[EXPIRED] LastMinuteTravel.com Offers 15,000 Hotels for $1 Per Night
Feb 3, 2009, 1:52 pm
#1501
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: PDX/AUS
Programs: AA-UA-AS IHG-SPG-Carlson
Posts: 4,562
I think it will take a bit longer to know if this new system feels "Fair".
At least there are not almost 2000 people in a group waiting for the go signal,
nor is it a race to see who can refresh the most.
(edit: the "silent chat group" is down to 200+ now....)
Anyway, you are very close, sounds like your chances are good.
That was just your first try, took me 4 times over 4 days
before I got everything perfect on top of being lucky.
It took 12-24 hours of patience for each time I got into the game.
If you are not SURE you were logged in, I think you were likely to get in trouble.
I learned the hard way to always keep an eye on that first,
even in the excitement of finally getting into the game.
At least there are not almost 2000 people in a group waiting for the go signal,
nor is it a race to see who can refresh the most.
(edit: the "silent chat group" is down to 200+ now....)
Anyway, you are very close, sounds like your chances are good.
That was just your first try, took me 4 times over 4 days
before I got everything perfect on top of being lucky.
It took 12-24 hours of patience for each time I got into the game.
If you are not SURE you were logged in, I think you were likely to get in trouble.
I learned the hard way to always keep an eye on that first,
even in the excitement of finally getting into the game.
Last edited by MrHalliday; Feb 3, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Feb 3, 2009, 1:58 pm
#1502
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 175
I just got in as well, and the screw jobs just keep coming.
I clicked on a random hotel, and then it takes you to a page that says the promotion has begun (it looks like the redirect "promotion is over" page). You then have to go back out to the homepage and do a search (where there is no timer). After doing my search, it pulled up a lot of hotels in NYC (plenty of 4-stars) and the clock was at almost 5:00. Thought I was golden.
I select the hotel and the first video begins. It ends and takes me to a page where I have to enter a little bit of preliminary contact information. There was a little under four minutes. Takes me to a second video. That ends with about 2:30 left. I then enter all my contact info, credit card info, and hit submit with 1:30 left. Upon hitting submit, and with 1:30 on the clock, it takes me to the "sorry...promotion over" redirect page.
This company absolutely sucks.
I clicked on a random hotel, and then it takes you to a page that says the promotion has begun (it looks like the redirect "promotion is over" page). You then have to go back out to the homepage and do a search (where there is no timer). After doing my search, it pulled up a lot of hotels in NYC (plenty of 4-stars) and the clock was at almost 5:00. Thought I was golden.
I select the hotel and the first video begins. It ends and takes me to a page where I have to enter a little bit of preliminary contact information. There was a little under four minutes. Takes me to a second video. That ends with about 2:30 left. I then enter all my contact info, credit card info, and hit submit with 1:30 left. Upon hitting submit, and with 1:30 on the clock, it takes me to the "sorry...promotion over" redirect page.
This company absolutely sucks.
Man, that is just crap. I'm sure they get delight out of totally screwing people and when they just end things with that much time on the clock they are screwing you.
I'm glad you didn't burst a blood vessel...I might have.
Feb 3, 2009, 2:12 pm
#1503
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Florida
Programs: UA 1P, SPG
Posts: 521
This should have nothing to do with the promotion. When most people book hotels, they search for hotels, find one, then enter all their information. Besides, the site kicks you off from being logged on every X amount of minutes. They might as well put it in their T & C's that you have to be logged in to their site prior to the promotion to successfully book a hotel during the promotion.
Feb 3, 2009, 2:53 pm
#1505
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Chicago
Programs: UA
Posts: 10
Woo Hoo!!!
Finally saw the video for the first time and was able to book 4 nights in Hong Kong at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford hotel! 
I was logged in to my account with LMT and just kept clicking back and forth between the hotels and home tabs on the site throughout the day. At one point I noticed that the various deals on the side had changed to $1.00. After I clicked on the search now button the video started and I noticed the timer at 4:45. I had a word document open where I had entered my CC number, billing address, e-mail, etc. so all I did was copy and paste my info. I finished the booking and got a record locator with 5 seconds to spare. I did notice that it seemed that the timer counted down a lot faster than I thought it should have during the videos. Hope this helps you guys when that timer starts.
I was logged in to my account with LMT and just kept clicking back and forth between the hotels and home tabs on the site throughout the day. At one point I noticed that the various deals on the side had changed to $1.00. After I clicked on the search now button the video started and I noticed the timer at 4:45. I had a word document open where I had entered my CC number, billing address, e-mail, etc. so all I did was copy and paste my info. I finished the booking and got a record locator with 5 seconds to spare. I did notice that it seemed that the timer counted down a lot faster than I thought it should have during the videos. Hope this helps you guys when that timer starts.
Feb 3, 2009, 2:53 pm
#1506
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Posts: 4,914
one just ended at 2:51p MST
i clicked on my hotel for Tokyo, Japan, and the site gave me a 20 second clip. showed me 3 hotels for $1/night. 32 seconds lefts on the clock. Went to book it, then it disappeared. Guess i wasn't fast enought
Feb 3, 2009, 3:05 pm
#1508
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: U.S. (sometimes)
Programs: UA 1k 1MM, AA Exec Plat, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, IHG Plat, Accor ?????
Posts: 1,398
Finally saw the video for the first time and was able to book 4 nights in Hong Kong at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford hotel! I was logged in to my account with LMT and just kept clicking back and forth between the hotels and home tabs on the site throughout the day. At one point I noticed that the various deals on the side had changed to $1.00. After I clicked on the search now button the video started and I noticed the timer at 4:45. I had a word document open where I had entered my CC number, billing address, e-mail, etc. so all I did was copy and paste my info. I finished the booking and got a record locator with 5 seconds to spare. I did notice that it seemed that the timer counted down a lot faster than I thought it should have during the videos. Hope this helps you guys when that timer starts.
I was logged in to my account with LMT and just kept clicking back and forth between the hotels and home tabs on the site throughout the day. At one point I noticed that the various deals on the side had changed to $1.00. After I clicked on the search now button the video started and I noticed the timer at 4:45. I had a word document open where I had entered my CC number, billing address, e-mail, etc. so all I did was copy and paste my info. I finished the booking and got a record locator with 5 seconds to spare. I did notice that it seemed that the timer counted down a lot faster than I thought it should have during the videos. Hope this helps you guys when that timer starts.By the way, this is evidence for my theory that you get better rooms with shorter stays. That hotel did not come up for $1 when I searched for a 7-day stay.
Here's a more explicit theory - the total value of the booking is now (since about day 3) maxed out at about $1100. If any room category exceeds that threshold, the hotel won't show up (even if other room categories are below the threshold). For a 7-night stay, for example, I only see options below $160/night. Vince's 4-night stay totals only about $1080, I think, just under the threshold.
Anyone have any data points to disconfirm my theory?
Feb 3, 2009, 3:15 pm
#1509
Join Date: Jun 2002
Programs: Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Celebrity Cruises Elite Plus
Posts: 1,259
Congrats to those precious few who were successfull today.
For anyone who might still be interested in the promo, yesterday I made a $17 purchase (Sands Hotel in Reno, NV) at LMT for the express purpose of getting my name, address, credit card info stored into my account. After the purchase, I tried a few dummy purchases to see how the process works and having all your info stored should definitely speed up the booking process. As to the $17 room, I may actually be in Reno on the date I booked it, and if so, will check into the hotel. If the trip gets cancelled, I was willing to "invest" seventeen bucks in the hopes that having my info stored would result in success from a time-savings standpoint should I be so lucky to get into one of the $1 booking windows.
I've only been on the site a couple times today, certainly NOTHING like I was yesterday now that the "play" has been altered so much from the way it worked last week.
Good luck to anyone still interested in giving this a shot!
For anyone who might still be interested in the promo, yesterday I made a $17 purchase (Sands Hotel in Reno, NV) at LMT for the express purpose of getting my name, address, credit card info stored into my account. After the purchase, I tried a few dummy purchases to see how the process works and having all your info stored should definitely speed up the booking process. As to the $17 room, I may actually be in Reno on the date I booked it, and if so, will check into the hotel. If the trip gets cancelled, I was willing to "invest" seventeen bucks in the hopes that having my info stored would result in success from a time-savings standpoint should I be so lucky to get into one of the $1 booking windows.
I've only been on the site a couple times today, certainly NOTHING like I was yesterday now that the "play" has been altered so much from the way it worked last week.
Good luck to anyone still interested in giving this a shot!
Feb 3, 2009, 3:39 pm
#1510
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 8
I wasn't yet successful but I got this funny error-message:
Who is violating the T&C???
Seems that macros only work for about an hour... :-D
Dear Sir or Madam:
You have been redirected to this page because your use of our Site, LastMinuteTravel.com, was in violation of the Site’s General User Terms and Conditions as well as the Terms and Conditions relating to our World for a $1 Campaign.
The World for a $1 Campaign was designed to give an equal opportunity to all individuals to make a booking during the Campaign, and therefore, the success of the Campaign requires that we forbid the use of automated devices and/or software.
You may attempt to make a booking the “old-fashioned” way – by watching our videos that contain hints, logging onto the site, and checking the clock.
Please type below words an click “Continue”
You have been redirected to this page because your use of our Site, LastMinuteTravel.com, was in violation of the Site’s General User Terms and Conditions as well as the Terms and Conditions relating to our World for a $1 Campaign.
The World for a $1 Campaign was designed to give an equal opportunity to all individuals to make a booking during the Campaign, and therefore, the success of the Campaign requires that we forbid the use of automated devices and/or software.
You may attempt to make a booking the “old-fashioned” way – by watching our videos that contain hints, logging onto the site, and checking the clock.
Please type below words an click “Continue”
Seems that macros only work for about an hour... :-D
Feb 3, 2009, 3:44 pm
#1511
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: U.S. (sometimes)
Programs: UA 1k 1MM, AA Exec Plat, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, IHG Plat, Accor ?????
Posts: 1,398
Are they blocking anyone they think is using "robotic" tools (if so, cleaning out cookies and changing IP addresses would help)? Or is there a special page you need to click? Or maybe the time window isn't the same for everyone, but rather depends on your area code/time zone/IP address? Or maybe they are capping the number of people they let in during these windows.
Feb 3, 2009, 3:46 pm
#1512
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 1
Error seems to be based on rate of refresh.
Actually it is based on rate of refreshing/clicking in my experience. When manually cycling rapidly between the home and hotel tabs doing similar searches, I'd get that about every 5 minutes or so. Guessing it is just looking for quick inputs and tagging those as robotic codes that require confirmation.
Feb 3, 2009, 4:11 pm
#1513
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 107
and the only time i got in today w/1.30 left on the clock did have that goofy (sorry the world for $1 promo is off) logo/message there.
SO, what is up? is there more time left, or what? i called LMT and they are clueless.
thanks
Feb 3, 2009, 7:13 pm
#1514
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Uncertain
Programs: Korean Air, Lufthansa M&M, SPG ,United Mileage Plus
Posts: 908
This is interesting. I booked a normal booking through them for the Mövenpick Hotel- Stuttgart Messe for 1 night.... because it was cheaper...... and i dont want to make another booking through this promo, to risk my other room that i won already... but anyways.. after booking my hotel room....Mövenpick Hotel- Stuttgart Messe...... There was the statement on my Bank account for the booking, but something peculiar showed up in there.. see below part of what showed up on my statement...
CHECK CRD PURCHASE 01/31 TOURICO HOLIDAYS PETAH TIKVA IP .....
The bolded part is what got me... on further research on wikipedia for Petah Tikva... i came up with this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petah_Tikva
Petah Tikva is a city in Israel. Whats up with this?
CHECK CRD PURCHASE 01/31 TOURICO HOLIDAYS PETAH TIKVA IP .....
The bolded part is what got me... on further research on wikipedia for Petah Tikva... i came up with this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petah_Tikva
Petah Tikva is a city in Israel. Whats up with this?
Feb 3, 2009, 7:19 pm
#1515
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Panama City Beach, FL (ECP)
Programs: Delta PM, Alaska MVP, Hilton GoldMarriott Titanium
Posts: 780
There was some talk over on slick deals about how they were told that the bank that processed the transactions is in Israel. I recall that a LastMinuteBookings.com CSR had told someone this as their card kept getting denied (eventhough said user's bank said nothing came their way on that card).
However, it seems quite strange that a company who has its offices not very far from me in an Orlando suburb to outsource credit card processing to Israel...
However, it seems quite strange that a company who has its offices not very far from me in an Orlando suburb to outsource credit card processing to Israel...