I used Hotwire for a Christmas holiday trip from AUS to DEN. This is a high fare market (best I could find was $350 on connecting flights, and about $450 on the UA nonstops). Also, the latest sale didn't help, because it was only good til Dec 14 and travel wad Dec 24 to Jan 2.

Paid $208 on Hotwire, including all taxes and fees, and got a routing on AA through DFW with normal connection times. Since the lowest fares in the market were connections, and this was $150 cheaper, it was a great deal.

But looking at other markets, Hotwire doesn't seem to offer very good deals.

I'd like to offer comments regarding both MarkB and das's posts.

MarkB, I don't think you are being fair. Neither Hotwire nor Priceline were meant to offer a better alternative on a very low fare compete route on an advanced purchase basis. Considering that DL and Airtran serve that route non-stop, neither of which airline is used by Hotwire, you were attempting to do the impossible. If you want to test Hotwire, pick a reasonable itinerary.

das, I feel confident that Priceline could have beat Hotwire's $208 fare on your itinerary (yes, I realize your dates). You had the perfect opportunity to see so for yourself. After all, the restrictiveness of Priceline is exactly the same as that of Hotwire.

Recently, there was a winning bid on AUS-DEN posted on the board that I host to discuss bidding. At the time, Hotwire's price was $177. Their total out of pocket per ticket on Priceline was $147, and they got UA non-stops.
http://pub4.ezboard.com/fpricelinean...picID=44.topic

Early this morning, I helped someone in a bereavement situation obtain 3 tickets SAN-DTW 10/2-10/6. Hotwire's price was $262 (even I was surprised at how low this was) when selecting only full jet service, max 1 connection and no redeye. They got their tickets through Priceline for $235 total per ticket. UA flights connecting at DEN on the outbound and a stop (no plane change) at ORD on the return. No very early departure or very late night arrival. Incredibly, the bereavement fare was $700+. They paid less for 3 tickets total than it would have cost for 1 ticket.

"...the bereavement fare was $700+." http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

FWIW, IMHO, this is in itself a cause of bereavement! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Very sad! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif