bradleykhofmann

I'm looking a booking IAH-INV flight in April of 2018. INV seems to be consistently the Cheapest (missed a $575 AA sale to EDI by minutes last week). Has anyone ever done these ExpressDeals. I see the express deals are price protected with 200% difference back up to 24 hours before departure.

rasheed

As long as you are okay with the possible airlines and routing, there does not appear to be a downside. You should screenshot and save all the 200% guarantee pages in case they disappear.

Then, set an alert in yapta for the exact route you get to see if you can claim the difference.

Rasheed

lo2e

I'm glad you pointed this out, I guess I missed the memo that PL was offering this. But what confuses me is what the difference is with this vs. their normal airfare price product?

With the hotel side, the Express Deals are like Hotwire in that they don't reveal the name of the hotel until you pay. With flights, they appear to reveal all relevant details about the flight - airline, times, stop(s) if applicable. Not sure what I'm missing.

bradleykhofmann

@lo2e

They post only ambiguous details of the flights. What is interesting is that on some routes, you can pretty much tell what the flights are. ExpressDeals can get a 200% difference refund up until 24 hours before flight. At least that is what I am to believe.

lo2e

Huh - the first time I tried it, it showed me times, stops, etc. Now after your second post I tried it again and it showed me the screen with only vague information. Weird.

rasheed

They will experiment on the details perhaps. You may need to use another machine or private browser if it matters.

Although, if you truly got an express deal offered at the same/similar price a few times for the same route, I doubt it was different by much even if the details shown differed.

When I did my LAX-OGG search experiment, I had numerous opaque options to pick from with differences in departure time ranges.

Rasheed

TravelingNomads

You could hold out and sign up for hacktheflight notifications. We were able to take a trip from ATL to DUB for under $350 via Delta over Christmas and then took a $20 RyanAir trip to EDI. We also got a great deal to Cancun and are headed to Italy & Bulgaria in a couple of months.

bradleykhofmann

Ok, here is my methodology. Priceline offers $914 for IAH-ABZ in April. I plug in vague details into google flights and get 4 total possibilities, all ok to me for $330ish cheaper. Is my methodology sound?

Romelle

Google Flights is admittedly wonderful, but sometimes it is necessary to "cast a wider net". Other OTAs like Expedia, Orbitz, etc. Airline specific just in case one has specials not in the OTAs, or there are airlines on the route not in Google. ITA matrix for a little more specificity than Google Flights.

In your example you've already found really significant savings and presumably have a good general idea of "reasonable" rate levels. It would be buy immediately time.

But if you hadn't found what you felt was a good deal, that is when the wider net comes into play. And there also are the "alerts". Lots of time between Aug and April. Set several of them and hope for a sale, being prepared to act immediately. If nothing shows up before rates likely to start rising (minimum 6 weeks ahead), give up and buy.

Lots right with your methodology though. Probably the quickest, simplest, wide search available. Can't argue with your results.

bradleykhofmann

I do have hopes for a sale. I'm flexible in that INV, ABZ, EDI, GLA, NCL, and MAN are ok with me flying into. I had a fare for these dates at $456 to EDI via LHR on BA (AA sale). Found at 2:00 pm at work. Went home to book (needed passport) and at 4:30 it still priced on OTA but was "normal" priced on click through to $1275. Needless to say I was bummed a couple of days.

Romelle

Another part of your methodology is correct - looking around you at all possible airports.

Sorry about missing that sale. It happens. I'll bet you now have your passport number at work.

Not my area of expertise, but a lot of people here report where sales can linger on various more obscure OTA sites. Seems I regularly read of one I'd not yet heard of. Sometimes even one of the more common ones.

ChinaShrek

Yes, I booked a Priceline ExpressDeal for a one way flight from OGG-BOS with one stop. There was only one flight that left Maui and arrived in Boston during the times it listed (two hour periods of time). Therefore, I was able to make a fairly educated guess at the routing and airline. I saved about $70.00 from the airline's own website.

BEAV

How many days before departure did you book?

ChinaShrek

8 months (because it was Maui and high season). The flight is now $600 more than I paid.

BEAV

Although not quite the same as the old "name your own price" model, I'm surprised you could get any type of discounted fare through Priceline that far in advance of your travel date.

Were you able to make an advance seat selection? And if so, were you restricted to only certain seats within the economy cabin?