I know this has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread, but I can't let a Priceline complaint go by without a comment
Several days ago, Priceline was experiencing serious delays in responding to bids. Numerous complaints were posted to the Yahoo Club I host to discuss Priceline/Expedia bidding at
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/pricelinedeals It seems that this problem was limited to one 24 hour period. You, unfortunately, must have hit that period.
As to the bid amount not including taxes and airport fees, I agree that's a shortfall of Priceline's product, as the majority of those who use Priceline likely have no idea how much these fees amount to (not us FTs, of course).
I was recently interviewed by a major national newspaper regarding the pros and cons of Priceline's product for airfares vs. Expedia's Flight Price Matcher. To me, Expedia is at a definite disadvantage from the consumer perspective as they allow only one bid per routing within a 7 day period. Priceline, on the other hand, allows you to re-bid as many times as you want if you just change your e-mail address. Of course, this isn't stated at their site, but it's a known loophole by everyone who participates in the Yahoo Club. Just today, in fact, someone posted to the Club that they were bidding on SFO-HNL, starting at $170, and re-bidding as many times as it took at $10 increments until their $270 bid was accepted. Non-stop routing on AA with great travel times. Same flights purchased anywhere else...$452.