New to flying...and Priceline. Need advice, please.

[elaine and the boys]

While I've been to WDW many times with my family, flights have always been cost prohibitive (I work as a school librarian, so I can only vacation during the most expensive weeks...and summer is just too hot for me!). So we always have driven from Massachusetts. Well, now that both our sons will be in college, my husband and I are thinking about a trip in February 2011, just the two of us.

I'm just starting to play around with planning, and my husband would like to fly. I took a look at Priceline tonight, and there are some good rates listed for President's Day week in February. My questions are:

Have you ever book using Priceline before? Is is too early to book...will prices change/flights change? Is Priceline reliable/easy to use? Have you ever had any issues using Priceline?

I'm most concerned with booking something so far in advance. I'm really new to this as I've never flown before. The idea of getting to WDW in a matter of a few hours instead of days is a beautiful thing!

Thanks for your advice,
Elaine

 

[ancestry]

While I've been to WDW many times with my family, flights have always been cost prohibitive (I work as a school librarian, so I can only vacation during the most expensive weeks...and summer is just too hot for me!). So we always have driven from Massachusetts. Well, now that both our sons will be in college, my husband and I are thinking about a trip in February 2011, just the two of us.

I'm just starting to play around with planning, and my husband would like to fly. I took a look at Priceline tonight, and there are some good rates listed for President's Day week in February. My questions are:

Have you ever book using Priceline before? Is is too early to book...will prices change/flights change? Is Priceline reliable/easy to use? Have you ever had any issues using Priceline?

I'm most concerned with booking something so far in advance. I'm really new to this as I've never flown before. The idea of getting to WDW in a matter of a few hours instead of days is a beautiful thing!

Thanks for your advice,
Elaine

I would not book airfare through priceline. I only book directly through the airlines themselves. Most air carriers do not have their airfares released yet for February. Some of them don't even have all of the months of this year out yet. Personally I would wait to book until the discount carriers (Jet Blue, Air Tran, Southwest, etc.) have their February schedules out.

If you do decide to go ahead and book now you should also be prepared for the flight times/schedules to change several times before February.

 

[elaine and the boys]

Okay, that's what I thought....but after reading your response, I went directly to the Delta website, and they had the same prices ($218 roundtrip plus taxes/fee...so around $260) for my dates. Would you consider booking this early for those great rates directly through Delta?

 

[AllyBri]

Check and see what airlines fly out of your airport and book with one of them when the dates are released.
I would not go with Priceline either.

 

[kaytieeldr]

That's nothing against Priceline, elaine and the boys - just so you know. It's just that, all things being equal (or even not), it's BEST to purchase plane tickets directly from the airline.

If you want to comparison shop, that's great - it's smart. But a better option than an online travel service provider would be a travel search engine, such as kayak.com. Why? Well, they don't sell you anything - they simply amass information from a variety of sites including the airlines and sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc., and show you what's available based on your criteria.

You choose which vendor to use. Direct is always best. You simply click through to that vendor - e.g. if kayak.com showed you $260 from Priceline, Delta, AA, and Orbitz, you'd most likely choose Delta (because it's an actual airline, not a travel agency; and because it's more likely than AA to have nonstop flights ). Kayak.com is free to the customer - they just ask you to register. They get paid by the service provider when you click through.

 

[elaine and the boys]

Very helpful information! Thanks everyone!

 

[kaytieeldr]

We try . You're welcome, and please ask ANY questions!

 

[leebee]

I love using Priceline . I have found that I can get my airfare discounted by about 50% using Priceline. You have to do your homework, so you don't pay more than you should, and you need to be flexible about what time you travel, but I am more than willing to take a late flight to save $200 on each ticket !

Not sure why PP says it's "best" to buy directly from the airline . That sounds pretty judgemental. I have had only good experiences using Priceline for both airfare and hotels (especially airport hotels) .

 

[Ted in Halifax]

I think there needs to be some clarity here. There are two ways to buy through Priceline (direct buy and bidding).

One (direct buy) is the direct purchase of the fares they can get ... basically similar to what other sites offer. In this case, I agree that I would simply go to the airlines site. Nothing against Priceline, but would rather deal with the airline directly, even when the price was the same.

The second is to bid on your flight (i.e bid PWM to MCO on May 23, return May 30) This is where the opportunity for savings is ... however, you lose control of some of the variables of your flight (i.e Departure, arrival times, where a stopover might be.) Plus ... forget changing/canceling this ...

I often put a bid on travel to see if I can get a deal (i.e 40% off), but never buy directly as identified in "direct buy" above.

Just note: I have bid over 40 times for airfare, cars and hotels on priceline. I like Priceline .... but I like my money even more

Ted

 

[Lewisc]

Correct. Posters in this thread are confusing PLs "name your own price" product with their online TA product.

Most PL sites suggest PLs "name your own price" for airfare rarely provide enough savings to offset the negatives for flights to competitive markets like Orlando.

Do you have any favorable experience with PL's name your own price service for airfare?

I think there needs to be some clarity here. There are two ways to buy through Priceline (direct buy and bidding).

One (direct buy) is the direct purchase of the fares they can get ... basically similar to what other sites offer. In this case, I agree that I would simply go to the airlines site. Nothing against Priceline, but would rather deal with the airline directly, even when the price was the same.

The second is to bid on your flight (i.e bid PWM to MCO on May 23, return May 30) This is where the opportunity for savings is ... however, you lose control of some of the variables of your flight (i.e Departure, arrival times, where a stopover might be.) Plus ... forget changing/canceling this ...

I often put a bid on travel to see if I can get a deal (i.e 40% off), but never buy directly as identified in "direct buy" above.

Just note: I have bid over 40 times for airfare, cars and hotels on priceline. I like Priceline .... but I like my money even more

Ted

 

[NotUrsula]

I use PL bidding all the time for everything BUT airfare. The reason is that DH's vacation time is VERY inflexible and sparse, and we can't take long trips. That being the case, if on our 3-day trip we arrive at 11 pm and then leave at 6 am on day three to return home, then we've just paid for two hotel nights for one day's fun, and the airfare discount wasn't worth it.

When using PL for airfare, you really have to allot a full day for travel at each end of the trip, and not plan to have those days be part of the actual trip. The one time I successfully used it was for a funeral that was being held on a Saturday. I planned to fly down on Friday and return on Sunday. The only day that I really HAD to be there for was Saturday, and I was, so that worked out, and in fact, my plane left so late on Friday that I didn't have to take off the entire day from work -- but again, I couldn't plan that in advance of the purchase.

 

[Tsplaat]

Airlines have merged so much over the last few years, that deals are hard to find. I travel nearly 50,000 plus miles per year and I can tell you that almost always, flights go up the closer you get to travel. There may be the occasional odd fare, but for the most part they've become much more consistent than they were 10 years ago.

Number of seats drives the price usually... and unless people stop flying (like after 9/11), the costs just won’t go down.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Do you have any favorable experience with PL's name your own price service for airfare?

I have made many attempts at bidding on airfare out of PWM and BGR without success .... but I do have to say that my bids were low (i.e $120 per person PWM to MCO for example). Last year (March 09) I moved further south to Logan (BOS) and bid on 4 tickets to DFW. I was successful with a direct BOS to DFW and DFW to ORD to BOS return. For 4 people it was less than $800 tax and fees included.

Most of my experience has been in Hotels. I have won bids in Halifax, Quebec City, Niagara Falls, Boston, Portland Maine, Providence, Augusta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Albany NY, Bangor Maine ... plus more.

Car rentals, I've only won once. Priceline works much better for hotels than airfare, but remember for Hotels, they only guarantee the room for 2 people.

Ted

 

[Tara]

I've used Priceline in the past and "won" relatively low airfare. But I've never gotten an itinerary that wasn't just painful or ridiculous. I suppose if you have plenty of time on your hands or you don't mind cutting your vacation short (like if your winning flight gets you there very late and night and has you leaving for home very early on your departure day. But that is seldom what people want for vacation travel.

Priceline's no-bid flight prices are generally no better than the carriers' direct prices. In fact, most carriers have a low fare guarantee so that you get the lowest fare directly through their website or they'll honor whatever fare you found elsewhere. That's a whole different animal - if pricing is equal, why would you not book direct and take the 3rd party out of the equation?