Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - New Hotwire product: Weekender Package

Can search for the upcoming weekend or the following weekend, must depart on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and return the following Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday.

User can select air travel window (6am-11am, 11am-4pm, 4pm-10pm, 10pm-11:59pm) and is also shown the hotel name before purchase.

Still a tough sell (IMO) due to the mandatory agreement of a minimum of one connection (and for the few searches i did it seems as if the minimum agreement is actually 2 connections) and we'll see how great the savings actually are, but in the right situation it might be worthwhile... and it's certainly a step in the right direction!!

Hmmm, how did you find 2 connections - were these to int'l destinations from remote origins? I actually found some pretty good deals from SFO to Chicago and would guess these would be nonstop, because they're from hub to hub. If I had to fly on short notice and couldn't find cheap tix through other channels I might roll the dice with Weekender. For me, being able to choose time window *and* hotel is a big plus.

globeseeker,

If you do a search for a possible itinerary and select one of the options shown, the next screen shows a review of your selection. Next to Flight Details it reads: Red-eye OK, maximum 2 connections.

Of course it could very well be a non-stop flight, but with the Weekender Package you apparently are agreeing to the possibility of 2 connections. I just ran this for SFO to Chicago and it said the same thing: maximum 2 connections.

[This message has been edited by thereuare (edited 07-28-2003).]