has anyone used priceline for air?

[andychris14]

We already got our airlines tickets for august. My friend and her family are traveling with us and have not yet purchased their tickets. Airfare seems very high right now. I was wondering if anyone has every used priceline for airlines? Please tell me the good,bad and ugly before I even suggest this to her.
She will need to fly out of islip-long island, laguardia or kennedy. She has 2 children ages 7 &11.Is this something that I should suggest?
THANKS

 

[salmoneous]

I haven't used priceline for air, but know a bunch of people who have had real problems. Flights leaving at crazy times; flights taking much longer than expected due to weird transfers, etc. *Especially* for a family with two kids, I wouldn't strongly recommened against it.

That said, priceline can be great for hotels or cars, just not airfare.

 

[NotUrsula]

Generally speaking, if you go with Priceline for air you need to consider your travel days as just that: travel days. You really cannot consider them to be part of the vacation, as it is not uncommon to spend literally all day travelling, or leave your vacation destination at 6 am on your final day (which of course can mean that you may end up spending more for your hotel costs than you otherwise would.)

It also is not something you should do without doing serious homework on bidding strategies, market prices, etc. It is easy to bid too much if you don't take the time to do this.

I would say that since your friend is in NYC, the most competitive air market in the US, she may be able to do almost as well just finding a discounted fare, perhaps on a charter or from a consolidator. Have her sign up for the sale emails from SWA and JetBlue, and also take a look at 1travel; they may have something that will do for her. As August is hurricane season, the airlines will be fairly likely to have sales about 8 weeks out, so since she has already waited this long, waiting a bit longer probably won't be a very bad strategy.

 

[andychris14]

Okay, now it is getting close and she still does not have airfare. Since I posted this originial question has anyone used priceline recently? How close would you wait until you use priceline. Do we still hold out and hopefully something will come up? We are leaving 8/20.
Thanks

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Personally, I wouldn't even consider using Priceline for buying an airline ticket. Chances seem high that you are going to get an inconvenient flight, at the very least.

There is lots of good Priceline info here:

www.biddingfortravel.com

 

[Dopey & Grumpy]

I guess I'm in the minority because I use PL for air fares quite often. I got a fare of $166 to Burlington and my flight times are excellent. We leave at 12:05 pm and arrive at BTV at 4:31 pm and coming home, we leave BTV at 6:30 am and arrive in Pittsburgh at 10:20 am. We have a layover both times for an hour. This is on Delta Airlines. I've used them all the time for Burlington because it's very expensive otherwise. I bid $150 and they came back and said they found me a fare for $166 (this is with all the taxes, etc.)

There are 3 adults and 2 children, ages 6 and 7, flying. I've also booked from PL for California and got excellent flight times. It is the luck of the draw but I've been very happy with PL for airfares.

 

[bsmcneil]

i used it and had a perfect flight both ways. it's the luck of the draw, i guess.

 

[lovesmurfs]

My first time using PL (1999) resulted in our arrival at 11:58 p.m. Christmas eve. I quick called customer service, who was able to cancel the flight (my mother would have killed me to arrive that late).

That year, my husband's father died right before Christmas and we were unable to get anything back from the tickets because of PL. Haven't used them since, but they seem to have upgraded their systems a bit.

 

[sorul82?]

Lovesmurfs, help me out a bit. If we go to priceline, put in our bid and it's accepted, but then we don't like the flight, we can cancel it? But no refund, right? You said you haven't used the tickets.....can you trade them for another flight?

By the way, I still have my Smurf collection that Santa brought me in 1980!

 

[katiedid0801]

Okay, now it is getting close and she still does not have airfare. Since I posted this originial question has anyone used priceline recently? How close would you wait until you use priceline. Do we still hold out and hopefully something will come up? We are leaving 8/20.
Thanks

Do you or she have "Ding" downloaded from Southwest? They fly out of Islip!

 

[Disneyjosh229]

Priceline really isn't that good of a deal for airfare if you are willing to look around. I would suggest in the NYC area, Southwest out of Islip, Spirit/Airtran out of Laguardia or Jetblue out of JFK....Also, Delta seems to have good fare sales out of NYC, so also check them

 

[Brooknwdw]

A few weeks ago I looked into PL..I was just about to do it but I chickened out! Knowing that you could get a red eye flight, or really early flight with plane changes so the trip takes all day...I just couldn't do it!

Here was our solution, it may or may not work for you. We mainly have used SW in the past. Well the fare from our home airport would never go below $400 RT per person...MORE than I am willing to pay!

SO I started looking at airports a few hours drive from us for better fares. It is not ideal, but we are driving to an airport five hours away (Jackson MS) and getting a one hour & 10 minute flight to Orlando...so we will still get there in 8 hours or so including airport time as opposed to a 16 hour drive. We are saving about $800 by doing it this way.

Another thing is once you have a good rate booked, you can keep checking fares from a closer airport & change flights on SW without fees...I am just learning about this on another thread. Our current flight plans are kinda like a back up plan, we will use them if nothing better happens between now and then.

Just an idea. though it sounds complicated once a typed it all out!