$200 Coast to Coast
Written: Jul 28 '01 (Updated Jul 28 '01)
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
The Bottom Line
I will certainly use Priceline again, if the situation calls for cheap tickets, and a short period of time to get them!
|
| Full Review |
Priceline.com is the easiest way I have found for getting cheap airline tickets, in a short period of time. I say this with a few caveats:
1.You need to be flexible. I wanted to fly from San Jose to Newark. I had to fly out ASAP, but I had a day or two flexibility on both ends of my trip. I was willing to be flexible on the California side of the trip, so I put San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland as acceptable airports. It was inconvenient for my relatives to pick me up in New York or Philadelphia, so I was not flexible with the arrival destination, which was Newark. When I tried not being so flexible, I wasn’t getting anywhere. So be prepares to bend a little. I also was willing to fly either Tuesday or Wednesday, and return either Saturday or Sunday. I ended up with Wednesday to Sunday, which worked out nicely for me.
2.You are not going first class. Prepare yourself for the fact that you are going cheap, and you’re going coach. If you want first class, you’ll need to pay for it. Priceline is basically purchasing unused tickets from the airlines as cheaply as possible. An empty seat is completely worthless to the airline, so anything is better than nothing. But they are not willing to give away first class.
3. Orders are not cancelable. This is the biggest downfall, as Priceline has to buy these tickets from the airlines. So please be certain that you can go if you are using this service.
I started off very low, just to experiment. I started at $100, round trip, coast to coast. Priceline tells you that you have x% chance when you make a bid. At $100, I had less than 5% chance of my bid being accepted. But I tried anyway. After 15 minutes I got an answer, which was no. So I jacked the price up at $10 increments, and repeated the process. When I got to $150, they offered me the following:
My Offer Price: $185.00 (per ticket)
Applicable Taxes: $14.00 (per ticket)
Ticket Cost: $199.00 (per ticket)
Processing Fee: $5.95 (per ticket)
Subtotal: $204.95 (per ticket)
Number of Tickets: 1
Total Charges: $204.95
I only had 1 lay-over (in the very comfortable Pittsburgh airport, each way), but I had to fly out of SF, which is 45 minutes away (as opposed to 15 minutes from San Jose). Not bad, certainly worth the cost savings. A full price fare (which nobody really pays) would have been $1700. Amazingly, I was able to get a flight 36 hours later. I flew on US Air.
Overall, I have to say that I was very pleased with the savings I received by using priceline. If you are not internet-savvy, it would be advisable to have someone who is walk you through it the first time. But if you are reading this on epinions, then you are internet-savvy enough! It is not difficult.
So, in conclusion, if you have some flexibility in time (both in days arriving and departing, and the hour which you arrive and depart) as well as which airports you use, this is a great service. If you value convenience over price, it is less useful, but probably still worth a shot.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ejjiii
|
|
Member: Edmund Johnson
Location: San Jose, California
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
I still dream of playing the outfield in beautiful Fenway Park!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.