Anyone use the priceline name your price tool?

[Ksandra]

Just wondering what your thoughts were on it, and suggestions on bidding amounts.

More importantly, do I have to pay ahead of time and then whatever they give me I am stuck with?

Mom is going to come out for the summer and I am looking at airlines and was thinking of doing this. I don't want crazy hours though for her. I may have to fly out there to come get her (she has a fear of flying and it was my dad that could push her to do it). She offered to pay for my ticket, so I wanna keep it as cheap as possible.

[Melena]

Any of those sites you pay after you accept. I haven't used the name your own price tool so no clue how well it works, but any of the killer deals are most likely going to be red eye or 2-3 stop type flights.

[Roranora]

I'd say use airfarewatchdog.com and quickly load up about 8-12 sites. Pick a convenient itinerary, pay the least amongst a good listing of fare prices.

Each time I've done it, it's found the cheapest stuff on some of the more obscure sites rather than the big ones like travelocity, expedia, or what have you. Say $1200 for DEN-MVD and back as opposed to like $1500-$1600+ on travelocity fares, just as an example.

I know your flights will not be 12 hours. Don't think mom could manage that tube time.

[quannum]

http://www.hipmunk.com/

[Ksandra]

Ya I have done a bunch of the travel sites. oddly enough I guess southwest no longer deals with them. Most websites the cheapest flights are $500+, but don't list SW as an option. Go to the SW website and the flights are $430~. I was just curious since you could name your price, but ya I don't want to put my mom on a red eye or several stops. So I guess we'll just stick to southwest.

[Kohan]

I imagine nobody wants to do business with Southwest because they've gone from being perceived as "an acceptable, 'the customer's always right' kind of airline" to "an archaic carrier keeping their planes together with spitwads and duct tape," which is why I don't use them anymore. I used to all the time. I switch to Jet Blue years ago.

To put it into perspective, Jet Blue has had two incidents over the past fifteen years, while Southwest has had seven. Southwest also tanked in terms of its reliability. Practically all of its customers are faithfuls who don't know any better and who therefore are blind to the problems.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...b8d_story.html

It's probably a costly pain in the ass for a lot of sites to do anything with Southwest, considering. Who would want to bother?

[tyven]

I use it all the time for hotels. Had no idea they also had it for flights. Assuming you get to pick your airport (DC has 3 which is why I say this) and can set a layover and time limit it might be worth a shot. It's a fantastic tool for hotels.

[archibaldcrane]

I booked my bachelor party hotels with priceline, you can narrow it down to like "5 star on the south strip" and get a banging hotel for cheap as fuck.

Haven't used it for flights because fuck having 2 connections and a redeye as the cheapest option.

[gt_killa]

Same here, I've only used name your price for hotels and it does help greatly on the pricing. It's also really good if you know the city you'll be staying at instead of just putting the zipcode in, it'll bring up more hotels that you can bargains with. Most of these hotels WILL accepts your bid if it's not too unreasonable, since empty room = lost of money by the hours. Airfares on priceline isnt too bad either, if you booked in advance. If you book late, be prepared to travel more than 12+ hours and 2-3 stops if you looking for cheap airfares, not to mention the hidden cost of baggage fees. Jet Blue allows 1 i think, whereas United and other airlines charges you $25 for your first checked in baggage.

[Zetanio]

I swear by Kayak.com for most stuff. Timing is more important for me. 5-7 weeks in advance is usually the best time to buy in my experience.