With most of my frequent flyer miles used up, besides the Euro being so high, I'm trying to figure out how to manage a trip to France in May. Can anyone give me any advice about using Priceline (not for hotels, as I'm too scared to do that).

Normally, I wouldn't use Priceline for tickets in the US, as I don't want to fly at night here, but that problem isn't an issue to Europe. I was wondering if they ever book you direct (there are quite a few direct flights from my city - Miami), or if you have to make all kinds of inconvenient changes. Any information or experiences doing this would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. If I seem rude and don't answer replies, it's because I'm having MUCH trouble replying to posts on Fodor's (using AOL) these days!

Post on BiddingForTravel for the best advice, but I think they would tell you that it's too early to bid now for a trip in May. You have to specify at least one connection, but if you get a counteroffer, you can often tell by the taxes charged whether or not it is a nonstop flight. If your bid is accepted straightaway, then you may or may not have one connection.

Just be careful. I don't know about Priceline, but a similar site "Hotwire" doesn't promise direct flights and can only make other promises (such as maximum layover times) on domestic flights. In just my own research on regular sites such as "Expedia", "Travelocity" and "Orbitz" I have found some strange routings that show up in searches, for example Chicago to Paris through Amsterdam, which would be fine except that the return segment Paris to Amsterdam (a one hour flight) arrives at 8:00 pm in Amsterdam and doesn't leave for the U.S. until 8:00 a.m. the next day, or Chicago to Paris throught "New York", again which would be fine, except that it was really Chicago to Newark and JFK to Paris. It would be hard to imagine the savings could be worth the inconvenience, overnight hotel or taxi cost between airports! When I e-mailed "Hotwire" to ask about what I might expect, I got only a "canned" reply that they make promises about connections only on domestic flights and not on international flights. Good luck!

About a year ago, I asked Hotwire what their maximum layover time on international flights was, and they emailed back that it was 18 hours!

Priceline has a much shorter maximum layover time. If you can't find it on their site, email them.

Thanks for the answers! I've decided I just don't have the temperament to try Priceline. Will just keep checking for lowers fares. Hopefully that will happen after the new year.