New program lets Southwest ”Ding” you

Southwest has introduced a new program with low Internet fares called Ding. The downloaded program alerts travelers to time-sensitive deals, which are the Blue Light Specials of airfares.

Ding fares appear once or twice a day on average, even on weekends, and are available for purchase only on the same day and often for just a few hours.

Southwest, like other airlines, has been offering Web specials every week, and these fares are quickly matched by other carriers. This hasn’t been the case with Ding fares, which can be cheaper than a tank of gas on some short flights.

You don’t have anything to lose by downloading Ding at www.southwest.com, since we have found it to be one of the most nonintrusive computer programs. Once you load Ding, an icon will remain on your task bar and you’ll hear a “ding” and see an envelope on the icon when new fares are loaded.

The trick to purchasing these fares is to act quickly. They can come at 6 a.m., 1 p.m. or 7 p.m. (you’ll never know when), and you have a limited time to buy, often several hours. We’ve never seen them last a full day.

Seat availability varies by route, but typically there are more cheap seats on Tuesdays and Wednesdays since they’re the slowest travel days. Friday and Sunday, the heaviest travel days, offer the fewest seats.

As we enter the summer season, prices are up slightly and availability is down, since all airlines are selling out their cheapest seats. In general, we expect Ding fares to be slightly higher during peak seasons, including holidays.

Ding fares are there to build advance bookings for Southwest at a low per-ticket cost to the airline. Before Sept. 11, consumers typically booked fares well in advance. Afterward, travel was down and fliers became used to finding last-minute deals.

With passenger numbers up again, consumers are frustrated by not finding cheap last-minute deals. They have to book, 30, 40, 60 and even 100 days in advance to find low fares.

With Ding, when bargain deals fly by, you can jump on board.