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-   -   Experience with HOTWIRE (https://www.fodors.com/community/air-travel/experience-with-hotwire-475756/)

ed Sep 21st, 2004 07:30 PM

Experience with HOTWIRE
 
Has anyone had experience with Hotwire? Specifically flight times. They state that airline and flight times will not be shown until ticketed,

Airline is not important but time is,

If not a good time could be cancelled??

AAFrequentFlyer Sep 21st, 2004 07:49 PM

This page on the Hotwire site will explain everything:

<b>http://www.hotwire.com/customer-care/airline-tickets-faq/index.jsp</b>


Cornelius15 Oct 19th, 2004 07:15 PM

I hate them
I lost out on frequent flyer miles
by using them (last oct 03)
and the flight ended up costing more
than a NWA ticket.
The fine print on it ONLY SHOWED after
I bought the ticket
unless you dont care about accruing
miles Delete out HOTWIRE they suck

mjz Oct 21st, 2004 12:43 PM

I shopped the airlines for over two months and finally booked two tickets on Hotwire to Cabo. Hotwired saved me $200 per ticket and I accrued mileage as well. The flight times were not ideal, but I expected this going into the transaction.

petlover Oct 22nd, 2004 12:55 PM

I have used them once and actually got a non-stop on AA from LAX to JFK leaving @ 9:00am....it worked out perfect for me.

Cornelius15 Oct 22nd, 2004 06:58 PM


Author: ed
Date: 09/21/2004, 11:30 pm
Message: Has anyone had experience with Hotwire? Specifically flight times. They state that airline and flight times will not be shown until ticketed,

Airline is not important but time is,

If not a good time could be cancelled??



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author: AAFrequentFlyer
Date: 09/21/2004, 11:49 pm
Message: This page on the Hotwire site will explain everything:

http://www.hotwire.com/customer-care...-faq/index.jsp





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author: Cornelius15
Date: 10/19/2004, 11:15 pm
Message: I hate them
I lost out on frequent flyer miles
by using them (last oct 03)
and the flight ended up costing more
than a NWA ticket.
The fine print on it ONLY SHOWED after
I bought the ticket
unless you dont care about accruing
miles Delete out HOTWIRE they suck



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author: mjz
Date: 10/21/2004, 04:43 pm
Message: I shopped the airlines for over two months and finally booked two tickets on Hotwire to Cabo. Hotwired saved me $200 per ticket and I accrued mileage as well. The flight times were not ideal, but I expected this going into the transaction.
HOW THE HELL
Did you use northwest I did
and even tried to contact NWA
directly to get my mileage accural



mjz Oct 23rd, 2004 10:13 AM

NWA does not have to give you jack. If you read the fine print of Hotwire, ff mileage accrual is not guaranteed. The fare I chose when using Hotwire wound up being offered via AA. The fare code offered through Hotwire permitted mileage accrual on AA as it was not a consolidator fare. After booking through Hotwire, I called AA to confirm emergency row exit seats and was informed that I would accrue mileage which was a very pleasant surprise.

Cornelius15 Oct 23rd, 2004 02:27 PM

thanks You explained it well.
So I take it you probably like AA well.
Well then how about expedia or travelocity with
mileage accrual?

rkkwan Oct 23rd, 2004 02:57 PM

Cornelius - It really depends on the type of tickets issued to you, not where you get them. Expedia and Travelocity are simply travel agents. Most fares they sell will accure mileage, some don't. Sometimes they say you won't get miles but the airlines may give them to you. For example, last year I flew Air Canada on a very low fare that's &quot;exclusive to Travelocity&quot; from Providence to Hong Kong. According to most sources, these tickets are like Hotwire/Priceline fares and won't get miles, and I'm prepared for that. But I gave my UA Mileage Plus card to the check-in agent regardless, and I got mileage for all the flights.

And as we all know, there are many levels, layers and sub-categories of fares. Some earn regular miles but only 50% or no &quot;elite qualifying miles&quot;. Some give you both regular miles and EQM, but are non-upgradeable, etc etc...

But back to the original question, if one book a regular fare on Travelocity, Expedia or Hotwire, then those should get you 100% miles (but possibly 50% EQM). However, for these fares, I don't see why someone shouldn't just book it through the airline. Save $5-10 on ticketing fees, and for certain Continental fares, you can earn 100% EQM if booked through continental.com but not elsewhere.

marykc Oct 26th, 2004 05:16 PM

ed, I booked a package deal through hotwire and got a fabulous deal. We just came back from our trip to vegas. We had four nights in the Bellagio, mid-sized renatl car from Hertz and airfare for two from Buffalo to Vegas. The cost was 1500. I purchased the trip in April and we went the weekend of Oct.14th.
The catch is that you do not know your flight times until after you pay. It will not be a redeye flight but our flight departure time was 6:oopm. I was sad about that because to me that is a waste of a whole day. We were not scheduled to arrive in Vegas until 10:00pm. On the web site it states that no changes can be made. Wrong. Thanks to beachboi he explained to me about Deltas stand by policy. On the day of departure you call the airlines within a three hour time frame of a departing flight. I called Delta at 5:00am for a departing 8:00am flight. They had two seats available. We had to pay 25.00 per ticket for the upgrade but it was so worth it. We arrived in Vegas at 12:30. How cool was that? When I checked Deltas website the tickets for the flight we were on were going for 536.00 per ticket. We also upgraded our hotel room You learn all kinds of helpful hints on fodors. good luck. You can e-mail me with any questionz.
mary
[email protected]


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