Priceline - how to get the tickets?

MickeyMonstersMom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Messages
1,427
My ex-husband just went through Priceline to buy tickets for us to fly to Florida in 2 weeks (taking the kids down for visitation). I have the e-mail confirmation; do I just present that at the airline ticket counter the day of departure, or is there anything more I need to do?

Thanks, from a Priceline Idiot. :rolleyes:
 
Yes, all you need is the confirmation email. This is a world of ticketless travel we live in....
 
I've taken the printed confirmation with me but have never been asked for it. With some carriers you can print your boarding pass the day before online, just giving our names and driver's license at the baggage checkpoint is all we've really needed.

Bill From PA
 
Since you haven't flown on a PL fare before, I want to remind you of one caveat about Priceline that people do NOT usually notice in the fine print: be absolutely sure you are not late for that flight! On Priceline tickets, you usually cannot go standby, which means that if you are late (or only too late to check your luggage before the deadline), then you will not get on a later flight without paying extra, sometimes a LOT extra.

We once missed the AA luggage-check deadline by 5 minutes because we were standing in the skycap line outside; when we got to the head of the line he said "I can't do these bags; you'll have to go inside.", where of course, we stood in line for another 15 minutes. By that time, we were 5 minutes past the luggage deadline, and were told we could not get on that flight unless we went carry-ons only, and could not standby on a Priceline fare. (Try telling a 4 yo he cannot go see Mickey when he's been looking forward to the trip for months and is standing at the ticket counter!) We didn't have sufficient carryons and could not get back to the car in time to store the luggage before the flight. Since PL fares cannot credit to cancellations, either, we would have been out the entire 3 fares. Finally, after 2 hours of begging and negotiating (with DS on the floor sobbing), the manager generously "allowed" us to pay $1050 on the spot in order to get the 3 of us onto a new outbound flight and keep our original return reservation from PL. (Down from the $600 EACH we were originally quoted by the regular agent.)

It ended up being the most expensive domestic airfare we have ever paid, and a lesson I will NEVER forget. When you fly on a PL ticket, the airline may be one you think you know well, but don't expect business as usual, because you will not get it -- *read* that fine print and call the airline to question the specifics before the day of the flight.
 

Thanks a lot for all the input. I'm one of those anal people who show up hours early for a flight, so hopefully (even with any unforeseen delays) we won't have the nightmarish experience above - wow.

So I may be able to get our boarding passes the day before from US Air's site then? I'll have to check that out!
 












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