The long-awaited site Hotwire.com launched this week in beta format. Hotwire offers roundtrip tickets at up to 40% or more off published tickets. Users input their dates and cities of travel and Hotwire presents a fare offer for the user to purchase. The good news is you know immediately that the fare is available and at what cost. Less convenient is that you don't know the airline or the particular time of the flights selected until you purchase the ticket. Tickets are non-refundable, non-changeable, non-upgradeable, and don't earn airline mileage. Participating airlines at this time are AA, HP, CO, NW, UA, & US.

I tried an IAH-MIA routing that prices at just over $400 on the major websites. Hotwire offered it for $186. Major savings, but the cons are a little too high for me. No upgrades or miles, along with no knowledge of travel times is a big detractor for me.

I tried it on my upcoming CHA-LAX trip, which all four airlines serving Lovell Field show at $338 on Travelocity. Even giving it more flexibility than would be needed to reproduce that fare (two connections, and also willing to fly into Burbank), it couldn't find anything at any price. A search of a tentative ATL-LAS in December also revealed nothing under those same conditions, while expanding to 3 connections with props OK got me a quote of 259, only a slight improvement on Travelocity. (Gotta be the props--no sane airline would demand three connections from Hartsfield to anywhere domestic.... but then, I'm not real sure the assumption of sane airlines is valid.)

I see this the same way as I do Priceline--for airfares, you give up too much control. But I will consider them for hotels if the conditions parallel PL's (you specify a zone and a minimum quality).

[This message has been edited by silverpie (edited 08-24-2000).]

I have tested Hotwire extensively over the past few days. I'm not at all impressed. I used as my test routes winning Priceline bids that have been posted over the past week or so to the Priceline bidding board that I host. In 100% of the cases, Priceline won out.

jAAck, I'm not sure that your IAH-MIA example is a worthwhile one. Airtran serves HOU-MIA. What is their fare for the travel dates you searched? $400+ is certainly not an indicative fare for that route on an advance purchase basis. Were you using Labor Day weekend by chance? And how did the $186 fare compare to what may have been available at http://www.lowestfare.com and http://www.cheaptickets.com, both sites where you can see your entire itinerary before you commit?

I tried it twice also for two upcoming trips and I was able to get lower prices myself at Travelocity and USAir's website. I don't think I even bookmarked it.

Because my travel is generally for work, and when it's for fun AA still manages to serve me well, I'm not a frequent user of any of the low-fare websites. I want to know what airline and what flights I'm buying and I want the ability to earn miles and get upgrades.

On the example I gave in my earlier post, I used AmexTravel (formerly ITN), and Travelocity to get fare quotes IAH-MIA. I know I didn't see any fares offered for AirTran, so I can't say what they might offer. The fares that did come up in my search, with CO, AA, and UA, were all over $400. That wasn't Labor Day weekend, either, but the following weekend.

So I can't say whether Hotwire will be a good site or not, but it did seem to offer a good alternative to what I found on the sites I looked at. I imagine, like all the other lowfare sites, it will take a while to get significant inventory in the system.

Hotwire couldn't show me international fares yet--site says soon--, so I couldn't compare
YYZ to anywhere yet. Will wait and see.

bj-21.

I ran two quick tests on ORD-SFO. One for 10/13 to 10/16, one for 8/30 to 9/1. I couldn't put in tommorrow as a departure date. Both were all-jet, no red-eyes, 0-1 connections.

I got a price of $219 for the 10/13 trip, and $239(!) for the 8/30 trip. Best prices through traditional means for 0/1-stop were $321 and $673 respectively.

I would not use hotwire (or priceline for that matter) for leisure airfare - I have to give up too much control of the situation and too many perks to justify saving $100. But I do see a niche for short-notice travel where hotwire would be a useful place to check along with priceline.

If nothing else, competition in the discount space is good for everybody.

oops... 8/30 IS tommorrow - I had tried to put in 8/29! So, you can do very last-minute trips, which is a good niche for the service.

I just did a search for PHL-LAX, depart Thurs Sep 14, return Mon Sept 18. Selected max values (3+ connections, prop), came back with fare of $215. Best I'm finding anywhere else is $298 on TWA (from cheaptickets.com). It says that price includes all taxes and fees (which means it's equivelent to a $175-$180 bid on Priceline).
I'd say it's pretty good.

Jeff

In fact, hotwire is showing some good deals to/from Los Angeles, but in my experience of testing a couple dozen routings, that's the exception. I think you'll find your PHL-LAX example is not indicative of what you can expect from hotwire if you test a number of different routings.

And by the way, Lowestfare's fare on your itin is much less than Cheaptickets, especially after you add Cheaptickets $11.95 processing fee.

Hotwire beat the lowest price I could find for Thanksgiving time on TWA. The site seems too "Priceline-ish":

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" Lambert International, St. Louis --- the Bermuda Triangle of the Midwest."

Max M, from reading your post, it suggests to me that you bought a ticket through Hotwire and got a TWA routing, but I know that isn't the case since Hotwire doesn't use TWA. So could you please clarify the point you were trying to make? Who says TWA offers the lowest fare on your route/dates? Have you checked every airline website that flies the route as well as Lowestfare and Cheaptickets?

As to Hotwire being too Pricelineish, well, that's exactly what they are, a direct competitor. Had you assumed otherwise?

I just tried a flight from Orlando to Atlanta for October 10 returning October 20 and the site threw an error stating I couldn't return the same day! Work that one out!

I think it's still in Alpha testing never mind Beta.

Well, what do you know?! I tried again just now for the same route (MCO-ATL) and dates and this time it's realised the the 10th Oct and 20th Oct are not the same day.

And it gave me a cheaper fare than Expedia. A whole $4 cheaper! Is a $4 saving worth losing 1,000 SkyMiles? I think not!!

I generally loathe to give up any miles or other ff credit. There are plenty of business situations where I would - particularly in last minute high dollar situations.. but ONLY if I could pick specific options.. sooner or later these guys will let us see the available flights where the deep discounts are and pick a specific one. Until then, it's useless to me. Risking getting in at midnight on a day when I had a 2pm meeting isn't workable for me.