Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline air - first bid, last bid - how much PL give

Hi,

Topic - Name your own price.

First, I must say that the Priceline model for airfares has worked well for me on about 5 occasions. Especially since I tend to book one day in advance, max two. (Note: I noticed that same day attempts can be Priceline problematic.) My question is fairly simple. I will use a recent example for discussion.

NYC--> FLL leaving tomorrow for a week. Standard fares are about $400. Kayak shows a "hassled traveler" special (well they call it hacker) for about $300 that includes US Air with stop one-way and Spirit coming back. Not a fave.

So I put in a low-ball Priceline to an unusual airport, Westchester (a nice airport actually) to test the actual fares. They come back with an offer (one day different, but fine) for $240 from the airport I do want, so I take it. (There was a bit of a rush, no more experimenting, good enough.)

My question is simple. Generally speaking, will Priceline undercut that new suggested fare significantly on a direct retry ? (I am including fees in all numbers.)

If I come back with that same $240 itinerary for $200 .. is it likely to take ? How much flex do you generally find in the "here's our fare back" given. 0% - 10% 20% .. more ? This is noting that the $240 already looks like a 40% discount. Hmmm.. do they automatically start at 40 under ?

Your thoughts appreciated. I know I could even keep that fare up on the screen and test elsewhere (nother browser, nother puter) but I just want a sense from our experts of how much 'give' .. if any .. is there in a solid Priceline counter-suggestion. (And you might not like the counter-suggestion in terms of dates, airports, etc. My assumption here is that you do.) I realize that the actual experiences may also vary a lot, but any input is helpful for my next attempt.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Steven

The advice I've always seen when it comes to NYOP airfare is that PL will undercut the offer they give you, but probably not very much (similar to the way NYOP for hotels works). So in your example, I'm not sure if $200 would have worked, but $220 might have, or it might have taken $230 to make it happen.

I would suggest you look for information on ways to rebid for airfares. There are various "tricks" you can use to start low and work your way up a little at a time until you reach the "magic" number that PL will accept. One such trick is what some refer to as "The Suburb Trick" - where after you've bid and been rejected, you go all the way back to PL's home screen and instead of typing in the actual airports you want, type in instead a town nearby and only select your desired airports on the next screen. Somehow PL sees this as a different bid and won't reject it as a duplicate.

Edit to add: I know this isn't your first post on FT, but let me be the first to welcome you here! :)

Hi,

Thanks, that is exactly the info I was requesting. So a lot depends on how much is at stake and how much time you have to fiddle around.

(If it is last minute you also have to be a smidgen concerned that fares could go up. I have had that happen a few times on airline fares for short-tine departure, a day or a few days, where the fare is so good the best is to jump and run. My one experience with Priceline trying to buy in the AM for departure later in the day was like that .. a late night for the next day, or a a 6 or 7AM try is very likely to be very different than a 10-11 AM try. The price can go way up since there is only a flight or two and pickens can be slimmens.).

So, in general, once you got their "offer fare" you can try for another 20% reduction or so, but in a rush just offer 10% and see if it flies. Of course if a fare is $700 you will do more fiddling than on a $200 fare. In this case I had someone by me who was so happy about the $240 fare (compared to the $400 normal we had just seen) we just took it and ran.

One thing I have noticed on flights to Florida, San Juan and Asheville (when US Air had non-stops to Ash). You seem to have a very good shot at the excellent non-stops on Delta or USAir and maybe some others. By contrast, if you were just shopping for el cheapo regular you might end up with a 1-stop, or a combined airline fare through the Kayak style website.

So I find that frequency of non-stops a nice little Priceline bonus. My friend is flying non-stop Delta right now to FLL on the ticket from yesterday. This wasn't the case in my trip to the LA area, where the JetBlue connection, if cheap enough and to the right airport, would have been better. Nonetheless, the Priceline worked fine to LA, all things considered.

My score on priceline airfare tries. About five good experiences, 0 bad. I usually use Kayak as the main search, adding my own Jet Blue, Spirit or whatever on the side, and maybe Travelocity or another as well. If Priceline has NYOP on car rentals, I have not tried it. Your own shopping can bring some nice deals there.

Any overseas happening or possible on the Priceline NYOP ? Is it USA and Caribbean ? (Yes, I know I could check!)

Thanks for the "suburb trip" extra trip-try-tip. In NYC departures or arrivals, I can do so much fiddling with different airports that I don't have to be too concerned about vaporizing my bid opportunities. However, every little tip helps. I'll check those tip posts out.

Thanks for the welcome.

Steven