My fiance and I are new to the bidding process and for both flights have not picked dates yet, but will most likely be flying to Phoenix for a weekend in the next 1-2 months, we're going to look at homes, so actually the worse the weather, the better so we can see if the 110+ degree Summer is actually bearable ;)
The trip to Venice is different as it'll be 2 trips in one with our destination actually being Sofia, BG for 7 days to visit family. We're looking for a cheap flight from Chicago to a hub city which we'll stay in for 1 day both ways. From there we'll take one of the no-frills airlines w/i Europe and the "winner" was Wizz Air from Venice/Sofia. This trip will either take place at the end of the Summer(end of August/early September) or late Oct/early Nov as we'll be running in the Chicago Marathon on Oct 11th. The only criteria for now is leaving on a Thu and returning flight a Mon.
Here's what I found on Farecompare by checking the upcoming 10 months and best fares:
ORD/VCE- best fare listed for Aug is $536 RT, but when I tried to search for depart 8/20, return 8/31 and best price is $707 through PL and $574 for depart 10/15 and return 10/26.
VCE/SOF- $67 RT depart Sat, return following Sat(anytime of the year).
What is the experience as far as bidding and after winning? If possible I want to see if I can do less than $500 RT with a PL bid or another service(Hotwire/Orbitz/etc)?
For ORD/PHX-
Best I found was $219 RT, but it showed past winning bids as low as $147, we're also open to flying from MDW if we can find something RT under $170(depart Fri night/Sat morning, return Sun).
Romelle
May 10, 09, 7:03 am
Lots of comment possible here. I'll get started, and suspect others may have more to say as per usual. And also as per usual, I'll learn a thing or two from the others' comments.
First, if you are not yet familiar with matrix.itasoftware.com, it will be your new best friend. Bit of a learning curve, but worth it. Lots of directions under the Help button. You can set it to search for specific numbers of days, which will let you pick up those Thursday to Monday spans.
But you also want to check the airline sites themselves as they can have fares not out in the more general sites.
www.kayak.com can turn up something interesting sometimes.
The initial numbers you saw in farecompare likely didn't have the taxes and fees in them?
I'm guessing you actually want the VCE stop-over but, if you didn't, check fares all the way to SOF as sometimes there is very little difference between different end points.
Regarding bidding, the best way to know if a low-ball number will work is to just try it, assuming you are ready to commit if it does go through. You really never know until you've bid. You do have to accept any airline, and any time of day (can rule in or out red-eyes, but that is about it). betterbidding and biddingfortravel have some postings on airline wins, but not as may as on hotels. Worth checking though. The airline bid deals do happen, just not really regularly. (When you do get your air set, the bid process can be really effective for hotels. They are practically giving away rooms in PHX right now.)
Availability for winning bids can show up at any time, so if you can jump at the last minute you might find deals. Unfortunately, you can't realistically make the cancelable back-up reservation like you can for a hotel.
Sound like fun trips.
Romelle
You don't mention airline affiliation or status levels in your profile? Any particular preferences?
fti
May 10, 09, 3:59 pm
Welcome to FT.
The fares for travel in Oct will naturally be much less than for travel in August, which is the peak summer season.
Note if you opt for two separate tickets, you will have two separate luggage allowances and you will almost for sure be forced to have an overnight on the return from SOF in that hub city in Europe due to flight connections, and not being able to check your luggage through to the final destination.
I would also look at some options that allow "free" or cheap stops. For example, sometimes Austrian Airlines or Lufthansa offer a free or cheap stop in Vienna, Frankfurt or Munich with one ticket and one fare all the way from the US to Sofia. Free beats $67, not to mention a big reduction in the hassle factor. But if you are insistent in the stop being in VCE that greatly limits your options.
And you definitely don't want to add a third ticket into the mix for the flight within the US. Look at the bigger picture - from your origination city to SOF round trip, then from your origination city in the US to the "hub city." Almost always these will be cheaper than buying a separate ticket within the US.
I haven't used PL's bidding site for airline tickets in years. Just seems like I have always been able to find cheaper options through conventional sources. And they are especially dangerous for short weekend trips, being that you might end up having just hours in Europe. Read the fine print VERY carefully on priceline.com about the earliest/latest flight times and layovers you might have with the Name Your Own Price option.
John
vr4playa
May 10, 09, 11:29 pm
Romelle- No affiliation(you mean flyer programs right?) and no preference, haven't flown enough, but from the few flights I've had the only complaints would be with luggage allowances and of course the no fluids over 3 oz or nothing even remotely sharp as carry-on(i.e. nail-clippers, shaving razor, etc) :td:
In fact a funny story is in the Spring of '07 when I was in Vienna for a semester abroad I took the train on my most of my trips within Europe, but did fly to Amsterdam and Sofia with Sky Europe- hands down a great airline(from the 3 flights atleast- 1 Amsterdam, 2 Sofia), both allowed me to carry both a backpack and laptop bag(which was basically a 2nd backpack) despite being a non-profit airline. Well my flight home from Sofia via Lufthansa had a much stricter carry-on limit and despite shipping home most of my luggage to avoid checking ANYTHING, the two backpacks that I was allowed on 1-2hr flights w/i Europe were over the limit for a Trans-Atlantic flight with a top "for-profit" airline so I had the hassle of checking in one backpack which I also had to pickup in my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Toronto(as I missed the scheduled connection of Frankfurt to Chicago due to the plane arriving late :()
Long story short- as long as I make it to my destination and nothing is lost on the way I'm a happy camper.
fti- thanks for the tips, we would definitely be open to flying through Vienna or basically anywhere in Europe. If there is a $500-600 ticket that involves a one-night stayover I'm game. I just chose VCE as it was the cheapest from Chicago that also had a cheap flight to Sofia. Other popular hubs like London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, etc did not have cheap inter-Europe flights, but I guess if there is a Lufthansa/Austrian-Air stayover flight it'd be worth it as Germany/Austria are my personal favs(being that I'm fluent in German and spent a decent amount of time there :))
Romelle
May 11, 09, 9:17 am
Yes, airline frequent flyer program. About three of those CHI-SOF flights would give you enough miles for one free domestic ticket if they are all on the same affiliation.
I don't know if this link will work or not, but you might want to give it a shot:
It is a run using the ITA software. Shows flights CHI-SOF for a month starting the Oct 15. Low rate was an Alitalia flight at $775, closely followed by AirFrance at $780, and Delta and $784. Thought it might give you something to think on.
Yes, the illogic/inconsistency/unpredictability of airline rules is amazing. I like your approach though of keeping a sense of humor about it. I had security in San Juan, PR take away a tiny (under 3 oz.) bottle of laundry detergent I'd carried in and out of MANY airports before. They said it was unlabeled, so not OK.... I asked for the bottle back, and they went over and squeezed the contents into a waste paper basket apparently for that purpose?? Guess I'd worry more about what they were combining in that basket. Keep smiling.