Priceline Name Your Own Price Flights

[Princess_Ariel_5]

Has anyone used Priceline's Name Your Own Price feature for flights? Seems enticing but I can imagine how it can go so wrong. Any stories?

 

[MillauFr]

You are almost guaranteed to get poor timed (red eye) flights that have a connection. I prefer to pay to get non-stop flights that are in the middle of the day.

 

[daannzzz]

I won't use bid for flights as I like to be in control of the timing. I prefer nonstop or one stop in a general straight line. You can get flights with two stops that take you way out of the way from your destination and a trip which should be 3-4 hours can take 10.

 

[pl71]

I used it one time about two years ago for a last minute flight from our local tiny airport. It was for a funeral so we only had a few days notice and only one person was flying.

The lowest price was around $1000 from all other sources. I got the ticket for around $500. My initial bid was not accepted, they came back with a counteroffer. They gave me a Delta flight, it had one connection and was mid day.

They won't give you a red eye or a flight with more than one connection unless you approve it.

My husband recently had to fly to a funeral, but in his case we ended up going with a Priceline exclusive. If you search for flights in their search tool, they may list a Priceline exclusive at the top. It's similar to the name your own price, but they give you the price, number of connections, and a 10 hour departure time window up front. Once you book you get the rest of the flight details like airline and arrival time. We saved $400 using that option for his flight, even when looking at discount airlines and looking at all airports within a 3 hour drive. His flight times were fine. It did have tighter connections on the return trip than we would have picked, but it turned out okay.

I won't use this type of tool for a family vacation, but it's great for last minute stuff.

Priceline has great rental car prices too, and you don't need to bid to get those.

 

[MariMama]

I don't like 5am/10pm flights with numerous connections, so no, I don't use Name Your Own Price.

 

[rwdavis2]

Keep in mind that using a third party book site like this means that if something goes wrong you have Priceline and the airline blaming each other.