I have just returned from an US-eastcoast trip where almost all hotels were booked with priceline.
We stayed in three Marriott/Renaissance and one Hilton Hotel. On all four stays (some were several nights) I got all Gold membership benefits, which means room upgrade to conciergelevel and lounge access. If there was a fitnesscenter on duty I was able to use it free of charge. The same for my parents who had their own room but no elitelevel.
On arrival I always made the same procedure: I said that I had a reservation on my name and presented my goldcard. When the rp was entering the membershipnumber I asked for the benefits and got them without problems. Two stays were registered for points - the hilton stay gave me no normal points, but counted for EWRDC an brought me the bonuspoints. I had very good experiences as pricelineguest and was never treated as a second class customer, though we paid very low prices. I will use priceline whenever possible on my future trips.

Markus

[This message has been edited by markus (edited 08-31-2001).]

Markus...that's very good to hear and good advice!

If I may I'll take it a bit further and tell you what I always do on Priceline stays:

I call the property directly after my reservation is confirmed and ask to have my account number added to my record.

Sometimes they say, "Sorry, this is a Priceline stay and you don't get points." To which I add, "Yes, I know I won't get points, but I do want all the other benefits that my status entitles me to."

I've never had an instance where they refused to enter the number, and by doing this in advance of arrival, I'm often already upgraded when I arrive (they having blocked an upgraded room for me during their early morning room inventory/block assignments).

I guess probably each company has its own policy toward Priceline tickets.
I had to fly on a Priceline ticket SFO-SEA, and I was given a seat on UA. Since I'm 1P with UA, I decided to stand-by for earlier flights. However, the gate agent refused to acknowledge my status, since it was a *gasp* Priceline ticket. Of course, I was not able to clear the stand-by, and wasted about 4 hours at the airport...

On my way back, I had to, again, stand-by at SEA. This time, the nice gate agent punched in my MP number, and I grabbed one of the two seats available for the earlier flight. (Still, the miles didn't post, as expected.)

Confused by the discrepancy between SFO and SEA, I sent an email to the UA customer service center, asking for clarification. They emailed me back, and told me that my 1P benefit cannot be claimed with a Priceline ticket. Then, they added "However, we are sorry to hear that the gate agent was not flexible enough..." I guess, as everything else, it depends... Oh well, you win some, and you lose some.

It's cool to hear some more good experiences. I, for one, was so unused to staying in hotels or at least being a member of frequent stay that I forgot to attempt to get HHonors points for my Priceline stay at DoubleTree Boston. (Forgot to get points??? That must be sacrilege around here. )

It is all hit or miss, though, and this goes for Hotwire as well as Priceline. The stated terms of both sites is that you get no miles and/or points. And that you can't stand by for other flight. Elite status I don't think it mentions at all. But even those two previous items that it does are flexible by airline. I had TWA give me miles on a Priceline ticket (but refused to let me standby). United is supposed to have a policy that Priceline tix *can* standby (FF status irrelevant), so I dunno what happened there Yongs. Perhaps it was before that was clarified. For that matter, Continental (this may have been a Hotwire booking, can't remember) accommodated my friend when she showed up for an earlier flight by rebooking the entire two-segment trip that day with confirmed seats on both flights (bit more than your usual standby). But only the United is known to be any kind of official policy. The others are all at the whims of the agents. I've never had a hotel treat me any different because it was a Priceline booking, but then again I've not tested for points or elite status.

CrazyOne, thank you for your input.
UA *did* allow me to stand-by at SFO. The problem was that the earlier flights were relatively full, and without the 1P benefit, I was not one of the 5 or 6 lucky people clearing the list.

I got on an earlier flight with a priceline ticket last weekend at ORD. American agent was pleasant and accomodating. Like everything else in this world. No matter what happens "BE NICE" and nice things happen.

There is a great website for people who are interested in using Priceline to bid on travel. Lots of excellent tips on how to bid, how to find "bonus" links, etc. Plus a lot of people post their successful and unsuccessful bid prices, which is very useful intelligence. The site is:

http://pub4.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding

I recently booked a room in Amsterdam through Priceline for $80 a night; if I'd booked through the Marriott web site the price would have been $180. With those kind of bargains, Marquis points and benefits are icing on the cake: Nice, but worth the tradeoff if you don't get them.


[This message has been edited by BBRebozo (edited 08-31-2001).]

My wife actually missed a priceline flight and was sent on the very next one , no hassle and no charge. Thank you CO.
By the way, the above post is correct about a very good source for priceline info. I get amused at the "owner's/moderator's" caustic attitude,but the forums do help.There's also a section in FT that has just opened that might have some ideas.

Thanks folks for your information! I thought the website with the priceline bidding information is well known in this forum, otherwise I would have mentioned it.
I have only experience with priceline hotelstays not with flights, but I can only recommand it. We saved on our trip over $1000 only for the hotelrooms. The whole trip was booked with the internet: flights, hotels, rental car - absolutely no problems anywhere.