# bidding on priceline for airfare



## happybaby (May 25, 2010)

trying to get cheap airfare for this coming thursday and I bid on priceline, but did not like the fares yet.   Think they are still too high.   

Apparently I cant rebid using the same info until a certain time has lapsed?  I tried to re bid to see if they will offer lower fares, but it says just changing a price will not accept the bid.   I need to change dates or accept red eye.

can I try later tonight or tomorrow for same dates and airport?


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## Luanne (May 25, 2010)

I think you need to wait 24 hours.


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## RedDogSD (May 25, 2010)

With Hotels, there are lots of tricks for re-bidding.  For Airfare, not so much.  

You can't blame them for making you wait 24 hours.  Otherwise, we would all start at the BOTTOM of the price curve, and just go up $10/bid until they accept it.  This forces you to try to get a better deal, but not go to low.

They have websites showing the prices that people have got for bidding on Hotels.  Maybe they do airfare as well.


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## Luanne (May 25, 2010)

RedDogSD said:


> They have websites showing the prices that people have got for bidding on Hotels.  Maybe they do airfare as well.



It's the same website.  At least the one I use has info on hotels, cars and airfare.  I can't remember if I use better bidding or bidding for travel.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (May 25, 2010)

As you seem to be new at using PL for airfares, you should be aware of some aspects of using PL for airline tickets.

First is that, since they are working with surplus inventory, you should expect that you will get either an early morning departure (most likely the first flight of the day to your final destination) or a very late arrival.  IOW - if you're trying to book the reservation because you're already committed to be at your destination, you have to book using PL to fly in on the day before your commitment - even if your commitment is at the end of the day - because you can't be sure that you will get a morning flight.  Similarly, on your return, you have to be totally clear of commitments on the day that you fly back.

Second is that if you trying to bid on PL because carrier fares seem high, there's a good chance that PL isn't going to save you money.  If carrier fares are high, that's because the airlines are projecting their planes to be full.  Since PL gets surplus inventory, that means that fares on PL are likely to be at least as high as the fares being charged by the carriers. In fact, during such times, fares on PL might actually be higher than fares available through the carriers.

****

So it behooves you to invest some time before you start making bids.  At biddingfortravel.com there is an excellent guide for airline ticket bidding using PL.


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## Luanne (May 25, 2010)

If the flight is for this coming Thursday, I assume that's the 27th.  That doesn't leave much time to find flights.  Purchasing directly from the airline this late is going to cost quite a bit.  Good luck with Priceline, I think you're only going to be able to bid once more before you need to fly.


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## happybaby (May 25, 2010)

thanks for the info!!

No committment, so time isn't that important.  It was just a last minute idea from dd to keep her company while her dh is out of town.  We would like to go , yes, this Thursday or Friday and stay 2 weekends.  

I am aware of the travel between 6am and 10pm, arriving as late as midnight.

I was offered 311pp departing above times and with 1 connection.  PL said this is 28% below regular airfare.

I searched on Kayak and found regular airfare to be 432 and the 28% rate brings it to 311.   The times would be 6pm departure arriving at 1158 pm.

Probably not a bad price since airfare has gone so high this year.   But when I paid 220.00 rd trip the past 3 years, I hate to go 100.00pp higher.

I wish she gave more time to search PL, but just mentioned today that he is going away this w/e.  We had thought it was the end of June.  Signals crossed someplace

Like to stay the extra weekend so s-i-l can make us his yummy fish stew!!!!


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## Darlene (May 25, 2010)

I agree with T_R_Oglodyte. We are going to Lihue in August and airfares are  over $800 from SLC.  I checked all the possible flights to Lihue with 1 connection before I bid. I was not interested in 2 connections. Flights were usually early or late so I decided to use points for a hotel so that we would get there before our t/s week began. I knew that the return flight would be a red-eye no matter what. I decided to try PL.  I bid $600 each. They countered that if I raised my offer to $671, they could get me tickets. I decided to do it. We are flying United, and got 1 connection.  Our flight is at 6 am, but the good news is we will be in Lihue by 11:30 am. That means we will be there to check-in early, and I don't mind napping on the beach until we can check-in  I could have waited longer to see if fares would drop, but decided I would rather have the security.


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## Robert D (May 25, 2010)

I'd also suggest trying Hotwire.com.  On hotels you can usually get a price of about 15-20% less than hotwire if you bid on Priceline but I don't know what the differential is for air line tickets.  However, the Hotwire price will give you a feel for how much PL is likely to be.


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## sun starved Gayle (May 25, 2010)

My daughter got airfare from Priceline and ended up leaving at 10:00 PM the day she wanted to leave and arriving the next day at 9:00 AM going through 4 airports with numerous layovers. They booked her through an extremely complicated route that did not even show up when she put in a search. She learned a hard lesson.  I personally would never book a flight through Priceline.


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## deedman (May 26, 2010)

sun starved Gayle said:


> My daughter got airfare from Priceline and ended up leaving at 10:00 PM the day she wanted to leave and arriving the next day at 9:00 AM going through 4 airports with numerous layovers. They booked her through an extremely complicated route that did not even show up when she put in a search. She learned a hard lesson.  I personally would never book a flight through Priceline.



Ya I would stay away from name your own price for flights for that exact reason.  I stick with kayak.com, it searches all the big sites for you and shows you the lowest price, and when you book its actually through the company that offered it like orbitz, priceline, etc.


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## happybaby (May 26, 2010)

see what happens today.   would like to leave Thursday, but we are free and could leave up until Tuesday the latest which only gives us 1 week there and not the 12 days I was hoping for.   Cant stay longer because of other committments.

When I was bidding on PL, it said departs between 6am and 10pm with arrivals as late as midnight or so.   And said max. connection is 1 with no more then a  3 hr. layover.
That's our normal connections anyways.

As far as hotwire , I dont need a hotel.  I checked for airfare but no good deals.

I dont expect one on the spur of the moment, but was trying to get a discount.


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## AwayWeGo (May 26, 2010)

*I Resemble That Remark.*




T_R_Oglodyte said:


> If carrier fares are high, that's because the airlines are projecting their planes to be full.  Since PL gets surplus inventory, that means that fares on PL are likely to be at least as high as the fares being charged by the carriers. In fact, during such times, fares on PL might actually be higher than fares available through the carriers.


We named our own price for airplane tickets on PriceLine Dot Com & got turned down.  

The screen telling us our bid was too low said we should scroll down & see if we liked any of the airline price offerings shown at the bottom of the screen.  

One of those was for $25 or so _less_ than the amount at which PriceLine turned us down.  

Go figure. 

If PriceLine's software was any good, PriceLine would have sold us the tickets shown lower on the screen at the _Name Your Own Price_ amount we offered & would have pocketed the difference for themselves. 

We took the cheaper tickets lower down on the screen & had an enjoyable trip for less money than naming our own price. 

Who'd a-thunk ? 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## jlwquilter (May 26, 2010)

I also learned a valuable (good) lesson two weeks ago. DH finally got approved for his business trip to Paris, very last minut. DD and I could tag along. We pay our own airfare. Approved Monday, flying out at the end of the week (flexible for us). DD and I rarely fly the same as he does just due to cost issues.

Anyway, I had looked a few days earlier on American, anticipating the trip approval. By the time approval was granted though flights had gone up $1,000... almost $3K for DD and I to fly. DH said "do it" and I said "no way". While we were debating going/not going vs. cost, I was searching various sites. For no good reason I clicked on a discount site that I had looked at at previous times... CheapoAir. Lo and behold they had the SAME American flights for a few dollars below what I had been looking at pre-trip apporval - so $1,000 less than what American had on their own site at that very minute.! I quickly booked our tickets. Got the email confirmation quickly and then I logged onto American to check the reservation... all was perfect.

The only thought I can come up with is that discounters buy blocks of tickets early on from the airlines and then when it gets last minute and they have inventory left they can sometimes offer them for way less than the airline itself. I am sure they are still selling them for above what they paid the airline way back when. And that is OK with me. I have no problem with profit that is "reasonable" - which means I can afford to buy!

So my lesson learned is: check every darn site before buying, especially last minute. The savings can be HUGE. It was literally the factor that allowed us to go to Paris.


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## Robert D (May 26, 2010)

happybaby said:


> As far as hotwire , I dont need a hotel.  I checked for airfare but no good deals.



If there were no good deals on Hotwire, there probably won't be on Priceline either. Usually PL name your own price is not more than 20% less than Hotwire.  But all can change in day or two so worth continuing to check.


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## Lex87 (Jun 4, 2010)

You know I've never actually used Priceline or Hotwire but my boyfriend and I have had a lot of success and good experiences using these guys - cheap vacations.
We did an all inclusive in Cancun with them that was incredibly cheap!

Hope that helps and have fun!!


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