Almost always I have been very pleased with my priceline bidding for hotels. Can't say how many times I have bid but certainly over 100 in the past 10 years, probably more. However, after the Ann Arbor DO last weekend, I am convinced that if you do the proper research, you can come extremely close to priceline's rates using other tricks. One of the DO participants paid through his conventional booking almost exactly what another DO participant paid for a similar property through Priceline. Yes it means doing your homework, yes it means maybe buying gift cards at a 20% discount, yes it means comparison shopping. But then he got his hotel elite perks, not to mention 5K bonus DL miles with the current promotion. So I am becoming a believer that if you do your homework, you can actually come very close to priceline's rates.

And I have been told by more than one hotel upon check in that in the future, they will match the price I got on Priceline and will give me the points on my stay.

Until recently I have rarely found a rental car deal through priceline that I couldn't match, beat or at least come very close to that would make it worth it to use priceline for the non-refundable aspect. But just yesterday I got a rental car in MCI for September that was about half what the cheapest going rate was. A first for me, and I have tried in the past.