Of the dozens of tests I've made, Hotwire has beaten Priceline a total of 1 time. Also worthwhile to note that I just priced OAK-LAX 11/3-4 at Hotwire. Got $137. Winning bid posted to my Priceline board for that itinerary today for a total out of pocket of $33.95. It was bid through the $50 bonus money URL, so even if you add $50, Priceline is significantly cheaper than Hotwire. Travelocity has availability throughout those days on all airlines that fly the route at $125!! So in some instances, Hotwire is charging MORE than published fares.

With Priceline's free (no signup required) $50 bonus money that is available through 11/24, you can be certain that Priceline will beat Hotwire 100% of the time.

But they're great to use for the purpose of knowing a cheaper than price you can get at Priceline

[This message has been edited by Sheryl (edited 10-27-2000).]

Whether or not Priceline will ALWAYS beat Hotwire is pure speculation. Besides, the advantage of Hotwire is that it is an upfront pricing service; no guessing as to whether or not you're bidding too much.

On the issue of weekend trips, I bought a Hotwire ticket from ATl-DCA for $140 r/t, with an early Fri. afternoon departure and a Sun. afternoon return on CO. Very respectable.

The lowest published fare for travel on those days: $279.00!!! So I saved MORE than 40%.

I think JS nailed it. The site is probably best suited for the last minute, family emergency / holiday / wedding type of flyer. I'm would recommend it to my friends that fly so little (one or twice every other year) that they don't even bother with miles.



[This message has been edited by CART_Flagman (edited 10-27-2000).]

Hi all!

I checked Hotwire for ORD-NYC prices and found $155, $165, and $170, to LGA, EWR, and JFK respectively. Those seem like good prices, and I'm assuming that's on UAL, CO, and AA (who I think fly most often to those destinations.) What I'm wondering is whether or not I'd be able to fly standby on a Hotwire ticket -- if they track them to prevent awarding mileage credit, I'm afraid they may prevent standby travel also. Any thoughts?

YeZZaph

There are plenty of other situations where you supposedly cannot fly standby. Since agents don't always intently study your reservation, often you can fly standby when you officially cannot. Hotwire is probably the same here -- standby if you want, but don't get your hopes up too much.

On the other hand, Hotwire (and Priceline) are the closest thing to standby tickets you can buy other than actual standby tickets (didn't work when airlines tried it in the past). So trying to fly standby on these kinds of tickets almost makes sense.

The Washington Post did a good piece comparing online booking sites, including Hotwire:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2000Nov3.html

I am not sure how i got so lucky....

Airline: Northwest
Ticket type: E-Ticket

Departure
Northwest Flight 3668
Departing: Cincinnati (CVG) Wed, Nov 15, 2000/7:24am
Arriving: Memphis (MEM) Wed, Nov 15, 2000/8:05am
Operated by Mesaba Aviation

Connecting
Northwest Flight 803
Departing: Memphis (MEM) Wed, Nov 15, 2000/9:25am
Arriving: Denver (DEN) Wed, Nov 15, 2000/10:54am

Return
Northwest Flight 568
Departing: Denver (DEN) Thur, Nov 23, 2000/2:25pm
Arriving: Minneapolis (MSP) Thur, Nov 23, 2000/5:18pm

Connecting
Northwest Flight 3530
Departing: Minneapolis (MSP) Thur, Nov 23, 2000/7:05pm
Arriving: Cincinnati (CVG) Thur, Nov 23, 2000/9:56pm
Operated by Mesaba Aviation

Price: 1 adult(s) at $208.00 per ticket
Total: $208

I checked NWA directly for the same flight and it was almost $1600.

One wonders if corporate travel offices will start booking people on "no ff miles no certainty" trips.

I think Business Corp Office will love these low prices... however, can they afford to "Don't Know" when their employee will get there for meeting??? Personally, I think it is a good alternative for personal travel, def. one of those last min things you can do on a 4 days weekend. =) My husband just flew to Chicago, and his fare is above $1000, and I checked hotwire, and there's fare for $256 (however, not knowing the time can't do for him... =(

It seems like this will be a good way to avoid those full fares... I just did a random LAX-JFK weekday return trip and it return with a price of "just" $480.