Is PriceLine Worth Lining up For?
Oct 07 '00
As an airline employee with over 17 years in the industry, I have worked with travel agencies both good and bad, and have seen just about every side of the business. Just about every day I see tickets from Priceline.com. Priceline does serve its purpose in the following situations:
1. You are booking within a day or two of departure and there are only full coach seats available;
2. There is ABSOLUTELY no chance that you are going to have to make ANY kind of change WHATSOEVER for ANY REASON to your reservation;
3. You are not making any kind of connection from your Priceline booked flight to another airline.
4. You are not a senior citizen.
5. You do not care about frequent flyer mileage
If any of the of the above items does NOT apply to you, go elsewhere.
If your travel date is at least two weeks away, you can always go to another travel website (for international travel, see references to Consolidators; for domestic, try www.lowestfare.com or some similar site.
The reference to "no changes" comes from this experience: A friend who was traveling on a Priceline ticket had a death in his family, and he had to return home sooner than expected. He came up to me at the ticket counter and asked me to phone Priceline to see what it would cost to change his ticket. I was on hold 30 minutes waiting for a reservations agent, and when the problem was presented to her, was put on hold another 10 minutes while she checked the policy in this situation. She informed me that I had to fax a copy of the death certificate so the exception could be made. When she was told that the county in which the person passed away did not release death certificates until after burial, she told me there was nothing else she could do. I asked her if the ticket could be used at a later time, and was told NO. The customer had to buy a new ticket, at the bereavement rate, and lost the money he had paid for his return Priceline ticket. The moral of the story here is: If you have anyone in your family who is very ill, do not buy a Priceline ticket.
The reference to "connections" comes from the following experience: I had a family of five, traveling on Priceline tickets, who had used regular purchased tickets to connect to another Caribbean island. The island carrier phoned my counter to let me know that their flight was cancelled, and asking me to revalidate these customers' tickets to the following day. (There were no later flights on our carrier, or any other for that matter, to the States.) I phoned Priceline and was told that the tickets could NOT be revalidated to another day. The family had essentially lost the money the five of them had paid. The island carrier had no liability in this case because their second tickets were only written from San Juan to the other island and back to San Juan. They had no responsibility beyond that, and could not do anything about the Priceline tickets. The outcome was that the family had to overnight at their own expense on the island, and buy five new tickets to return home.
If you are a senior citizen (have completed 62 years of age) it usually is not worth it to buy a Priceline ticket. Using "senior coupons" on just about every airline, if you book two weeks in advance, you can go most places in the Continental US, Canada, and the Caribbean for $298 round trip, and Hawaii for $596, all plus tax. You get frequent flyer mileage as well on Senior Coupons, and usually do not have to pay to change your return reservation. You can also fly standby if you make travel plans less than two weeks in advance of your flight date.
If you value your frequent flyer mileage, you definitely want to avoid Priceline tickets. Even though in some cases Priceline tickets are actually higher in cost than published fares, you do not get any frequent flyer credit at all. Some people aiming for "elite" status on regular carriers are aghast to note that the money they paid for Priceline tickets, and the mileage they flew, is all worthless in the frequent flyer programs.
On the other hand, if you are totally flexible, going to one destination only, not changing your return at all, do not care when you depart or arrive, do not care about mileage -- Priceline just might be for you. But check other sources as well. There is a lot of competition out there, and the ball is in their court!
Good luck, and happy landing!
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Epinions.com ID:
00937
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Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
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