Has anyone ever gotten tickets from these internet sites where you bid a price for the offered flights? Are they Legitimate? Can you have a confirmed flight/itinerary or do you go standby? I saw a few and the prices are really good if they are Legite. I am looking for flights in September from Jacksonville Florida, Miami or Atlanta to Rome, Italy.

We went to Italy in January and got our tickets on skyauction. We had confirmed flights on continental and had no problems at all. Good luck!!!

You got vouchers or coupons, right? I never see actual "tickets" on skyauction.com - - can you tell us more? how long til you had them? can you tell us more about the degree of choice or flexibility that was required to "cash them in" on the flights you wanted? Was this with Continental direct? And then was that an e-ticket? or did you have to wait for a paper ticket?

We used PriceLine for tickets to Paris last November. We had the tickets three days (or less) after our bid was accepted. I was very impressed and happy with their service and will use them again. <BR> <BR>MarkJ

I have used Priceline.com for tickets and last minute hotel reservations. Very satisfied with their services.

Thanks for your help! Guess I will Have to start bidding! If there are more skyauction customers please advise of your dealings.

Bought tickets to London October 99 on SkyAuction. You will get an actual ticket after you have won the bid. You will be contacted by the sky auction reps and asked for billing info. You even get to pick the specific flights you want. I would caution everyone to be aware of what the normal discount rate is for your flight. Check FLIFO.COM they have discount flights to Europe all year. I have seen alot of bidders pay more then the easily available discount. You can also change your mind with SkyAuction unlike priceline.

I'm glad to see this post (which I found by searching all for Skyauction) as I'm trying to buy a RT to San Salvador in May for my sister-in-law and someone on the Latin Am board suggested Skyauction. They do have some good flights there, which is not common as it's hard to find good deals to El Salvador, most consolidators, etc don't have tickets there. A prior bid was won for only about $250 RT, I think, which is very good for El Salvador compared to normal APEX and bargain fares. If anyone with Skyauction experience could answer a couple more questions I have (their FAQs and info online do leave a LOT to be desired), this is what I was wondering (aside from the usual as to whether you really get your tickets, etc.): 1) do they guarantee they will sell the auction item to the highest bidder regardless of the top bid, or can they pull the item if they don't get a minimum amt they want? I wonder because some RT tickets to El Salvador are currently very cheap (they'll probably go up by clsoing date, I know) and I don't think they could afford to sell them if they didn't get at least $200 for them, and that's conservative as APEX fares are around $900 from Midwest; 2) do you have to specify a return date when you make your reservation for departure? The site is ambiguous as I think I've read comments about specifying return dates when you schedule the ticket but I've also seen other info claiming it is opendated and you can return whenever you want within the allowable period; 3) can you pay by check? the site only mentions payable by credit card but I've seen comments on some other BB claiming to protect yourself from buying something you don't want or that's not as promised, you can register that you will pay by check and then just not pay for them if you have problems with them trying to give you something you didn't want (espec by dates). I wonder if they've changed this rule. <BR> Thanks for any further details, this site looks a lot better than Priceline where you are bidding in the dark, not really functioning like a real auction as Skyauction does.

Used SkyAuction for 6-night hotel/airfare to Amsterdam. Got paper tickets for Continental and a memo/voucher for the hotel. Incurred no problems for any of it. Emailed hotel direct to request room change, and received that. Got my first choice of travel dates. Will use S/A again for future travel. Do be aware of going rates - people tend to jack up the bids beyond what would be a deal.

We purchased airfare for 3 from Chicago to London for a July 2000 flight for $325 each through priceline. I couldn't find anything even half that at the time so I was thrilled. (it's $400 ea.after taxes)I have used priceline for hotels and have always been happy. <BR>I wish they had european hotels.

I got R/T tickets Boston/London for $200 on Priceline.com last November on Virgin Atlantic. They were confirmed tickets. I was very impressed with Priceline's service. I would definitely do it again. Good luck! M

Jan, Go to this site: http://pub4.ezboard.com/bpricelinean...iabidding.html It is a discussion board dedicated to tricks and tips for successful usage of Priceline.

Thanks to all for your input. Iwas surprised to see my question had come back up again. I bid on skyauction the other day and had some problems with what skyauction said was computer problems. They did respond to my pleas for help within a day though. I wanted 2 tickets and it showed only 1. When i posted an auto bid, my bid went directly to my maximum which was the auto bid, so of course I then put in another bid and someone elses autobid kep coming in at the same time as mine, making it very confusing. I did not win the bid on that one and was happy because it was over what i was willing to pay. I will try again though. Thanks again

I have used Priceline twice and have been very lucky both times. I did figure out that it helps to go to expedia and look at every flight that meets your criteria, because you may get any flight going. If there is one that you just cannot live with, beware. We used priceline to Paris in November and got $300 tickets, but we had an 8 hour layover in Toronto. I knew that flight was out there, but we figured if we got it, we go into Toronto and have a good time. Sure enough, that is the flight we got, but we had fun in Toronto. We are going to Italy in June and considered Priceline, but I saw a flight that flies into LaGuardia and out of JFK. With the time allowed between flights, getting from one to other was a real push--more stress that I wanted. Fearing that that might well be the flight that accepted out bid, we opted to just buy tickets. I bet it is the least popular flights that accept the bids.