Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Skyauction

Has anyone had any experience with this website. Sounds too good to be true. Is it?

They're for real. I've used them in the past with no problem. Good customer service too.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Marysunshine:
Sounds too good to be true. Is it?</font>

If you do a search, most threads on Skyauction are positive.

I have used many times w/as good as expected results.

As for "too good to be true", watch yourself w/this site. I have seen people bid $500+ for winter tickets to London which is an outrageous price for winter. Know what the going market rate is before you bid.

You should know that many of the airline tickets do not allow you to accrue FF miles. You can check with SkyAuction before bidding to see if this is the case with a specific auction. You also will not know in advance what airline you will be on unless it is specified in the item description. Two drawbacks for those of us looking for miles on particular airlines. Good luck.

I've used Sky Auction three times. Once for a domestic one-week condo rental, once for a Safari, and once for a ticket to Asia.

All three times I had a terrible time getting them to confirm dates of travel/stay. However, once it was booked, everything worked out ok, with the following exceptions:

-Be careful of the service/tax fee on every auction. For example, every hotel/condo package has a $195 fee tacked on to your bid price, so it gets pricey fast.

-Even though they charge that $195 service/tax fee, I was still charged $14/day by the condo I satayed at. They called it a cleaning/service fee, and I was stuck paying it.

-The flights aren't always on the airline they claim. I won an auction for a Northwest/KLM trip, but I was booked on a Kenya Airways flight.

SkyAuction is run by a travel agency called Magical Holidays in New York. If you call them, you can sometimes get a better deal than is available through the auction site. Like the prior poster said, sometimes people bid those trips up way beyond their true value.

They are legit. Have bought from them several times, each time getting what was advertised. Usually but not always will get dates requested. Customer service pretty good, tho not real speedy. A couple of points/peeves:

• usually have to ask if a particular auction accrues FF, then have to wait a day for reply.

• the low "current" price is meaningless. All real bidding takes place in the final few minutes (and seconds) before closing. For an idea of the real prices, check the "winners" column to see the closing prices of recent past auctions. Very often the actual price, including surcharges, is more than published fare.

• the "tax/service" charge is unrelated to actaul taxes. Should read "tax + profit markup." Don't forget $15 tix delivery fee.

• Only rarely will your savings exceed $100. The best deals are on auctions that close late afternoon on Fridays. Unfortuanately, skyauction has figured that out so there are very few of those now.

• skyauction is one of the few places I know where one-way tix can be purchased at a discount.

• they offer lots of "1 week @ resort X for $1" deals. Yes, this is too good to be true. By the time you add in all the surchages and combine with obvious fact that hotel is hurting and thus dumping surplus inventory, you aren't doing any better than if you called up to book yourself.

Thanks so much. I guess there's lots to check on with this site. I appreciate all the info and will be VERY careful. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

Excellent post, rb.sr!

I too have used Skyauction a number of times and have been pleased with results. Took two flights to Asia and both accrued ff miles. I was high bidder on a condo unit in Southern Florida last December. My bid (only bid) was $1, and with the $195 Tax/Service fee and $15 shipping fee, total was $2ll. Splitting expenses with a friend brought my cost to $106 for 7 nights (Two bedroom condo with full kitchen on a beach). I was charged no other daily or weekly fees.

I agree with other posters here-read everything before you bid so you know exactly what you are bidding on. Some of the best deals I've seen have been on auctions where trips or land-only packages must be taken soon.

Strategy I use on bidding is to use the "Auto-bid" option, plugging in the most I am willing to pay and as near to closing time of auction as I can.

Aconcagua98-how was the safari?

The Safari deal I won through SkyAuction was a great value.

It was approx. $1400 per person (2 of us), including all taxes/fees.

The trip was 9 days total, including travel time to/from Kenya. We were put up in the Nairobi Hilton upon arrival, followed by a five day safari to the usual places around Kenya. The safari accomodations and food were included (and outstanding). The driver was wonderful and very intelligent... he really went out of his way (Rhino Safaris was the tour operator in Kenya). The last night in Nairobi also included a stay at the Hilton.

On the way back, a room was included at a nice hotel in Amsterdam for our layover.

We earned FF miles on the trip, so that made it even more of a bargain.

Like I said in my previous post: I would check with Magical Holidays in NY before bidding on those deals. They sell the one we went on for about $1900/person, and I've actually seen people bid more than that for them.

The Asia airfares at SkyAuction often offer great bargains too... especially the ones that earn miles.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/skyauction.html

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