Have you been dinged lately? That's Southwest Airline's word for a whole new way of offering airline deals. The catch is, you have to be on line at the right time, and you have to move fast. Will everyone else have to play catch up? Our Savvy Traveler, Rudy Maxa, reports.

For decades, Southwest was the airline industry's also-ran, the little airline out of Texas with no assigned seats and a limited flight schedule. Today, of course, it's the 900-pound gorilla, profitable and on the march. It's conquering cities such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as rivals such as US Airways shrink and flail in a sea in red ink.

Now, the Southwest model of doing business--simple fares, direct routes, no meals--is the template for airlines around the world. And last month, with little fanfare, Southwest upped the ante with a new kind of Internet fare.

The airline calls it Ding, after the sound the random sale bulletins make when they pop up on the computer screens of users who downloaded the Ding software from Southwest's website.

A few years ago, airlines began posting on their web sites--usually on Wednesday mornings--last-minute sale fares for the upcoming weekend. It was a good way to fill up unsold seats.

But Ding isn't necessarily about last-minute deals. For example, a Ding deal last week offered one-way tickets between Baltimore-Washington airport and Las Vegas for $73 each way. The usual one-way Southwest fare is $171. Flights between Detroit and San Antonio were priced at $89 each way. Normally the Southwest price is $150.

But those tickets were only valid for travel between the end of May and the end of October. Clearly, Southwest wants to collect revenue up front for destinations that have historically shown a drop in business at certain times of they year.

And here's another kicker: Not only do you have to be on line to even know about these Ding sales, but you generally only have SIX HOURS to buy. The Vegas-Baltimore fare was only available between 6:30 a.m. Central time and 12:30 p.m. San Antonio-Detroit popped up between 5:30 and 11:30 in the evening.

Southwest tells me these random, on-line sales are already popular, which means competitors may not be far behind. I say, great--why not let a thousand dings ring?

From St. Paul, I'm Rudy Maxa for Marketplace.

April 06, 2005