Anyone use Priceline.com for flights?

I'm trying to save some money on a flight home for a wedding and I think I can save around $200 if I use Priceline's name your own price feature. I am, however, nervous about using it when you don't know what your flights will be first.

I'll be flying home the Monday before a Saturday wedding, so there shouldn't be any risk of missing it or anything, but I also don't want to get stuck with a 10-hour layover in Detroit (I'm going to spend 12 hours in the air as it is).

Anybody used this before? Do they jam you up with a long layover, or are they pretty good about keeping you moving?

 

Only do it if you have blocked off the ENTIRE day as a "travel" day, and you don't have to be anywhere at any time during that day or night. Because they WILL fuck with you, as far as your schedule. If time is of any importance to you on that day -- whether it's not wanting to wake up too early or arrive too late or have a 4-hour layover -- it's not worth the hassle, even though you can indeed save some pretty good money.

If you're not picky about that, however, I say go for it. I recommend Priceline 100% on hotels and cars; I've gotten some insanely good rates with them.

But for flights -- there is that important hang-up, for most of us. Know that going in, and decide accordingly.

 

Yeah, 93D, I'd look at all the flights, find the ones that take off the earliest and land the latest, and find the most out-of-the-way connections...and just assume those will be your flight. I did it a while ago and it had me landing at 11:30 that night after two connections, each at least three hours.

 

I'ved used it. I usually come to the conclusion that the extra expense is better than the all-day travel.
Als0, the rebidding process stinks.

 

I've never used Priceline as I worship at the altar of Hotwire. God I love that site.

 

As a supplement to Priceline, Webby told me about this gem a couple years ago: www.biddingfortravel.com

 

Add this one as well: www.betterbidding.com

Includes both P/L and H/W bidding info, while BFT is P/L only. BFT does get more hits and more info.

Using either P/L or H/W, go through the eBates.com portal and you get 2% cash back. They actually send you a real check, no foolin'.

 

You may also want to try booking your own connection. I did that with the vacation I just returned from. The prices I was being quoted on the different airline ticket sites to go from my hometown to my destination were much higher than I thought they should be, so I checked prices to a city near my destination and found them much more reasonable, then checked prices from that city to my destination and ended up saving several hundred dollars per ticket. The reason, I think, was that I flew two different airlines with no codeshare, so the web-based ticket sites weren't checking such flights.

Hopefully that makes sense. If not and you really care, you can PM me and I'll go into more detail.

 

One thing to be wary of with those sites is if there is a screwup, you're screwed. Most airlines won't go out of their way to help a passenger thats only spent $100 to fly their airlines.

Also, sometimes paper tickets get involved, which gets sticky, because people forget to bring those with them to the airport, and then you can't fly and then you're stuck.

Honestly, for the lowest prices, check out the airlines' sites first, then go from there.

 

ZERO luck with that in my experience. Occasionally you'll save $5 off what travelocity is offering...but those places will send you on different airlines, which airline sites (aside from the ones who are now merging) won't do.

 

Depends on when and where you're going.

The only reason priceline can go lower than published fares is bulk ticketing. Which is the WORST ticket you can have when the shit hits the fan.