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Old Feb 21, 2015, 9:58 pm
  #21  
iahphx
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Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,377
Of all the (largely forgotten) Priceline "name your own price" services, I like car rentals the best. Probably because they use only the major companies, and a car is pretty much a car (unlike hotels, where "4 star hotels" can be quite different and you can get stuck with a bad one). That said, I still only use priceline for maybe 5% of my domestic car rentals. That's because codes and coupons are usually better, and I like utilizing the frequent renter programs (like National's Emerald Aisle) that get you better cars and loyalty points.

But, sometimes, the published rates are just bad and you want to do better. You can usually tell if a Priceline bid will be promising by looking at Hotwire's opaque rates. I tend to bid about $4/day less (but watch the total price!) and it's usually successful. The most absurd thing is when you enter your bid, priceline always tells you it's probably too low and you'd have a better chance bidding a couple bucks more. Ignore the advice and keep your original bid. (I'm a little mystified how this suggestion can be "legal," because it's obviously pure deception -- Priceline knows darn well whether your bid is too low to be accepted!).
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