14. What is Ding and how can I make best use of it?
a. (nsx) Ding is a program for Windows PCs that provides real-time notification of fare sales. I have successfully installed it on a Windows 98 (not even Second Edition) computer, contrary to the stated system requirements. You can download a copy at
http://www.southwest.com/ding/
When you Register, be sure to enter your Rapid Rewards number. You only get that one chance to do so. There was a 2-credit bonus for installing Ding by March 15, 2005, and a second bonus period in June 2005, but you might get a bonus anyway if you provide your RR number. Bonus credit is posted after you have had Ding installed 30 days.
b. (nsx) Ding sales tend to appear 2 to 3 times per day, except that one weekend day may have one sale or no sales at all. Each sale tends to last 6 hours. If you miss a particular sale, that market will likely go back on sale within a week.
c. (nsx) During Ding's first week of operation, many (all?) of the Ding sales contained a hidden “Daily Double” (à la Jeopardy). One of the markets (a different one for every sale) was available at a lower price than the one listed in the main sale page. If you selected a date and clicked Book Now, you would see the lower price. In most cases, the Daily Double was a $44 fare between Chicago and some distant point, generally on the West Coast. These hidden fares have only been seen sporadically since the first week, so nobody knows whether they are errors or intentional "Easter Eggs", but it can’t hurt to look for them. Please report any discoveries on the Southwest forum at flyertalk.com.
d. (nsx) Ding has the capability, used once per month in August through November 2005, and more frequently starting in December, to target sale offerings to particular home cities. Actually Ding has latent capability to target offerings to individual users. This is because Ding identifies your installation when it polls Southwest’s server every half hour for sale headlines, as explained in item 15(c).
In a monthly sale targeted to users' home cities, Ding will list a huge number of sale fares originating and terminating at your home city and nothing else. These sales tend to have the lowest fares recently offered and they last most of the day, sometimes more than one day, rather than the usual 6 hours. The targeted sales offered in December 2005 appeared to be subsets of a typical untargeted Ding sale, offering only a couple of markets in a 6-hour sale.
e. (Mr. July) Here's how to get the targeted sale list for somewhere other than your normal home city. Use the DING icon to open up the window that you then click on to get the list of specials - at the top is a very small "Update Registration" - use that to change your home airport. A new mail icon should pop up within 10 minutes or less. DING will give you an error message until then, though, so book what you want out of your home airport first.
f. (nsx) You can use the preceding home city changing trick to construct a two-step itinerary (see FAQ 12) to save money and double your credit earnings. for example, if you want to go from ISP to LAX you could check Ding fares through "home cities" of MDW, BWI, BNA, ABQ, or PHX.
g. (nsx) There's some work involved to set it up, but you can if you like have instant access to multiple home city sales. The procedure is given in FAQ 15(d), but you'll have to read of all of FAQ 15 for it to make sense.