Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - What is your over/under for priceline? (or time=$)

Last weekend, I saved $15 using priceline bidding for a one-day car rental from Avis. But I had to wait 10+ minutes to get to the counter and process the paperwork, then another stop at the parking lot booth for a key.

Contrast to prior experience as Hertz #1 gold (same airport) where I go straight from baggage claim to the car.

So my question: At what point do you draw the line and decide that the savings is not worth the increased time and hassle of using priceline?

For hotels I have generally used a rule of thumb @ $25/night as the stay credits and points have a certain value (not to mention the occasional low level status perks). Of course, on multi-night stays, the savings adds up quicker, but most of the time I'm looking at 2 weekend nights.

For cars my over/under was $15/day, as there are frequent WN RR bonus offers (using 1 RR credit = $15).

But after my last experience I think I'm going to raise my limit for cars, particularly 1-day rentals.

I used Priceline last week and got a new mustang for $13 day at Tucson. Regardless of how I rented the car had I been a member of Hertz #1 club etc. I'm fairly certain I could have avoided the counter and gone direct to the car. How you pay for the car shouldn't matter if your in the 'elite' group.

Doesn't it matter if you have status. With cars I feel that I will have to wait in line no matter what due to no status so I'll use priceline if it saves me $2. I have not found a difference between avis, hertz, national, budget, so I could care less which one I get. I hav enever thought my priceline experience was worse in any way. I also feel that priceline rental means that I am guaranteed a car because its prepaid. I guess the SW 1/2 credit is worth about $8 though.

With hotels, it all depends how sure I am to get what I want. If I am postive its the same hotel, then probably $10 per night to cover points and possibility of a priceline downgrade.

I collect all the miles/points I need from regular business travel, paid for on my company CC. When on vacation and not using points/miles for travel or when extending a business trip by an extra day or two just to explore a city, I usually try to use PL. Even if I needed the extra points/miles, the PL bargains I get are just too great to ignore. I recently stayed in a Sheraton in Phoenix that my company paid $149/night for. I decided to extend by a day to take in a show that was in town. I snagged the SAME hotel on PL for $54, and didn't even have to move rooms, just check out/in at the front desk (admittedly, this is not normal). For car rentals, I'm not bothered by the extra few minutes waiting & dealing with the desk personnel. I'd suffer through that to save $10/day.

I used Priceline last week and got a new mustang for $13 day at Tucson. Regardless of how I rented the car had I been a member of Hertz #1 club etc. I'm fairly certain I could have avoided the counter and gone direct to the car. How you pay for the car shouldn't matter if your in the 'elite' group.

No, you can't go directly to the car. Hertz will *NOT* enter your Hertz #1 Club # in the Priceline reservation!

Doesn't it matter if you have status. With cars I feel that I will have to wait in line no matter what due to no status so I'll use priceline if it saves me $2. I have not found a difference between avis, hertz, national, budget, so I could care less which one I get....

With some companies, like Alamo, you can bypass the line by using an automatic booth (or how it's called)