does anyone know of a site that gives points or credits for purchasing from skyAuction.com? i went there from trocamania but they do got give credits when you buy there, only the first time you look there and nothing for the next 30 days. thanks.

Have you actually dealt with skyauction? I had a really bad experience with them. Bid on an auction, won, they billed me, then couldn't produce. Would be interested in other experiences.

I had the opposite - a great experience. They got me a ticket for the dates I wanted (one day difference on the return). Flew r/t to Germany in late December for $315 with taxes, and earned miles.

My last year experience with Skyauction.com was fantastic: saved a lot of money on international trips, traveled on the dates I wanted, flew on the airline of my choice, and got the miles. The only regret was that they did not allow an open jaw itinerary.
This year I give them thumbs down: I don't see any great deals anymore. For the price of the final bids I can easily buy the ticket from the airlines directly, especially if I snoop around their internet sites for specials. Could it be that too many people have discovered the site? Or can it be that SkyAuction people are bidding on the deals too, to keep the prices artificially high?
I'll keep an eye on SkyAuction for a while. May be the good deals will come back!

I had a great experience with them a year ago: I got the exact flights on the exact days I wanted, with no hassle at all, and very friendly service. Earlier this year I won an auction and gave them more than 15 dates in a 6 week period, but they insisted the only open date was in the week I couldn't go at all, so I cancelled. They didn't charge me, but the guy I dealt with was pretty nasty. I ended up buying the ticket directly from the airline for the flights I wanted for only $80 more. I'm in no hurry to bid with them again.

Another luck of the draw case, I guess.

PS Sorry, funtime, I don't know the answer to your question.

[This message has been edited by Kitty Hawk (edited 05-23-2000).]

in response to the other experiences, i had a great experience a few weeks ago getting a deal on a week in kauai. it happened to be exactly what i wanted and when i wanted to go. they were very quick to respond. i recently won a deal for business class to europe and so far the price was way cheaper than i could have gotten anywhere else i looked, but they are slower in confirming. i am hoping that this deal too works out.

I would be interested in hearing about your bad experience, Mercedes.

I've been having fun bidding on a few things...haven't won yet, though. I'm not seeing a lot of super deals, but a lot of things that seem OK for peak season to Europe...but definitely in excess of what I would pay off season.

I guess when it gets to within about 20% of the free market price, then I'd rather pay the extra than take my chances with SkyAuction.

Also, from what I've heard, a lot depends on the airline. I've read some nasty comments from people who bought UA tickets this way, but then fountd out there were only a small handful of available dates.

I guess the bottom line is that if you're gonna buy that way, you absolutely need to be informed ahead of time about what the market prices are.

Along similar lines, I too have noticed that there are fewer deals to be had in the last few months compared to the Fall. As more people discover the site, prices sometimes exceed the cheapest published fares (basing this on fares to Europe). This may work for people who cannot travel on days those fares are valid, but if one is flexible, I have not seen any great fares to Europe of late.

In addition, they will sometimes allow a large number of departing cities. Some of these may have higher fares than one's own, in which case the fare is (I would guess) driven up by folks from these other cities.

Just my 2 cents.

Their custome service was very responsive though. I exchanged 3 emails with "my" rep in the same day, confirming my reservations.

I won a skyauction four days ago, and haven't heard anything from them. I entered my information right away. Should I be concerned?

I would send them an email and check the auction winners' site, to see if they have updated info there.

here's an update on my experiences with skyauction. i have a short notice trip to london from SFO. the on-line bus class fare is around $6,000 and up but thru skyauction i got a bus class r/t from usa to europe for $2,000. they have been slow to respond with flights i want. their first offer was to go to LGW instead of Heathrow and make a stop in MSP. so far, i am very happy with the price, but i am still working on the right flight.

My experiences with skyauction seem to line up with other comments here. Won an auction last year to travel GRR-CDG on CO and received requested dates, good service and a reasonable price ($440). Then early this year I won a GRR-BRU and also a GRR-DUS for less than $320 each. Had nothing but problems with slow/poor service response, no available dates unless I accepted the upsell of anywhere from $80-$140 and then significant problems getting them cancelled because the itineraries were unacceptable to me. I am suspicious that the low winning bid on these automatically made my dates unavailable unless I was willing to throw more money at them. Won't use them again.

Hmmm...my skyauction transaction was painless. I bid on a British Midland one way, got a decent price (though higher than the 16 pound london-dublin fare a friend bought two weeks later), got the date and flights I wanted without hassle.

I even managed a "bump" and now have a 75 Irish Punt voucher to use by next March 1.

Plus--a whole 250 CO miles for the British Midland flight!

Now, I did get my flights about two months prior to my trip...perhaps the advance helped.

[This message has been edited by joanek (edited 05-25-2000).]

Well, I seem to be having a bad experience. They now want $135 more on a $303 ticket to accomodate the dates I want (out of three possible sets). It also took them five days to contact me.

well, it is too bad SkyAuction is providing such bad service. has anyone found a similar but better site for bidding on flights and accomodations?