Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - Priceline

I have been searching for weeks for an 8 day SUV rental for my brother in law at FLL. The best rate I could find was $415 at Thrifty and $430 at Avis using every code I could find. I felt this was too much and decided to try Priceline for the first time. I punched in a ridiculous price of $25 per day and it was accepted. I got him an 8 day rental with Alamo for $308. I was amazed. Just wanted to share this.

I have been searching for weeks for an 8 day SUV rental for my brother in law at FLL. The best rate I could find was $415 at Thrifty and $430 at Avis using every code I could find. I felt this was too much and decided to try Priceline for the first time. I punched in a ridiculous price of $25 per day and it was accepted. I got him an 8 day rental with Alamo for $308. I was amazed. Just wanted to share this.

Hopefully you listed HIM as the driver or he won't be able to pick up the vehicle if you listed yourself as the driver. RULES of Priceline.
Stating this since you said the SUV was for him and not you.

There are no exceptions at the rental counter. Basically your rental is with Priceline and the rental company is just the facilitator of the vehicle. Your b-i-l has to show up with his DL and a CC in his name at time of rental.

In case you didn't read all the fine print I just thought I'd toss that all in. There are those that I rent to daily who DON'T read the fine print and when they get to the rental counter and I can't rent them the vehicle they have pre-paid because the person listed as the driver isn't present or they don't have a CC.
Why do you need a CC at time of rental? Because if something happens where you have to stay longer...the rental company has to have a method of payment on file for the renter. It's also for security measures. Kindof like collateral.

I recently had a successful and cheap rental using priceline as well. I'm one of those who doesn't always read the fine print but did book the reservation under my name and credit card #. What I would like to know, is a reservation made using priceline eligible for airline miles? In my case, AA miles for an Avis rental? I don't want to waste my time claiming missing miles if I'm not eligible.

I recently had a successful and cheap rental using priceline as well. I'm one of those who doesn't always read the fine print but did book the reservation under my name and credit card #. What I would like to know, is a reservation made using priceline eligible for airline miles? In my case, AA miles for an Avis rental? I don't want to waste my time claiming missing miles if I'm not eligible.

Priceline and Hotwire will NOT allow you to collect FF miles on your car rental.

I used to find some fantabulous deals with Hotwire. That was a few years ago. On a Saturday night at hpn, when the lowest advertised rate was $60/day, I got something from Hotwire for $17.95, several such times in fact :D

I often tried to guess who I'd get assigned to. I thought the company with the cheapest advertised rates would always be the one. For instance, Budget was $56/day, Alamo was $57/day, Avis was $65/day, and Hertz was $70/day, etc. Then guess who I was assigned to- Hertz! The most expensive one! I got to thinking maybe I'll be assigned to whomever is the most expensive. Then the next time Hotwire gave me Avis, which was neither the cheapest nor the most expensive of the pack. So I gave up trying to guess who my reservation would be with.

The deals on Hotwire are not so great anymore. In some cases they're even more expensive than what's advertised. I've also had some excellent deals on Priceline in the recent past at hpn. I bid slightly lower than Hotwire or the lowest advertised price, whichever was cheaper. But now my bids for the same price at similar times are more often bounced.

In case you haven't figured it out...the Car Rental companies set the rates on HW and PL...
And you are right, the rate isn't always wonderful. It just depends on what might be going on at the time you are booking.