<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by VicOsaki: I just don't have the guts to buy an opque fare. </font>
I hear you on that one! I geuss its nice for people who don't want to use priceline though, that there are other options(orbitz/hotwire, ect). For me I like to know to the minute what I'm paying for before I say yes. (Hence, I have also not joined the eBay phenomena....)
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by prala: I hear you on that one! I geuss its nice for people who don't want to use priceline though, that there are other options(orbitz/hotwire, ect). For me I like to know to the minute what I'm paying for before I say yes. (Hence, I have also not joined the eBay phenomena....)</font>
Well, on eBay they don't bill your credit card before sending you the 1969 vintage busted alternator out of some guy's truck in Kansas City. At least you know EXACTLY what you're bidding on. But yeah, there is some of that trepidation.
I don't feel comfortable booking thru those sites, my time is too constrained.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by smg77: That's because Priceline's guidelines for bidding are total BS.</font>
Indeed... and one more reason why it''s worth becoming an informed bidder. Great deals can be had -especially for hotels and last minute airfare- if you're flexible and know strategies to maximize your savings. A great board to find out about these things exists at http://www.BiddingForTravel.com
I recently booked tickets on NWA for my wife and kids on Orbitz. However, when I called NW to enter their World Perks numbers, since I didn't have them handy when booking the tickets, I was told that tickets purchased on Orbitz don't qualify for WP miles! Is that correct? And if so, is that also the case with tickets booked with other carriers (e.g. AA, TW, DL, etc) thru Orbitz?
I am almost certain most Orbitz fares give miles, but note some NW fares do not give miles........the "web only" ones I believe. Maybe you booked some of these via Orbitz. These "web only" have a certain fare code which (unfortunately) I cant remember. Some others may have more info. Itsa jungle out there!
I'm not a big fan of the new travel web sites. I've looked at Orbitz and you do get a large number of fares popping up which is nice. I checked out hotwire but was not impressed with the fares. They appeared just as high or higher than other internet travel sites. Lastly, I like getting the bonus miles for purchasing direct from the airlines own website. The prices are often just as good or better than what I found on Expedia or Travelocity.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MisterNice: arkangel-
I am almost certain most Orbitz fares give miles, but note some NW fares do not give miles........the "web only" ones I believe. Maybe you booked some of these via Orbitz. These "web only" have a certain fare code which (unfortunately) I cant remember. Some others may have more info. Itsa jungle out there!
MisterNice</font>
Thank you for helping me avoid a nasty shock! I just confirmed this with the Gold Line - no miles (and still no Häagen-Dazs in F - so sad).
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Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death! - Auntie Mame
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Northwest may not offer miles for some fares, but Orbitz definitely lets you get miles for traveling with them. I booked a flight to Vegas a month ago that I got miles for. I've enjoyed using Orbitz since it opened up. I find that it's easy to use and cheap because I can still get my miles and get the low fares. Not too shabby.
Thanks, y'all, for the info. I initially tried booking these tickets on the NW web site since, I too, like the bonus miles. However, the fare that I got there for the same flights was 2.5 times(!) higher per ticket than the Orbitz fare. Sooo, no contest. Don't know what fare code I got. Maybe it is a "web fare." Anyway, for that kind of savings I can live w/o the mileage credit. However, I hope the TW and AA flights I've already booked thru Orbitz are "mileage ok," since the Orbitz savings(vs. web site booking) was not that great.
Hello there,
We had a winning bid for 2 tickets to Bangkok Thailand through UBID.com. We had a super great time! They were RT tickets with a 12 hour layover in Seoul Korea both ways which we took full advantage of!!! It was like 2 vacations in one. On the leg back it was like we already knew the city.Also included was hotel in Bangkok,all breakfasts,some sight seeing and more. And get this........all for......taxes included......7 days.......$625. per person out of MKE in Wisconsin !!
We just bought 2 tickets to Egypt for 2 weeks on SkyAuction . Hope this goes like the last one !!
No guts no cheap vacations!
signed aguy that likes saving money on vacation expenses so we can go on more vacations!!! JBJB
[This message has been edited by JBJB (edited 08-14-2001).]
I think its interesting, and quiet telling, that after only a few months since launch, Orbitz has been nomintated in Wireds Best Of Tech” Rave Awards...cool eh?
Yeah, very cool. It's especially interesting after all the flack they were getting from Travelocity and Southwest among others. Turns out that they are the fastest growing site in history. It's good to see a great site recognized by consumers and the industry.
Did you see that Ang Lee and bmwfilms.com got nominated too? Best films I've seen this year.
Well, I just made my first attempt to buy from Travelocity online. It didn't work. I am in Sweden, was going through their UK site. But the only option for delivery offered at the end when I tried to buy the ticket was through a cooperating travel agent, to be purchased in 24 hours. None of the Stockholm travel agents are open on Saturday (of course). I called the US number (only one showing on screen), eventually (after much voice non-recognition software) got through to a very helful person. Would have sent out the ticket by FedEx (from the US, they won't use the mail), but in the end they could not accept a credit card with a non-US address. They gave me the number for the UK site. The person there (also helpful) explained that if I had originally registered through the US site, the software would be treating me as associated with the US site, which is why there was only the travel agent option. The UK site would send out by Swift mail (more or less regular mail), but could not do anything manually -- I had to do it myself through the site, starting over with a new booking. I signed on again with a new name to www.travelocity.co.uk, tried and failed to get the flights I had originally booked, gave up. Discoveries: 1. Travelocity has different procedures at its three sites (one in Canada, too). 2. At least the UK site has no power to "reach into" the computer, which seems self-defeating. 3. It's a bit haphazard what flight and prices show up (I was using them because the SAS computer refused even to show any of its flights for the outbound, if I was returning the next day -- they did show if I was returning one day later.)
There's a relatively new site at qixo.com that is really good for price comparisons. The search engine driving it seems to be able to handle multiple flight patterns with the hub systems and splitting r/t flights with two airlines to get the lowest price. I have not booked a flight with them yet, but have used them frequently to find fares. Out of ORF they have been able to match or beat Travelocity almost every time.
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I'll have to check qixo.com out. I like Orbitz the best right now. They have the latest search engine technology, which makes it more comprehensive. I read somewhere that the current software goes all the way back to the 50s or 60s and can only handle 10,000 inputs or so while Orbitz can handle a billion. Plus, the last search engines were last updated in the Jimmy Carter days. I was pretty surprised about that.
