Priceline
 

My sweeter half suprised me with a trip to Vancouver over New Year's. Tickets were purchased on Priceline, which I've only ever used for hotels via the assistance of biddingfortravel.com. As is the chance with Priceline, the return flight time bites. We leave YVR on Air Canada at around 11:30pm for Montreal - change planes and fly Air Canada to Chicago - change planes and fly UAL to Kansas City arriving around noon the next day.

Just curious, with Priceline I thought they only searched for 0 or 1 connection? I just read the airline section of biddingfortravel.com, but can't find an answer to this question. I did go through the bidding process without actually placing the bid and it clearly says a maximum of 1 connection each way. In addition, on the outbound flight we have a 4 hour 20 minute layover in Chicago. The Priceline site indicates that layovers from the US to Canada will not exceed 4 hours, our flight exceeds the maximum by 20 minutes.

Is it worth calling Priceline regarding the return portion of the trip to see if we can possibly get a more simplistic routing ( i.e. 1 connection ) on the way home? Even the outbound portion does not agree with what they advertise in regards to the layover in ORD.

Thank you for any advice.

If your YVR - YMQ segment and YMQ - CHI segment both have the same AC flight number then it would be a direct flight with one stop, not a connection. The UA flight would be a connection. That is one possible, though unlikely, explanation.

Each flight on the return is a different flight number - AC 134 - AC 515 - AC 5520 (operated by UAL), thus 2 connections.

Thanks for the input.

It can have up to 2 connections, based on what I'm reading on Pricline.com. I don't think you have a case there.

However, yes, it does say maximum connection time to Canada is 4 hours. That you have a valid point to call and ask for a change.

Once in a while, depending on the check in clerk, they would look at the connection, sigh, and then check to see if there was room on another more direct flight. I know they are 'cracking' down these days but my past experence with AC in this regard has been very good. Are you checking baggage? IF not, you may want to go to the airport and try an earlier standby on direct. Keep in mind, that in YVR, US and Canadian domestic departures leave for very different gate areas within the airport.

Hey...thanks to both for the input. Priceline was very difficult to deal with over the phone. However, we called both UAL and AC. Other half has status on UAL and they said we could stand by for an earlier flight in ORD to shorten the layover for no charge - which would be great - by the way, I don't think having status matters on this point. AC said we could go to the airport the day of departure back to MCI - if seats are available we could pay a $40 confirmation fee to get on the flights. Frankly, I expected the airlines to do nothing - so I appreciate their willingness. Regarding Priceline, I expected nothing of them. This is the risk you take when trying to get a good deal on airfare with Priceline - and the reason I only use them for hotels when I'm pretty confident exactly what property and rate I can get via betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com.

Thanks again!

Good luck. When I worked for United, we couldn't do a thing with Priceline tickets. Hope the agent didn't just tell you what you wanted to hear. That happens very often to avoid a hassle with passenger.

My experience with AC is that if you cphone they will quote you rhyme and verse (though $40. is fair) but more often than not when you get to the counter they just take care of you n/c...if you are polite and reasonable. I know that passengers that are rude, miserable, condescending etc get the full force of the rules applied if they try it on at the counter.