A friend of mine had an interesting experience using Priceline. He wanted a RT ticket from SJC to Detroit for his parents who wanted to spend a couple of months with his brother. Regular advance purchase tickets have a 30 day max limit; as a result his tickets were not pricing at less than $500. His dates and airine choice were very flexible. However he got tickets on United for about $320 on Priceline.

I guess Priceline is going to be useful for travel arrangements which do not fit well into the US airlines' current definition of leisure travel. My friend sure was glad to get the tickets on United at a discount. The only downside is that most Priceline tickets do not contribute your FF account.

On another occasiion, my Brother in Law was able to book JFK-SFO RT for four at $250 each on TWA via Priceline. This too was atleast $75 less than the lowest published fare. The savings really added up when multiplied by 4. He is not a frequent traveller so he did not care much about the miles (this was in the time when miles expired in 2-3 years).