priceline?????

[anjanetted]

Has anyone ever used priceline to bid on airline tickets? My family of Five is flying to San Juan in June and I am really trying to find the best deals. I live in KY. and the flight prices from surrounding airports vary a lot. We can drive 6 hours to Atlanta and pay 200 less per person than we can get from Lexington. And 100 less per person if we leave from Knoxville or Cincinatti. Since there are five of us that can add up to a lot. Just wondering about the bidding because I bid on hotel rooms all the time.

[6rugrats]

No, IMO, it would be crazy to use "name your own price" for airline tickets for a cruise.

 

You may want to visit betterbidding.com or biddingfortravel.com to read how to do this.

[FlyerTalker]

I used Priceline's "opaque" process (Name Your Own Price) a great deal for hotels and rental cars. OTOH, I stay away from using it for airline tickets. Too many variables that you don't want for it to be good for airline tickets, especially when headed to a cruise.

[biker1972]

You might be able to pick your day, but not your flight times. Perhaps you would be stuck with a flight leaving at 10 or 11 PM or 5:00 AM or even a connector with 10 or 12 hours between flights.

[daffodiliaz]

As others have said, be very careful. I bid on 1 r/t ticket through priceline years ago. The trip was for a 3 day (like a Friday-Sunday). Ended up with something like an 11pm arrival on day 1 and 6am departure on day 3, so basically 1 full day at destination. Luckily there was a freak snowstorm that closed the airport on day 3 and my flight had to be changed to the next day. Otherwise airlines will not budge on these tickets. Absolutely no changes allowed. So be very, very careful.

[6rugrats]

And the very worst part; you don't earn FF miles on these tickets. The horror!!

[CFC]

I no longer use priceline for air travel. I have no control over the times or routing. I have found the discount is small, usually under $20 a ticket if you watch fares carefully. I would caution you to book directly with the airlines with dates/times that work for your schedule.

[frugaltravel]

And the very worst part; you don't earn FF miles on these tickets. The horror!!

 

The exclamation points leads me to believe you said this in jest.

 

Though I would not use PL for flights (having tried a few times in the past it didn't save enough to make me bid enough to be accepted), earning frequent flyer miles is not an end in itself. If the price of a ticket that earns miles is costly enough to make the "cent per mile" of the earned miles prohibitive, just pocket the $$ and forgo the miles.

[anjanetted]

Thanks for the advice.... I will NOT be using PL for my plane tickets.

[jdvmd]

Try taking Allegient out of LEX to MCO or FLL. Switch to Jet Blue or Spirit for the flight to San Juan.

 

I have bid on Priceline twice for domestic flights and we were pretty happy with the outcome but this has been several years back AND we were not having to get on a cruise.

[FlyerTalker]

Given that Allegiant has little to no "spares" capacity in its system, minimal service to many of its spoke cities, and no interline agreements, I would be very cautious using them to get to a cruise. Especially if I then was transferring to another carrier for the final flight leg. Do searches on Allegiant in this forum for more discussions about using them to a cruise.

 

Of course, caveat emptor - everyone can make their own choices. But I wouldn't do it without a weapon forced into my forehead.

[kenish]

Adding to the previous caveats- Allegiant is totally safe but they fly older MD-80s that have a higher chance of mechanical delays and cancellations. That's a big issue if they only fly a route once a day or every few days. Also the MD-80 is a fuel hog; Allegiant almost didn't survive the fuel price spike in summer, 2008. Right now, fuel prices are headed north again.

[Fattony]

I've used Priceline for airline tickets only once,and that was not with bidding. I've read posts that a big disadvantage is that you have no idea how many stops will be involved, what airlines will be used, etc. I don't have the courage to risk it.

 

I have not found Priceline's customer service department easy to work with, including when I bid on, and got, 3-weeks in advance, a 4-star hotel at LAX, only to be informed, at the last minute, that the hotel suddenly discovered it was overbooked and I'd been put in a 3 or 3 1/2 star hotel nearby, since it was all that was available. After a couple of calls to customer service from LAX, all they would offer was allowing me to cancel my reservation if I wanted.

 

Caveat emptor.

[fbgd]

Given that Allegiant has little to no "spares" capacity in its system, minimal service to many of its spoke cities, and no interline agreements, I would be very cautious using them to get to a cruise. Especially if I then was transferring to another carrier for the final flight leg. Do searches on Allegiant in this forum for more discussions about using them to a cruise.

 

Of course, caveat emptor - everyone can make their own choices. But I wouldn't do it without a weapon forced into my forehead.

 

QFT

 

(Quoted for truth)

[frugaltravel]

I've used Priceline for airline tickets only once,and that was not with bidding. I've read posts that a big disadvantage is that you have no idea how many stops will be involved, what airlines will be used, etc. I don't have the courage to risk it.

 

I have not found Priceline's customer service department easy to work with, including when I bid on, and got, 3-weeks in advance, a 4-star hotel at LAX, only to be informed, at the last minute, that the hotel suddenly discovered it was overbooked and I'd been put in a 3 or 3 1/2 star hotel nearby, since it was all that was available. After a couple of calls to customer service from LAX, all they would offer was allowing me to cancel my reservation if I wanted.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

Actually Priceline specifically states that you may have up to one connection each way, so yes, you do know how many stops are involved (that is on the page where you enter your bid amount). That is not to say I will run out to use Priceline for flights, but to say that one does indeed know some of the parameters.

 

And actually I have had incredibly helpful customer service from Priceline, though I know this is a case of YMMV. Twice I had booked non-cancellable hotel rooms with Priceline and due to "circumstances beyond my control" (major weather issues) I was not able to get to the city in question to use the hotel. Priceline refunded the entire amount they had previously charged to my credit card once they verified my claim. This was not a "credit" toward a future bid and they didn't take any service charge out. I was credited the full amount.

 

And caveat emptor is true with any travel service one tries to book themselves. Unfortunately many people don't realize the risks and consequences of booking their own travel arrangements online. Look at some of the threads on this forum re: schedule changes and various other issues that people really have no clue how to handle.

[Globaliser]

Actually Priceline specifically states that you may have up to one connection each way, so yes, you do know how many stops are involved (that is on the page where you enter your bid amount).

Even if it says only one connection, surely that doesn't tell you how many stops you're going to make either on the flight before the connection point or the on the flight after the connection point?

[Fattony]

Exactly. Number of stops is not necessarily the same as the number of connections. Will never be less but could be more. You could make a stop with no change of planes. Plus, you don't know the length of time for connectins. You also don't know the exact time of departure and arrival, do you?

[waterbug123]

Especially if I then was transferring to another carrier for the final flight leg. .

 

Solid advice. If your Allegiant flight is delayed/cancelled and causes you to miss your Spirit (or whatever) flight to SJU, you'll be out of luck. Spirit won't care that the other flight was delayed; they will consider it your fault so they won't cut you any slack on your re-booking. Likewise, Allegiant won't care that their problem caused you to miss a flight to your cruise port. Their only job will be to eventually get you to your connecting airport. Tough cookies if "eventually" turns out to be too late to board your ship.