Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - tix from HNL-MNL?

I just attempted Priceline bidding for a RT from Honolulu to Manila, leaving sometime around xmas and returning a few weeks later. Not excited about results. Most options are shown routed through Japan, which is a real drag, since this turns what would otherwise be a 10-hour direct flight into a 17-55hr (55 hr!?) ordeal. And Priceline seems to completely ignore Hawaiian Air's every-other-day direct flights to Manila - though it did at least show Philippine Air's $1325 RT. All are painful options considering Hawaiian recently had a few months of $450 RT prices for this route...yes, peak season is upon us. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dave

It looks like you were not bidding on priceline. If you were bidding, you have entered a price you were willing to pay and priceline would have come back either accepting or rejecting your bid, without showing you any routing/airline you would fly until/unless your bid was accepted and you were locked in and ticketed. People often save 10%-40% over the lowest published fares when bidding on priceline.

It sounds like you were using Priceline to search for the lowest published fares. In this case, Priceline will have access to the same pricing you will find directly for the airline and on other price comparision sites like Orbitz, travelocity, and expedia. If Priceline is not showing you your preferred airline, you should buy directly from that preferred ariline or use Orbitz, Travelocity, or Expedia.

IF your goal is to save money rather than get your preffered ariline/routing, you should BID on priceline. You will not know what the ailrine/routing is until you have paid. This is how you pay less.

no, I was bidding. I'd clicked on the "name your own price/ save up to to 40% on flights/ Bid Now..." link, and filled in dates and my initial lowball offer, along with my CC number, etc. The Priceline screen refreshed itself about five times ("...we are working on your reservation...") and a couple of minutes later spat out a list of fare options - but headed with:

"Sorry – Unable to book your airline tickets/ Airline availability and pricing is constantly changing and we were unable to book the flights you requested. / Please select an alternative option from the itineraries below..."

I just went through it again to verify.

Oddly, the PL system wouldn't process my identical failed request, even though, as they say, "...pricing is constantly changing..." So I had to change my departure date to get it to run again.

I get that the list of fares thus revealed is not PL "tipping their hand" as to what a successful low bid will be, but it's still disappointing that one of the only two direct carriers from HNL to MNL is not even shown there - and they happen to have significantly lower fares than those shown. I'd likely do better on my own if this is all PL has to offer me.

That aside, is there a bidding strategy that leaves my departure/return dates nearly wide open, like within a given week, say?

--dave

" / Please select an alternative option from the itineraries below..."
I see, you were trying to bid. FYI, the screen you got displays the same results as if you went to Priceline and did a fare search. You will only be shown published fares - same ones available everywhere. You will never be able to see name your own price options available to you - until you have paid for the option you are stuck with.

It appears Priceline does not have name your own price tickets now in your market. This could change - airlines go back and forth in what routes they give PL cheap opaque inventory on.

Just so you are aware, the name your own price part of priceline is a completely different software/system. You will often win trips that are not displayed using the fare search system.

Oddly, the PL system wouldn't process my identical failed request, even though, as they say, "...pricing is constantly changing..." So I had to change my departure date to get it to run again.

In order to prevent someone from bidding $100, $101, $102, $103, etc until they get the lowest price, PL does not allow multiple bids for the same trip within 3 days. This encourages travellers to bid the most they are willing to pay upfront and allows PL to make more profit when people bid more the the lowest winning bid. For PL, what you saw is not odd but standard. In return, because travellers are not able to see or easily figure out the bottom price, airlines often give PL lower prices than Hotwire or anyone else.
I'd likely do better on my own if this is all PL has to offer me.
The moment I know PL rejected my bid, it is time to move on. The money saving part of PL is the bidding system - the rest of the system doesn't do anything for you over other travel sites - and in your case, less.
If the trip is far out, you could try returning to PL every few days and bidding. If airlines give PL new cheap inventory, you could luck out.

That aside, is there a bidding strategy that leaves my departure/return dates nearly wide open, like within a given week, say?
Not that I know of, though I agree this could be really nice. As is, it appears you have to keeping placing a new bid for each day.

wanaflyforless - thanks for the added info/explanations.