Priceline's "Name Your Own Price"

[cycloneworld]

Has anyone used this before?

I'm looking at it for potential flights to Vegas this weekend (or possibly next weekend).

How does the process work? I see you enter in your maximum price (is that with all of the taxes/fees?). How long does it take to know if they "accept" your price?

And if they do accept it, you have no control over flight times and cannot cancel, correct?

Has anyone used this successfully? Anyone have horror stories?

 

[cloneu]

I have always wondered this too. The only time I tried it I put in $20 for a flight to Hawaii. It did not accept my offer.

 

[isunorth]

Has anyone used this before?

I'm looking at it for potential flights to Vegas this weekend (or possibly next weekend).

How does the process work? I see you enter in your maximum price (is that with all of the taxes/fees?). How long does it take to know if they "accept" your price?

And if they do accept it, you have no control over flight times and cannot cancel, correct?

Has anyone used this successfully? Anyone have horror stories?

You should be notified very shortly after you submit the offer. Correct - you do not have any control over the times and the fee is non-refundable.

I've had great luck with it booking hotels, but have never used it for flights as I'm usually too picky about times.

 

[JHudd]

I use it for hotels quite a bit and have only good things to say about it. We have accounts set up for my wife and I so we can bid a bit lower than normal on one account and then up the bid on another account.

I used to use them for flights but my wife is not comfortable with the unknown flight time aspect, I don't mind for the savings. They do have insurance you can purchase for your trip that allows you to cancel. I only use it when I know I am going on that specific day and do not have anything scheduled until the next day.

 

[2forISU]

You find out right away usually. I did it for a hotel in Orlando next month and got four star fo $50 a night. Start out small and work your way up.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

I tried it one time. I put in a lowball price for airfare and shortly afterward received an email with a counter offer. You have a period of time to decide if you want to accept the counter offer. You don't know what flights or what layovers you will have until you decide to buy. If you are pretty flexible it probably isn't a bad way to save a few bucks.

I bought a flight using Hotwire to visit my parents one time and my return flight left at about 05:30 with 2 layovers. I didn't like the thought of making my folks get up at 3 am to get me to the airport so we went the night before, had dinner and then I stayed in a hotel. So most of the money I saved on the ticket was burnt on the hotel room.

 

[cycloneworld]

I bought a flight using Hotwire to visit my parents one time and my return flight left at about 05:30 with 2 layovers. I didn't like the thought of making my folks get up at 3 am to get me to the airport so we went the night before, had dinner and then I stayed in a hotel. So most of the money I saved on the ticket was burnt on the hotel room.

Reading the fine print, Priceline says you will never have more than 1 layover and it will never be more than 3 hours. They also say you will not get a red-eye flight unless you agree to it.

Thanks for the information everyone. I'm very flexible on flight times so I may try it. For those who have used it, do you have a rule of thumb "bid" percentage to start with...ie. If the hotel/flight is $150, you start with $50?

 

[JHudd]

I usually start at 60% below what they offer on the no-bid prices and work my way up from there.

 

[SuperCy]

Every time I've used it to fly out of Des Moines I've been turned down.
I'm not sure that it's all that it says it is.

 

[isucyfan]

I've used it on hotels a lot. Only good experiences...my best one was getting the Hilton in downtown Chicago a few years ago for $40.

I can't think of the name of the site, but there's one that basically aggregates what bid results in an accepted offer.