?s on using Hotwire or priceline for flights to Paris
 

Hotwire has a price of 427.00 in Dec. leaving Chicago to Paris. Airfrance price on their website is 600. Does anyone with past experience find that priceline usualy beats hotwires lowwest price? PJ

PJ, you could go to PL and bid lower than Hotwire, say $375, but you might have a connection. Before you bid go to www.biddingfortravel.com and check to see what fares successful Chicago to Paris bidders are getting. Study the site carefully before you bid. Does the $427 fare include taxes, etc.?

427.00 does include taxes, there does not seem to be much activty on biddingfortravel for chicago to paris. Thanks Betsy, PJ

Betsy,<BR><BR>Are you sure that the Hotwire fare is for a nonstop flight?<BR><BR>Andre

Have no idea, Andre. PJ's post said Chicago to Paris and didn't mention a connection, so I assumed it was non-stop.

PJ, is there activity on Bidding for Travel from any midwestern city to Paris? Maybe you could estimate a little.<BR><BR>If you ask, the moderators at BFT will help you construct a PL bid.

With Hotwire, you agree to at least a one connection flight. Also, Hotwire includes all of the taxes in its pricing. From my experience with Bidding for Travel, when making a comparison to Priceline, you need to take into account that the airline taxes are approximately 1/3 of the Hotwire price. Therefore, you need to base your bid on $327. A good 80% of the time Priceline beats Hotwire by 25% or more. <BR><BR>Therefore, your bid at a maximum should bid $327 x 75% = $245. If its accepted then the taxes and $5.95 fee will be added to give you a gross total.<BR><BR>Just remember that you get locked out of Hotwire within about an hour of your query, so you should make your Priceline bid within that time if you think that Hotwire has a great price.<BR><BR>For some reason, Priceline has been coming back with counteroffers. So, if you are made a counteroffer, don't accept it, just rebid and cut the counteroffer in about half and you should end up bidding successfully on Priceline. To avoid any extra charges, don't take the paper tickets unless you really want them, as that will add another $15 to the gross total.

ThaNK YOU FOR ALL YOUR RESPONCES. I have placed a question on BFT. Waiting for their input. I am sure there will be a connection, but from reading BFT, there is usually 1 connection. This is a first for me, I use priceline and hotwire for hotels never airlines....yet! PJ

pj, I used Priceline for the first time a week ago for a flight from Boston to London over Thanksgiving weekend. Best fare I could fine was $500, as fall fares haven't gone on sale yet. Hotwire gave me a quote of $429. I successfully bid on Priceline and got a fare from Boston to London via Toronto on Air Canada for $279. I leave 2 hours earlier than I would have had I gotten a direct flight from Boston, but I arrive at the same time in the morning.<BR><BR>I'm going to Montreal over Labor Day weekend, but I found a very good fare on Air Canada's website. The flight is only an hour, and because I wanted specific times, I was happy to pay the webfare price of $172. <BR><BR>Anyway, right now I am waiting for either a confirmation or a declination on Priceline for a hotel in Montreal. <BR><BR>Over the weekend, I helped a friend of mine from the UK find hotels in Boston, New Hampshire and Vermont for a foliage tour in October. He successfully bid on Priceline UK's site, and was able to get hotels for $70s or less per night, and the rack rate of all of these hotels was in the $250 to $300 range.<BR><BR>So, right now, I think that Priceline is great as long as you do your research.

Thanks Leslie, I am ready to start bidding. It definitely pays to do your homework. PJ

One more comment regarding the use of Hotwire or Priceline. It's critical that you carefully read and understand the limitations prior to purchasing your tickets. You can certainly purchase airfare for substantially lower prices than if you can thru airlines themselves; however you do so by forgoing the frequent flyer miles accrual and any opportunity to make a change in your itinerary. I've seen several complaints from folks who clearly didn't read ALL the fine print and were shocked when they had to "eat" the Priceline-bought ticket.<BR><BR>I've used Priceline on domestic travel and was please with results. For any novice, I can't emphasize enought, CAVEAT EMPTOR !<BR>

PJ, if you're pursuing this, I just read about a $15 discount on PL airline tickets if you click through from Smarter Living. Let us know if you placed a successful bid. <BR><BR>http://www.smarterliving.com/air/mb.php?id=1421

Before you bid for tickets on PriceLine, it is a good idea to go to Travelocity or Expedia and look at all of the flights that are going from your airport to your destination on that day. The most seats are probably on the least desireable route. We used Priceline to Paris a few years ago. We knew that one flight had an 8 hour layover in Toronto, but we all agreed that we could deal with that. Sure enough, we got tickets for $350, but we were on Air Canada with the 8 hour layover. We just took the bus into the city and had a good time while we waited.