Help, please! Has anyone used Priceline...

[Eeyoregal]

To purchase airline tickets? Any positive or negative feedback on Priceline.com? Thanks!

 

[AllanJ]

I used Priceline to rent a car once but not for airplane tickets yet.

Advantage: Cheaper price of course. But when you name your price, put in the base ticket price before taxes because your bid after acceptance will have taxes added later.

Disadvantage: Ungodly departure times. You must accept any departure time in the time span you give them. So make sure that any PS or appointment or event you need to make won't be missed regardless of what flight you are assigned.

Disadvantage: No changes, no refunds. Just like tickets to the theater or ball game. If you miss the flight, your money is lost.

Don;t worry about seating if they don[t let you select. If you have children the airline will not deplane you. Ask quietly for seats together, if not, just take the boarding passes and walk on board.

Other travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

 

[Tiger Fan]

I just booked my parents to MCO from Greenville, SC for $85/round-trip. They are flying Midway Airlines (I've read good feedback on Miday, but no first hand experience yet). So far everything seems great. I've called Midway and confirmed all the info Priceline sent me and it's correct. They fly in early June, I'll let you know how it goes. Good luck.

Lisa

 

[Muddie]

Eyeore : )

I got a price of $125 roundtrip, including taxes from Buffalo to Orlando on Delta.....we leave on a Weds at 11ish, arrive at 5ish.......we come home on a Sun at 5ish and get back into Buffalo at 10ish......not bad, eh?

 

[TravelSheryl]

If you decide to use Priceline, be sure to use the free bonus money offer available in the Bonus Money Opportunities category on the message board I host to discuss bidding at http://pub4.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding

 

[Shannon D]

Eeyoregal,
I used priceline last summer to book flights for myself and two young sons from Jax to Indy. I used bonus money and paid about $90 per ticket. We ended up on Delta...one quick plane change in Cinci. I was perfectly happy.

Lisa,
I have recently traveled on Midway (booked conventionally) and was very very pleased. All of their seats are large and leather...very comfortable and all of the crew was great.
My hubby is a new FedEx pilot and he flew along standby with us....the crew went above and beyond to get him on our flight. They are very accomodating and just have great service! (and on all 4 legs of our roundtrip flight they gave out the WHOLE can of pop!!)
lol.
OH! And on one of the flights, we were late pushing back from the gate (they had some paperwork problems, delayed us only about 20 mins and we still landed pretty much on time)
The pilot announced because of that inconvenience, drinks were on him and he wasn't kidding! I enjoyed a nice (free!) glass of wine on that flight.

LOVE Midway!
Hope your folks have a good experience too.

 

[Eeyoregal]

Could someone please explain the bonus money concept to me? I have never heard of this before. Thanks!

 

[TravelSheryl]

Bonus money is explained in the FAQ categories on the board I administer at the link posted above.

 

[DisneyDad_CJJE]

We used priceline for our trip last month. $50 round trip was nice. The flight times was not. Our departure flight left at 6am and we did not get back to Greensboro until 1am. But....for $50 I would use them again.

We used hotwire.com for our trip this August. I tried priceline but did not get the rate I wanted. I used hotwire.com and did pretty good. $131 round trip. Hotwire lets you see the price before committing. You don't bid like on priceline. What is similar to priceline is you don't get to see the airline or flight times until after you buy the tickets.

Good luck!

 

[ReneeA]

I used Priceline last year for airline tix from Detroit Metro to Orlando. I paid $120 roundtrip (I called beforehand to price ticket, and the cheapest I could find was Spirit airlines for $360/ticket!). We flew Delta with one connecting flight in Atlanta. The flight times weren't great, though! We departed Detroit at 10:20 p.m., and arrived in Orlando at 12:30 a.m. Our flight home had approximately the same flight times. I was fine for dh & I, since we don't have kids, and are night owls.

 

[TravelSheryl]

I think you would have had to depart Detroit much earlier than 10:20 p.m. to arrive in Orlando at 12:30 a.m., especially with a connection.

 

[glo]

I have used Priceline for tickets twice and have been very happy so far.

Last year we got Delta Non-stop from Boston to Orlando for $150 including taxes and fees. The times were going early morning and leaving ther late afternoon!

This time I got MIdway airlines with 1 stop each way for $131 roundtrip including taxes and fees!
leaving Boston 9:30 am and leaving MCO at 2:45.

 

[Eeyoregal]

Just FYI, we did try to use priceline for our airline tickets but the bids we put in weren't accepted. (We were really trying to lowball just to see how things worked...)

However, I did get a great rate through AAA - better rates and times than my Travel Agent could get (I called her first to research) and better than I found on Travelocity.

So we will probably try Priceline again someday...

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback!!! It really made me feel better about the process!