Priceline Name your Own Price anyone?

[MK2010]

I was playing around on the Priceline website the other day and found I could get tickets from my remote village high in the plains of Texas (Lol) back to the real World (Disney, that is) for $848 for my family of 6. It guaranteed jet service, a maximum of 1 layover not to last longer than 3 hours, and arrival by 12:30 a.m. (midnight) the following day. So if I booked for the 9th basically they'd have me in Floriday by midnight. I was just wondering if anyone else had ever used this feature on Priceline and could tell me about their experience. I imagine we'll end up driving for this trip, but I was curious....especially if what they are saying about gas prices winds up to be true. (Which we know it will!)

 

[moonpie85]

I was playing around on the Priceline website the other day and found I could get tickets from my remote village high in the plains of Texas (Lol) back to the real World (Disney, that is) for $848 for my family of 6. It guaranteed jet service, a maximum of 1 layover not to last longer than 3 hours, and arrival by 12:30 a.m. (midnight) the following day. So if I booked for the 9th basically they'd have me in Floriday by midnight. I was just wondering if anyone else had ever used this feature on Priceline and could tell me about their experience. I imagine we'll end up driving for this trip, but I was curious....especially if what they are saying about gas prices winds up to be true. (Which we know it will!)

Well yes and no. I have used it for a rental car before and we loved it. We got an awesome price (mini van for a week from MCO for a total of $164) and everything was as easy as if we had rented from the agency itself.

I'm not sure I would use them for airfare just because I would hate not picking my flight but as far as Priceline NYOP itself goes I would highly recommend them and will use them again

 

[Green Tea]

I've done it an saved a fortune. If you are flying from a small airport, you can sort of figure which flights you would end up with.....in that if nothing heads east after 6 pm, you know you are not going to be pushing the 12:30 am thing. I got great flights and they were not the least expensive ones available at the time, surprisingly. I would use it again as long as the trip was long enough that arrival and departure times didn't make much difference.

 

[MK2010]

"We got an awesome price (mini van for a week from MCO for a total of $164)"

WOWEE!!!! I thought a rental would cost at least $1000/wk! Maybe we could fly. Hmmm....I'll have to ponder that!

"I've done it an saved a fortune. If you are flying from a small airport, you can sort of figure which flights you would end up with.....in that if nothing heads east after 6 pm, you know you are not going to be pushing the 12:30 am thing. I got great flights and they were not the least expensive ones available at the time, surprisingly. I would use it again as long as the trip was long enough that arrival and departure times didn't make much difference."

That is awesome! I was concerned about what happened if the airlines had a delay or a cancelled flight. We don't fly that much so I don't have a lot of experience here. I can always fly Southwest, but even with their cheap fares it'd run me between $1500-$2000. I will definitely ponder this. Thanks!

Anyone else out there with an opinion they'd like to share? (About Priceline, I mean )

 

[Lisa71]

We used it to Hawaii and to Ohio and both times were pleased and saved about half. It does really work well most of the time!

 

[ptcruisermom]

I haven't used it for flights but have used the NYOP twice once for Columbus Ohio they other for Cleveland. In Columbus I got the Hyatt place for like 52.00 a night(otherwise it was 104) and in Cleveland I got a holiday in for a total of 50.00(likewise over 100) now my pirces I just said were the total, I think my bid was in the 42 dollar range so when the tazes were added came to around 50-52, not too bad for those hotels

Also this past Jan. my DD 17 and I were scheduled to stay at the Marriott on Magnificent Mile in Chicago, convention rate was 145 before taxes, I think my total was going to be in the neighborhood of 335 with taxes. Right befor Christmas I was just nosing around Priceline, and saw where they had that same hotel listed for 81.99 a night, plugged my dates in and that was the price , I quickly booked it, my total with taxes was 190. We arrived in the morning around11 ish(took the train in from Indiana) and our room was ready, afer we were in our room called down and requested a fridge ( they are free on a first come first serve basis) as given one, along with a phone call making sure we had received it and if there were any other concerns or needs. I am going to use priceline when I have to book for our upcoming dance conventions, couldn't do this in prior years as they will only guarantee a bed for 2 people,( we always had another mom and daughter go with us, but I got tired of being used, another story for another time) although in Chicago they asked if we wanted a king bed or two doubles.

I would do it in a heartbeat, one day may get brave and try the flights.

 

[Eeyore98]

I have used Priceline once for a flight many years back, the NYOP ended up being cheaper than bereavement rate to come home for my grandmother's funeral. No problems with that and would do it again.

I have also used it once for a hotel and would be more wary of doing that again - yes, I got a good price for a room in a nice hotel, but there was a reason...it was the very last room right next to a section of the hotel they had blocked off with plywood while remodeling. Construction noise started at 6 am sharp!

 

[aceys_h0ney]

We did name your own price last Jan. no problems at all. Saved a bunch and were able to fly out from an airport closer to our home. Our flight times were fairly normal, flew out around 10pm and return flight was supposed to be around 7pm. We did have a long delay on our return home. They could not give a time for us to be back and we were going to have to change some plans for our kids who were home with Grandma so the airline put us on another flight the next day. We just didn't want to sit at the airport for hours and hours to have the flight cancelled. They did not offer an alternate service we had to ask. They also offered another flight that night but it was going to a different airport and they would not pay our taxi to our original airport so we declined that and they gave us the flight for the next day. I would do it again for sure. I would book as soon as your know though because we saw flight prices go up and down wildly as our trip approached.

 

[Ruthie5671]

I've used Priceline once before for a hotel - NYOP - and it worked great. Can it work as well for booking multiple rooms? And what about needing a handicapped room? Does anyone have any experience with that?

 

[Cynt]

I haven't used NYOP for flights in a while but I use it all the time for hotel and car rentals. At least 6-10 times a year if not more. I LOVE IT!! I never pay the going rate for hotel visits or car rentals. Always half or less.

Concerning flights - I would use it more but I know you need to have your calendar availabe for travel the entire day. So that's two days for travel. My schedule is tight and I usually don't have that luxury. But if I did I would definitely use them but I hate layovers so maybe not. LOL!! So I save money on the hotel and rental car instead.

 

[TheSixOfUs]

I generally don't use PL's NYOP for flights because there's too much risk involved. You could be waiting for hours! I guess it depends on the savings, but this doesn't work for me, especially with kids. There are a handful of good resources on the web that just focus on Priceline bidding. HotelDealsRevealed.com and BetterBidding are good. I recommend avoiding BiddingForTravel as the moderator is a bit of a cranky bear.

I can also say that Priceline works well for car rentals.

 

[Cruise]

I used Priceline for a name your own price flight and I was very pleased. Saved over $250 on the current published fare. The great thing about the "no more than one layover" guarantee is that I was also flying from a podunk airport, so I knew I'd have at least one layover no matter what.... there are just no direct flights from this airport to anywhere other than a hub.

It obviously works best if you're flexible with your flight times on the day you're traveling, but honestly, the flights I was given were ones that I probably would have picked myself anyway, so it worked out great for me.

 

[bpesch]

I've used Priceline for both rental cars and hotels. I've had pretty good luck with them.

A few things you do have to take note of. For hotels, if it's important that you get two beds or some other type of particular room, I wouldn't recommend using Pricelines Name Your Own Price feature. You have absolutely no control over what you get other than a room. And it's been my experience that when you use Priceline and get a really good rate, hotels are less likely to work with you on the type of room. I've had a couple of times that when I checked in they told me the reservation was only good for one bed when I needed two.

For rental cars, for some reason, every time I used Priceline, I ended up in a less than savory part of town in a rental car location that was a little scary. I'm guessing because I got a cheaper rate, the airport locations were not in the mix. Likely because they tend to pay much higher rents and have to charge a lot more fees to their customers because of airport taxes and such.

I've never used them for flights mainly because I wouldn't get a chance to know the times involved. I don't do red-eye flights anymore and it's important to me to leave early in the day and get in at a decent time. That's not likely to happen with Priceline. It's always possible I might get what I wanted, but I was never willing to take the chance with a flight.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you can be flexible about things, Priceline works fine. If you want some things in particular and they are important to you, I wouldn't recommend it because you never know what you're going to get.

 

[kiki02]

I 'm afraid to use PL for hotels. If it were just for myself, not spouses or kids, then maybe.

But, too many issues with one bed, two beds, smokiing, non smoking, etc.

I've used Priceline for both rental cars and hotels. I've had pretty good luck with them.

A few things you do have to take note of. For hotels, if it's important that you get two beds or some other type of particular room, I wouldn't recommend using Pricelines Name Your Own Price feature. You have absolutely no control over what you get other than a room. And it's been my experience that when you use Priceline and get a really good rate, hotels are less likely to work with you on the type of room. I've had a couple of times that when I checked in they told me the reservation was only good for one bed when I needed two.

For rental cars, for some reason, every time I used Priceline, I ended up in a less than savory part of town in a rental car location that was a little scary. I'm guessing because I got a cheaper rate, the airport locations were not in the mix. Likely because they tend to pay much higher rents and have to charge a lot more fees to their customers because of airport taxes and such.

I've never used them for flights mainly because I wouldn't get a chance to know the times involved. I don't do red-eye flights anymore and it's important to me to leave early in the day and get in at a decent time. That's not likely to happen with Priceline. It's always possible I might get what I wanted, but I was never willing to take the chance with a flight.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you can be flexible about things, Priceline works fine. If you want some things in particular and they are important to you, I wouldn't recommend it because you never know what you're going to get.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I've used PL for hotels several times, upon "winning" my room I call the hotel directly and request 2 beds. Each time but once it worked out well, that one time they made us pay more for 2 beds

 

[leslieh]

I use them for leisure trips, there are two sites to check before bidding that others have posted their wins. Betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com

I use both when I am narrowing down a hotel or car rental search. So far I have only booked air through the non bidding site.

 

[kt_mom]

I've never used it for airfare because I worry I like to pick my flight times espeically for my arrival day so I can make the most of it. And I wouldn't want a 7 am flight home.

But I've used it lots of times for hotels and always got a great deal. I've used it the most in Springfield VA and stayed at the Hilton, Courtyard Marriott and Residence Inn always for under $60. At the hilton we've been able to request a room with 2 beds with no problem but sometimes we just take the king room and ask for a roll away bed for DD.

I got a great rate at the Westin in Old Town Alexandria and in National Harbor for our anniversary last year.

I've also booked rooms in Richmond VA before a flight out and in Orlando last year for our arrival night.

I love priceline and almost always try them first unless I have a specific place I want to stay. Betterbidding.com is a great site with tons of helpful info about using priceline and hotwire.