Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - What do people think about Priceline NYO flights

I need to go to Salt Lake City in early September and money is tight. Cheapest is $260 from Allentown or $342 from New York Area airports

Just wondering what you guys thought of the Priceline name your own price flights

Will I be able to get a cheap flight or will the difference be minimal

priceline is a consolidator. They have tix at a set price and if you bid over that amt you 'won'. I'd look at travelocity.com and put in flexible dates. Then you will see the range of fares for any given destination. I'd try that first over using priceline. What if you ended up with an 11 pm flight going and a 6 am return on the last day? I'd rather pick my own times.

Don't use PL (or HW) for airline tickets. Use PL for hotels and cars only.

Reason: Your time is valuable, and the flight you get could depart or arrive at any hour.

Don't use PL (or HW) for airline tickets. Use PL for hotels and cars only.

Reason: Your time is valuable, and the flight you get could depart or arrive at any hour.


There are a lot of seniors and college students who could live with accepting an "anytime" flight to save a few dollars.

People Express always worked for me as a poor college student.

For trips between city pairs with limited flight schedules connecting those city pairs on a single carrier, the flight times and route can sometimes be figured out in advance if researched in combination with something like expertflyer or seatcounter.com to figure out loads on various flights and what kind of equipment is being used. That's because NYOP PCLN tickets generally involve flying on a single carrier and are limited -- unless opting in -- for more than one connection, non-jet service and off-hour flight times. Other than that you have to be prepared for flights that might have departures as early as 6 a.m. or up to something like midnight.

I've had NYOP PCLN tickets work for me quite often because I know that on some trips only one carrier will be available for sale out of a particular airport and I can figure out the only one or two flight schedules that may pop up. When the tickets are quite expensive if purchased directly for the following kind of situation, then I have done this for flight tickets when I want a last-minute, one-way ticket connecting small regional airports with a large city airport or some other small regional airport with limited same-day flight service.