A company called Priceline, www.priceline.com, has run fill-page ads in my local paper with the promotion of "bidding" or placing a price for airline tickets to almost anywhere. Anyone used them for tickets and how does it work?

I think that there was a discussion string about this some time ago, Jaws. I haven't used them myself, but if you try going back a month or two you may find something useful.

jaws43, I did not bid for a ticket there because of being obligated to purchase if they got you the fare you wanted. I did hang around that site for a while anyhow because of another great feature. If I recall correctly, they allow you to search for the lowest published fares on all airlines. This was a great advantage for calling the airlines and/or travel agents. I was "in the know" about all of the fares, rules, and other scenarios.

I've heard nothing but not so good things about Priceline.

It turns out that the airlines aren't really bidding on your travel, but the company Priceline is just a travel agent who can sometimes get fares lower than the published fares through special arrangements and such.

Of course the fact that you only have control over the day you will travel and the airports you will use also makes the whole thing less than desirable.

Expedia has a feature where you can view the lowest published fares between two cities. Travelocity and EasySabre have the feature too, but I think that you have to specify the dates on those sites to get the lowest published fare for those dates.

My question is will PriceLine make sure you
get miles credited to your frequent flyer
program? I have NOT used them, but twice
when I used regular travel agents for airline
tickets I had to call the airlines back to
get my miles. Both cases involved UA who said "Oh, your agent never gave us the frequent flyer account number."

Also thinking that consolidators don't credit
frequent flyer miles since these would be special fare tickets. If someone would clarify this... greatly appreciated.

Something like Priceline might work for you
Jaws43 if you need a decently priced ticket.
I would want to make sure I get the miles
(Unless I didn't need them.)

Never used something like Priceline like
I said. Wondering if this is the same
company that Captain Kirk advertises with his
annoying "This is going to be big, really
big!" whiney voice! CATMAN

The PriceLine site specifically says no FF credit.

Well, I guess that's out!!!!Right, El Gato?

ME-OW! The Ol Tom wants his miles! And his
partners in crime do too! CATMAN

Saw in today's PriceLine ad that soon they
will offer "Name your own price" for hotel
rooms in 26 major cities.

Ad says you can find out more at its
website www.priceline.com (CQ?)

I bet some of the upper end hotels are going
to love people callng they want to pay 29
bucks for a suite at the Ritz Carlton!
CATMAN

Well, my priceline experience has not been good. I suggested it to a friend of mine, who had an emergency trip back to NY. She bid a fair price, and it was rejected. Then, she tried a different airport, and once again, no dice(you can only bid one time on one airport for one trip). What happenned was, she ended up going through one of those travel brokers and getting the ticket for much less than her first offer to Priceline.

Yes, it is expedia that offers the lowest published fare search tool. It is not priceline. I have used this seach hundreds of times and it is pretty good. You do not have to give the dates to find out the lowest listed fares and the rules for each fare. This really helps to narrow down your search. The URL is: http://expedia.msn.com/
Go to the Travel Agent section.

Be careful -- you can always do much better than the fares quoted by Expedia for longer haul trans-oceanic flights. As an example, the lowest fare quoted on Expedia is $2999 (CAN) from Calgary to Doha (Middle East) with a maximum 2 month stay. I can get this fare from my local travel agent and still get frequent flier miles for $1600 (CAN) with a maximum 3 month stay -- more flexibility and almost half the price. The lowest fares on Expedia and others are generally ok for domestic but even there sometimes the airlines have their own specials which are worth checking.

I was also skeptical of priceline, but not so anymore.

I just used them to book a hotel in seattle for this weekend. They have a deal currently where they'll send you a voucher for the first night free. Since I'm only staying 2 nights, that works out to 1/2 price.

So what did they get me.

The Westin Seattle for $118 a night.

The best price on that hotel I saw elsewhere
was $129.

With the first night free, is works out to
$59 a night.

I'm happy.

Boomer, while I agree the 1/2 price deal is great I have a hard time being convinced that the normal savings ($11/night in your case) is worth the risk of not knowing what hotel I will end up in. You lucked out in getting the Westin, but I'm certain that it could just as easily have been someplace not anywhere near that quality. I would like to see a service where I know what hotel I'm bidding on. Until then, I think I'll steer clear of Priceline.