Hi!

Anybody used it and have any idea about which airloine is the "Major International Carrier"? Thanks!

Several months ago, I forgot my claim that I would never use skyauction again, and started looking at european fares listed with NW/KLM as the carrier. Then, the specific carrier disappeared, replaced by the "Major Intl Carrier", although all the serviced airports and zone classifications still remined the same. Sure sounded like NW, but I wanted to be sure, so I e-mailed skyauction. Answer: once you confirm (pay for) an auction, THEN you will be told the carrier.

About a year ago they did this with CO designated flights, then changed to the anonymous carrier but with the same CO hubs and serviced cities as before.

So the bottom line is you can make a pretty good guess on the carrier by looking at the cities/hubs, but no guarantee.

Good luck

[This message has been edited by tartetatin (edited 10-09-2000).]

I think that taretetin is right on the money. Based on the destinations available for tickets to Germany, (the tickets I usually look at), NW seems often like a good guess.

What's rather silly, imho, is that sometimes even for those "major carrier" auctions they make a point of saying that the ticket will earn FF mileage.

I used it once and had no problems whatsoever, though others here have been less fortunate, fwiw.

Many of the European trips are on Air Canada through Toronto and Montreal.

I've used SkyAuction a half-dozen times. It's easy to overbid (like any auction), but bargains can be had (keep in mind the taxes and $10 shipping add-ons). In fact, I'm just back from Paris on a SkyAuction ticket: I got the exact dates I wanted, nonstops out of SFO, all for $490 inclusive.

As for airlines, it depends on the auction. Lots of auctions list UA/LH (turns out it's UA to the LH gateway, but LH across the water) or UA alone (to London or Paris). And twice I've had no trouble backing out of an auction when they couldn't get anything near the dates I wanted (but a little flexibility is a good thing).

Do a search in "General Travel Talk" and you'll see all sorts of contrary views. I suspect my flexibility makes the difference. Also, I decide my maximum price and bid that, week after week (they tend to repeat the same auctions). Usually I get outbid, but if some week I get lucky, then I'm heading out of town!

As I've posted before, you have to watch the "add-ons" (taxes and $10 shipping) - you can get a good deal or a bad one. Case in point: winter (November-March excluding around Christmas) west coast to London on United: a couple of weeks ago somebody got it for $337+108=$445; good but (depending on fare wars) not great. This week somebody bid $451+108=$559; that seems way too high for low season, even with airfares rising.