I'm booking a flight for my friend and I so we can go visit our friend in california. Priceline.com has a name your own price tool which allowed us to each get round trip tickets for like $275 with tax. That sounds pretty good to me. The only catch is that the air line picks when we fly, and we will have at least one layover (they didn't say where). So basically we leave the same day, it could just anywhere from 6am-10pm.

has anyone done this before?

No, I have never done this, for the very reasons you indicate (amongst others.) Not sure what you mean about "leaving the same day". Returning the same day as you leave? From where? California to California? New York to California? You may end up flying all day and not having a visit at all. All sounds risky.

I've bid on an airfare on Priceline once, and I ended up with a 4-hour layover and almost 10 hours of total travel time when I could have flown nonstop in 5 hours. I also had to leave at 6am. Of course, you might also end up with a 45-minute layover somewhere or multiple layovers, which multiply your chances of something going wrong. Priceline passengers are often last in the queue to be rebooked.

So if you don't mind the chance that you might have to leave at an inconvenient time and have a very long travel day to save money, by all means do this. When price is an object, you don't always have a choice. But I've never done this since, and I'd never do it again. If you do this name-your-own-price scheme, though, I'd strongly advise not to check luggage.

I agree with the previous posters but here's some food for thought.

While I understand the desire to find reasonably priced airfares (not everyone can afford to fly business class) to a certain destination I have never been able to comprehend why anyone would subject themselves to longer than necessary flight itineraries, long layovers, and the vagaries of possible missed flights that could result from multiple connecting flights just to save a few dollars when a non-stop or simple connecting flight will get you to your destination is less time and with much less aggregation. Is not "your time and convince" worth something.?

Air travel today is a chore at it's best, why make it more difficult than it has to be?

We're just looking at a lot of other expenses like renting a car, etc while we're down there so we thought that if we could spend less on the flight - we would.

I'm actually hoping for a longer layover, it might be nice to see another place (I've never really been outside of ohio without my parents). But yes, I will be bringing two carry ons, I'm not a big fan of checking my bags.

Oh and by leaving the same day I just meant that we get to leave on the day of our choosing, the airline does't get to pick our day of departure.

In all likelihood, you will not get a long layover, and I think it's highly unlikely any layover will be long enough for you to leave the airport and "see" anything. Instead, you are much more likely to get one or more very short layovers.

"I will be bringing two carry ons" Many airlines do not allow two carry ons. Many allow only one. And some airlines charge for carry ons. You will want to check the luggage policies of whichever airline you end up on.

For car rentals, it all depends on where you're going in CA.

I've used rentawreck before. There have also been many postings about how bad and deceitful Fox rentacar is.

Renting a car off of airport property is also a lot cheaper.

I can see using the "take what they give you" plan if you have plenty of time but little money. If it is a 10-day trip, it won't hurt much to give up a full day for a roundabout itinerary each way. But if you are planning a long weekend, the air travel could eat up fully half of your 4 days.

How much are you going to save buy buying this ticket?