat last weekend's extravaganza. I guess we'll see if they offer new dates and cities, or just repeat the offer.
Looks like new cities (BWI has almost nothing), and there are many June fares. Available until 10pm Eastern today.
Here are some of the $50 fares - purchase by 9pm CDT. The exclusion of Fridays/Sunday makes the sale less useful to many of us leisure travelers. Still there are some gems like the $50 OAK-MCI (normally $150min) which would make an overnight trip to see the A's v. Royals quite affordable And nice to see the idiotic "flight 1420 only" restrictions gone (at least for this sale)
Ft. Lauderdale Offers
Ft. Lauderdale to Columbus for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday, June 4 through June 27, 2007 only
Ft. Lauderdale to Philadelphia for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday and Saturday, June 2 through June 27, 2007 only
Las Vegas Offers
Las Vegas to Amarillo for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through June 27, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Harlingen for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Houston (Hobby) for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Kansas City for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday and Saturday, May 1 through June 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Lubbock for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Midland/Odessa for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Nashville for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 29, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Omaha for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, May 1 through June 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Portland for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through June 27, 2007 only
Las Vegas to San Antonio for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Seattle/Tacoma for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to Spokane for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Las Vegas to St. Louis for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Los Angeles Offers
Los Angeles to Columbus for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Los Angeles to Denver for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday, May 1 through June 28, 2007 only
Los Angeles to Kansas City for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through June 27, 2007 only
Los Angeles to Philadelphia for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Wednesday, May 1 through June 27, 2007 only
Oakland Offers
Oakland to Albuquerque for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through June 30, 2007 only
Oakland to Chicago (Midway) for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Oakland to Denver for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Monday-Saturday, June 1 through June 30, 2007 only
Oakland to El Paso for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Oakland to Kansas City for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through June 27, 2007 only
Oakland to Nashville for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Oakland to Omaha for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Oakland to St. Louis for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
Sacramento Offers
Sacramento to Kansas City for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose Offers
San Jose to Albuquerque for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Austin for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Chicago (Midway) for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to El Paso for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Harlingen for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday-Thursday, May 1 through May 22, 2007 only
San Jose to Indianapolis for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Kansas City for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Nashville for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Omaha for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
San Jose to Philadelphia for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, May 1 through May 31, 2007 only
San Jose to San Antonio for $50 One-Way!
- Fare is valid for travel Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, May 1 through May 30, 2007 only
And nice to see the idiotic "flight 1420 only" restrictions gone (at least for this sale)
