Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline bidding for Airfare!

So! Who has tried to bid for a summer European round-trip getaway on Priceline? Has it been worth it? A little scared to give them my credit card and say.. "charge away!"

But, the truth is... our dates are super flexible, we're young and tenacious and willing to take those 4am flights... should I hesitate to use this set-your-own price feature?

We're travelling from NYC and I want to take my graduating senior brothers to Amsterdam and Paris. So far, the lowest total cost round trip is through Momondo.com at $850 (FANTASTIC website), and a couple of AirTransat one-way tix that add up to about $800 but that would require a road trip to Toronto to board... ick.

I once flew from NYC - LONDON on now defunct Zoom airlines and paid $149 round trip, then caught the Eurostar for a cheap ride to mainland Europe. I cannot FATHOM buying three $850 tickets. Are the better deals going to pop up soon, or should I buy while I can? I've been doing the whole Tuesday night 3am searches, lol.

Anybody got any advice on how low to go to score a Priceline name-your-own-price fare? I read somewhere to lop off 35-40% of the lowest fare you could find. Which would make a NYC - Amsterdam flight $500ish. That is a much more comfortable price, but should I lowball it and wait for someone to respond with a counter-offer? I heard sometimes that happens.

Thanks guys! Please share your Priceline bidding experiences here!

-Cat

orchiddagny ,

we have a forum dedicated to Priceline and other online agencies, so I am moving your request there. At the discression of the moderators there it may be merged with an existing thread, as I'm sure this has been asked before (hint: search first).

Oh, and welcome to FlyerTalk

EmailKid
Budget Travel moderator

Hi EmailKid,

Thanks for being helpful, but could you either move it back or let me make another post in that original thread? I was directly replying to some of the comments there about cheap transatlantic travel. The Priceline question was more of an addition to the current discussion. Actually if you have a record of where I originally posted, could you reply @me? Because I can't seem to find the thread...

This is a big forum, and I did search a bit but people in the Online Bidding thread are mostly looking for hotels.

Could I suggest that FlyerTalk forum moderators let users know before they move their message? Or if they are first time users, simply link to the thread that might be more helpful? I don't see the point in moving messages so quickly unless there is spam. Especially with such a huge board where I'm sure it's a lot of work.

I do appreciate your being helpful!
-Cat

If you are looking for Priceline help this is the correct forum. If you have other questions about cheap transatlantic travel, then other forums might have answers but for PL strategies this is the right place.

As fuel costs rise tickets are likely to cost more not less this summer. Add in the summer olympics and flights are definitely impacted

If you don't care when you go or how long it takes to get there (i.e. 12 hour layovers, different airlines etc) then PL can be a fine resource. Why NOT bid as low as you want and see what happens?
You might also look at
www.betterbidding.com
and
www.biddingfortravel.com

to get a sense of what other winning bids have been.

Welcome to FT orchiddagny511!

Agree, this is the correct forum.

OP - "name your own price" for air travel has kind of been dying a slow death with most people. As airlines cut routes and capacity and fuel prices rise, planes are flying pretty full. There aren't a lot of empty seats to end up available for PL bidding.

Add to that the summer Olympics this year, and traveling at the height of vacation time, and you are looking at expensive fares, and low probability of getting an inexpensive ticket. I don't own a crystal ball, but I see no reason for "better fares" to pop up. I have been watching TATLs for this summer since last August, and they have done nothing but increase.

If you are willing to take what you can get, go ahead and bid on PL and see what pops up. Good luck.

How 'bout this?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals/1329591-ac-ewr-ber-dus-596-june-july-august.html