Southwest's Ding! Fares

Would you like to save 15% to 20% on airline tickets?

Southwest Airlines has a 6 hour sale twice a day.  While the sale is for a very limited time, travel is for two weeks to six weeks in the future.

In comparing over 350 flights, Southwest offered the lowest prices and most convenient flights more than 80% of the time.  Don’t expect cheap fares during the usual vacation and holiday dates, to Louisville during the Kentucky Derby, Indianapolis during the Indy 500 or to a NASCAR race.

Southwest’s sales occur at different times each morning and afternoon.  The AM sale has started between 6:30 AM (Eastern Time) and noon.  The PM sale has occurred between 1:00 PM and 7:30 PM.  Just to keep you off-balance: sales have launched at 12:30 AM, a few sales run for 3 ½ hours and some for 7 ½ hours, some sales are from travel from two to six weeks in the future, the two daily sales occasionally overlap and some days there are three, one or no sales at all.

Southwest’s Flash Sales are only available via a downloaded program called Ding!^®.  It runs in the background on your computer awaiting a message from Southwest. 

When a message is received, you have 6 hours to:

	Check for your favorite destinations
	See if seats are available for your dates
	Purchase tickets via the Southwest Ding! application

What are the downsides of Flash Sales?

	You must be at your computer to receive Southwest’s alert.
	You don’t know when the AM and PM sales will happen.
	You don’t know what cities will be offered.
	Seats may not be available for your travel dates.
	You must check quickly or seats may be gone.
	You could miss the AM sale if you live in the Pacific Time zone.
	Many organizations prohibit downloading programs like Southwest’s to their computers.
	Corporate firewalls could block the alert message.

Are the savings from Ding! worth the time necessary to find the deals?  Only you can decide.