Has anyone booked a flight or hotel or car through hotwire yet? Are they legit? I am most interested in booking a car in the near future but may consider them for hotels or flights later. Anyone with first hand experiences?

Thanks in advance.

they are legit. you can usually get a cheaper rate thru priceline though. Ive used hotline to get an idea about prices then used priceline to get a car. Hotwire's bid cost 22 bucks a day, I got it thru priceline for 16.

For a one or two day car rental, Hotwire is sometimes cheaper because Priceline adds a $5.95 processing charge to every winning bid. So that $16 bid on Priceline actually becomes about $22 (plus tax). But if you see a $20 offer on Hotwire, that's all you pay (plus tax).

Plus, you can easily knock $10 more with a voucher from milepoint.com (one-time only, cash in 500 miles from a major FF program).

Worth a try for a hotel room in a pinch!

I did hotwire for the first time last night, butnot for me.

My mother called this evening, having computer probs so unable to get to
priceline, where she was going to try to bid for a trip for my G'parents -
CID (Cedar Rapids IA) to PHF (Newport News Va) leaving 10 days hence (they
decided at the last minute to attend a family party).

I went to Expedia - best it has is $1149 (gasp!) each on UA. UAL.com shows
just over $1000. Travelocity and Orbitz both show $539 each for a Midwest
Express to Moline, then ValuJet via ATL routing (that takes as much as 12
hours, 44 minutes if it's on time!).

Hotwire offered them up at $200 flat each, for a $400 total (What mom had in
mind to bid EACH at PCLN - **** glad she called me first)

Anyway, they're e-ticketed on UA, going as direct as that route can be flown
(chg at ORD and IAD) and with a longish layover on each leg, but hey, look
at this price!!!

Fred

Fred,

For future trips, when the published fares are high, you may want to look into the Senior travel vouchers that about every airline offers. I want to say they run about $550 per 4 one ways, so around $275 one way for flights within the lower 48, and maybe Canada. I'm glad Hotwire worked for you-- I know from a good friend that CID is a hard airport to fly out of-- but the senior coupons can be something of a safety net so you don't have to pay more than $275.

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Separately, what kinds of hotel deals have people gotten from Hotwire/Priceline?? I'm afraid I bid, say, $75 for Chicago, and they say, "We have a Motel 6 reserved for you...."

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 06-12-2001).]

Tried hotwire for my first time recently.

Some potential advantages, sometimes:

Hotwire gives you a quote, held for an hour. Priceline makes you chose the level/quality of location first. So if you're going for one star location, that's pretty much what you get on priceline.

The hotwire bid gave me several options at 33-36 a night in Dallas/Irving. But for 36 I could get a 3 star; one star for 33. So I went for the the 3 star, knowing that a recent post here stated sometimes the hotel special rates end up being cheaper. I didn't know which location, so I took the jump.

Well, the lowest rate at the Los Colimas Garden by Wyndam was 60ish. So I saved 20 per night plus I get free workout privileges at a health club--which I value and cannot get at a one star.

JL2

There's really not much chance of that happening ... just take a look at the various winning bids here:

Separately, what kinds of hotel deals have people gotten from Hotwire/Priceline?? I'm afraid I bid, say, $75 for Chicago, and they say, "We have a Motel 6 reserved for you...."


http://pub4.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding

As an example, it so happens, I was in Chicago last weekend and stayed at the Palmer House Hilton for $105.95 for two nights (that's total price for the room for both nights, with all taxes and fees). Even got Club access with my Gold VIP status at Hilton (No points of course, but at that rate, I can't complain) ...

i used hotwire to purchase tix for three different trips.

colorado springs to orlando for $237 ($495 through NWA)
amarillo to birmingham for $208 (most tix are above $350)
shreveport to amarillo for a measly $141

bear in mind that tix do NOT accrue frequent flier miles, but all in all hotwire is the BEST place to find the cheapest airfare as long as you do not mind having no control over flight times. i'm flexible if it's going to be cheap.

I have bought three airline tickets via hotwire for my buddy and his girlfriend. They wanted the tickets during peak travel season, so we were able to get the best possible price at the time of booking.

However, 2 out of the 3 tickets yielded really crazy hours of travel. Only one of the three yielded the time that we wanted.

The advantage of course is that you don't have to lock into a bid like you do on priceline. You get to see how much you are paying.

Disadvantages:

1. You don't know the airlines or the times that you are flying.
2. You don't earn frequent flier miles
3. The prices quoted for the dates you want may not be the absolute lowest.

Thanks for all the info. It really helps.

Out of curiosity, do you earn FF miles on Priceline?

No. you are not entitled to FF miles on PL purchases - unfortunately!

How about Expedia's price matcher?

While Priceline and Hotwire say that you can't earn miles, Price Matcher says that you MAY not be able to earn miles.
If I book through Price Matcher I would probably end up on UA, as I am looking for cheap fares to a UAX city that is only served by UAX and USair Express. Could I get UA miles through Expedia Price Matcher?