Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Programs: DL PM/MM, AA ExPlat, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia, National ECE, Hertz PC
Posts: 16,619
On Wednesday of this week I decided I wanted to try and fly from New Orleans to Miami to see my brother race in an offshore powerboat race down there.
Only problem is I couldn't find a fare for less than $500 on a major, and even AirTran wanted something like $400. At this point I decided to give Priceline a try.
Before I decided to use Priceline though, I will admit that I pretty much knew if I did bid low enough I would be flying on Delta, which although I wouldn't get miles or upgrades, I would get CRC access and Medallion preferred seating. I knew chances were I'd end up on Delta because I had read that the primary airlines they use are TWA, America West, and Delta, and I figured there's no way I'd fly TWA from New Orleans to South Florida and America West doesn't even serve that route.
Anyway, I enter my cities. I tell it to use only New Orleans airport and that I'd be willing to fly into MIA, FLL, or PBI in South Florida (I had to tell it I wanted to fly to FLL instead of MIA though to get to choose all three airports) for $165. I took a $5 "bonus" for accepting a free, no obligation calling card and submitted my bid.
About 40 minutes later I got an e-mail telling me I had a ticket, and sure enough it was on Delta from New Orleans to West Palm Beach. I called the Medallion line, and they gave me preferred seating and she said she put my SkyMiles account number on the ticket, so we'll see if that does anything FF mile wise.
The one important lesson I learned here is that if you have multiple airports, I'd try and submit bids for each one individually, which I think you can do (you are allowed to submit multiple bids for different destinations I believe). In other words, I probably should have bid on MSY-MIA only first, then MSY-FLL, and finally MSY-PBI since those are closest to furthest from where I want to be (though I don't mind the extra hour or so drive in South Florida really). The drawback to this strategy would have been I think you can only get the "bonuses" to your bid once probably, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, so far, so good ... I'll let you know how it turns out after the trip ...
Next on my list ... hotel room ... I already tried Priceline again (being adventurous this trip, might as well go all the way!) to get a 3 star room in Miami Downtown for $70/night, and it got turned down ... might try some more with different parameters though ...