Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - When does Priceline actually buy tic.

I may become a first time user of Priceline and wondered about the purchase moment of the air tickets I will want. After I make my bid and give credit card info, when will I know that the bid has been accepted? Travel will be in September and I don't want to wait until August 30 to find out that the bid is not accepted or that the purchase has not been made by Priceline. I don't find any mention of when they would have the purchase finalized in their FAQ not guidelines. Anyone know? And if everything is taking too long to be confirmed, can I cancel the deal without loss?

Welcome to Flyertalk

You will know within minutes.

You can not cancel once the process starts.

How long do I have to wait for my request to process?

You'll usually know within seconds if your reservation is confirmed. If your reservation is not confirmed after 15 minutes, you will be under no further obligation.

To see if your reservation is confirmed, go to the Check Your Request section of the priceline home page. You will need your request number and the e-mail address you entered during the request process to get the results of your offer.

You will know instantly. The purchase will be confirmed within a few minutes after you hit submit.

Thanks, that makes me a bit more comfortable using the site. I could just imagine not being able to cancel and still not knowing for sure about having the tickets until just before the travel.

Make sure you take the time to fully understand all the rules before bidding. You really cannot control the flight times... assuming you are using the bidding function. These are also non refundable and non cancellable.

You will also not earn any frequent flyer miles for these tickets.

For those reasons, many of us do not use Priceline for airline tickets.

Just do your research first... so you do not get disappointed.

It's also a good idea to take a screen shot (printscreen) when you make your bid so you have a record in case you wind up with something that you think you didn't ask for. It's best to be very careful and check everything twice before completing the bid - especially the dates of the trip.