Hi there

Has anyone used www.skyauction.com
to bid for air tickets or hotels?
My question is if you win, are the air tickets eligible for frequent flyer miles?

tks..

In my three experiences with them the tickets were eligible for frequent flyer miles. If you want to know for sure before you bid, I believe that you can email them about specific auctions and they will tell you in advance whether the tickets will be eligible or not.

Just be careful most items are overbid!

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Viele Gr��e

Oliver

I find the site menacing as it's pages load sooo veerrry slooowww. And I'm using either a a T-1 or DSL connection.

Beware of the fine print add-ons and taxes. Not always a great deal.

As always YMMV

I used Skyauction for a hotel in Rio.
It was a good deal for me and it was about 50% off the regular price.

Overall not bad and I use Priceline all over the world so this deal stood up for me.
Regards,
Robert

tks for the responses.
Now, that someone's mentioned it, are priceline.com tickets points eligible too?

In general priceline tickets are NOT points eligible. Also priceline hotels are NOT points eligible.

People have sometimes been able to use priceline stays to get stay credit (for frequent guest programs). The trick is give them your number and to charge something, anything while staying. even then, it's uncertain.

as far as skyauction, you do have to check. sometimes there is credit, sometimes not.

Do a search over on travel buzz for skyauction. There's quite a bit regarding this and other on-line travel auction web sites.

I had forgotten about this website because I used them a couple of years ago, won an auction that was a great deal, and then when I tried to book the flight, they came back with "Not available on that date" or something similar. Seems that if you win an auction at a certain price, if they're able to book it at that price you get it, if not it's said to be "unavailable" on your selected dates. I was not impressed.



[This message has been edited by whiteknuckles (edited Dec 22, 2003).]

I used it a couple years ago, and it seemed to work well if you're trying to travel to an expensive/remote location and don't care about what airline you take and what routing you take. You got to choose the dates and cities, and you earned miles on the flights. But chances are, you won't be taking the most convenient route.

I booked a trip from DTW to WAW (Warsaw) that was on UA and LH. But instead of DTW-FRA nonstop, we were on UA DTW-ORD-FRA. Flight from DTW to ORD was supposed to take off around 7 p.m. but was delayed multiple times due to heavy rain in Chicago. Finally, around midnight, the gate agent, flanked by county sheriff's deputies, announced to the already-irate crowd that the flight had been cancelled and that we should show up around 10 a.m. the next day to try again (and that anyone threatening the UA staff would be arrested). Not a great start to a long trip.

Not due to skyauction, per se, just a risk associated with each additional connection on a trip.

Before you bid, you can email them. The CSA will tell you if the airline will give you frequent flyer miles. Mine did.
Has anyone walked away after winning a bid? I won a bid for a Puerto Vallarta Hotel only to find that my there were no seats available using ff miles for the entire month of February.

Good advice and welcome to FT BertG that is what you have to do with Skyauction.

any007 there is a FT forum that deals with Online Booking and Bidding under the FT Travel section. All your questions re: Priceline and Skyauction have been answered more than a few times.

I used to use skyauction all the time when FF miles would accrue for UA, LH, TG and SA airlines. But sadly not one auction for the past year or so has allowed accrual of FF miles. Some of the winning bids I had were biz class tickets on Thai for under a grand from the US to Japan. There were some terrific bids on US to Europe travel as well.

We also won some bids for places in the Turks, Bahamas, and St. Kits. Most were all inclusive which I hate, but for the price we could not pass it up.

As an FT'er posted above, Almost all the bids are way overpriced above what the going market rate is. A must if using any bidding site is to find out what is the going market rate online before bidding.

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Visit FlyerTalk Dining http://flyertalk.com/diningfr.shtml

Skyauction treated me very well. A couple years ago I won an auction for 7 nights at a tropical hotel. The bidding information clearly stated there would be no refunds to the winning bidder. I won the auction, paid by credit card and eagerly waited to go. The day before our trip my mother-in-law died. I called skyauction, and was able to cancel and get a refund less $50 charge. I feel confident using them in the future.

And if you have a winning bid that is way under market rate, the dates you request for your trip seem to be "unavailable on that date". It's a little like Priceline, except if your bid is too low there, they'll just let you know up front it's been rejected. Skyauction has you believe you actually won an auction for a RT ticket such as LAX to LHR for $195. But try booking it and see what happens! I removed them from my Favorites list long ago.

[This message has been edited by whiteknuckles (edited Dec 24, 2003).]

IMO one of the best deals on Skyauction is J-class from the US to MNL/CEB on NW. In the old days, these tix went for around $800 all-in; today they're closer to $1200, still a great deal.