gosh...im curious...i've checked them out but would like to hear from frequent fliers who have tried the service...they seem rather restrictive in terms of times and stopovers..but bidding for your seat is a grea idea! can someone shed some light on whether or not this service is reputable and perhaps speak about their experience?

I've checked them out and they are reputable. in the main, they book discount airlines (eg. frontier, southwest, ATA), but they also have seats on the majors. though they deny it, some carriers (continental for one) are working with them. the one downside is that once you sign up you are locked into accepting what they give you. this is likely to avoid the site being inundated with "window shoppers" which ties up the server. for most travel you probably do just as well with Global Discount. these are the guys with the cheap TWA tickets which are from the credit given to Carl Icahn (former owner) to settle a debt. they come in 20% under TWA's lowest fares.

My bids have never been accepted and they have been reasonable bids. The site is reasonably fast and the service is legit. Customer Reports did a report on them and noted that a good advanced-purchase fare beats them. So the time to use them is when you have less than 14/7 days to go or you cannot stay over on a Sat. night. If you pick a price higher than the adv. purchase fare but well below full-fare you have a really good chance of it being accepted. If you can get a good deal through bestfares.com or lowestfare.com (the TWA thang) or for international consolidators www.tiss.com than you are better off than priceline.com

I haven't tried this service nor am I likely to anytime soon. I have a real problem with bidding on a fare which, if accepted, locks me into a flight on an airline not of my own choosing and, worst of all, at a time that the airline finds convenient for itself rather than convenient for me. I have a hard time believing this approach is viable in the long term. One possibility which makes much more sense would be to reverse the process. Potential customers could post their travel needs (perhaps in a spin-off of this forum) such as "need flight from DC to San Fran on August 21 leaving at about 5 PM. Max. cost $350." Airlines serving the route could then respond with their best offer for the desired flight(s) and customers could choose accordingly (or not at all).

MileKing... I tend to agree with you. If I
have to book a fare fast I'll try the different airline websites or BizTraveler or
even Amex. If it's a weekend and a place I
have to go to I'll take the special e-fares
offered by the different airlines (Subscribe
to United, Continental and American, plus
Air Canada.)

Have not used Priceline for the record, but
Even if I have to pay a little more I rather
do that then be told by a ticket service "you
have to take this cattle car here and then
change there and fly at this time and sit in
the back of the plane."

Here's a related question: If you book with
Priceline and you get one of your ff airlines, do you still earn miles? CATMAN
in teh back of the plane" to

Priceline.com tickets are NOT eligible for any frequent flier credit. There are not eligible for upgrades etc. etc.

Megamiles, thanks for the info and based on
that I rather go for the miles than saving
a few dollars. In the long run the miles
will equal upgrades and free tickets. CATMAN

Catman: Do you pay for your own tickets?

Philforest, I pay for ALL of my tickets.
The company will reinburse me for any
business related travel but it takes a LONG
time to pay.

But at least once or twice a year I take
the miles and get one FREE ticket to VEGAS (it's an annual thing) and one free TICKET
to some place where I just lay on the beach
and do NOTHING for three or four days.

My friends say why not just travel for free
when I can. Yes, it saves on the credit card
but if I can get a cheap fare and use the points to upgrade to business or first, I'm earning more miles for the Vegas/do nothing
trips. It's just my own flightplan, but it
works. CATMAN

I've tried them, they're really good. I like their price bidding tool. If you use it with BiddingForTravel.com you can really target some great deals. I hope that I could help. Happy Travels!

No, I don't Priceline airline tickets...I'm still buying my TWA tickets at a discount from Carl Icahn.



Epic bump...sweet memories of a simpler era!

I didn't realize threads could be resurrected from 1998.

Since this is not about miles or points I'll move it.

Took 13 years to move it to the right forum

Threads never get "locked" on FT like on some other message forums (Trip Advisor locks threads after 6 months, which is too short IMO). But 13 years is probably too long

Maybe we should lock really old threads.

Could save some embarassment all around.