Bidding on airline tickets worth the hassle?

Michelle - If bidding at priceline or some other web site works out for you, could you drop me a PM and let me know how you made out. My duaghter is graduating from Carolina next May and I want to get her a RT ticket and a 3 mo Eurail pass for her graduation; since I'm doing both, I need to economize as much as possible. THANKS and good luck in your search for a good fare. I'm currently watching Luthansa every other day for a flight over for Xmas this year. It does get frustrating doesn't it?

Elaine - yes, it's frustrating. The prices have gone down a little since I began looking (March), and British Airways actually had some cheapish tix but you must travel in October - and my trip is already
booked for September! I'll let you know what happens
with my ticket if I do decide to bit on it.

A few years ago I was getting some good deals on www.skyauction.com but recently they aren't as good. It probably has to do with the fact that as the airlines have cut capacity there are fewer seats being sold to the consolidtors.

Michelle,

Just fyi, I was looking on priceline for a ticket this summer and noticed the clause that if you missed your flight for any reason the tickets were non-refundable or transferable or usable. I bid several times with no luck before starting to wonder what this meant for connecting flights (I fly out of Atlanta and if I make it out within a half hour of on time I am happy, so missed connections are pretty common for me). I gave priceline a call and expected that they would assure me that if I missed a flight due to a late connection I would still be able to get on another flight and was instead told that this was handled on a "case by case basis" but there were no guarantees. I would imagine that if you were on the same airline for all flights they would probably reschedule you anyhow--and if you were on a direct flight this would obviously be no problem--but there is no guarantee with bidding that this would be the case. It was enough to make me stop bidding. You may want to give them a call and check on this before you continue bidding--and if they tell you something different, please let me know!

Michelle,

Have you tried skyscanner to search for tickets?

I haven't tried Skyscanner, Rachel. But I will today. Been looking for tix, kind of hesitant to bid due to the 'small print'...

I have used Priceline several times for European flights and got them about half the price of any advertised prices I checked from discount online sites and the airlines' own sites. Once we missed a connecting flight. US Airways handled it by putting us on the next flight and the fact that we had boooked it on Priceline did not seem to be any kind of issue. Also, when booking a "nonrefundable" flight on LowestFare (division of Priceline), the airlines involved handled the problem when I had to change flights. The airlines themselves are choosing to offer flights on Priceline as a way to fill their planes. I have never, ever been treated badly for booking flights or hotels on Priceline. I have always received the same level of service no matter how I booked. I usually use frequent flier miles, but on several occasions, when I got tickets to Paris for under $400 each, it didn't make sense to waste the ff miles. If lower cost flights are more important than choice of routes, then Priceline is a great way to go.

I bidded on Priceline, 3 bids got turned down. I ended up buying my tickets from FlyEurope at the 1st price rejected by Priceline.