Mark

Is there anyway I can figure what a trip is likely to cost on Priceline....before actually commiting myself to buying a ticket? I was thinking of a ski trip to Norway from San Francisco but would only want to go if conditions were perfect at the last minute.

x

Have patience Mark. I'm sure BFT's resident shill Andrew will be here momentarily.

SFpsychpractitioner

I'm not Andrew nor am I a BFT shill, but you might try www.biddingfortravel.com, which is a site that will thorougly instruct you about bidding on PL. It's a noncommercial site where the moderators will even help you construct your bid. The thought is that since all flights from SF to Europe (and probably Scandinavia) are overnight, that PL is a good deal out of SF. You could try Hotwire and then bid about 25% less on PL.

Report back here when you've decided what to do.

SFPP

That should be "thoroughly." We need an edit function!

JD

The simple answer is Yes, you can know exactly what the trip will cost because you set the amount you want to spend, so you can't get stuck with $800 airfare if you only bid $400
BUT
1) you might get rejected at your target price. Then what will you do? Raise yor bid or don't go?
2) look at the details before you bid about extra fees (security fees, taxes, etc) that you must pay on top of your bid
3) keep in mind that most people have better success with hotels on priceline than on airfare. You could get stuck with an odd stopover adding time to your trip, and since you can choose the day but not the time frame, you could conceivably get stuck with a flight that leaves on the day you've chosen, but at 11:55 PM (losing a whole day) and then have a return trip at 6am (losing another day).

If you understand and can accept all those conditions, than priceline is for you. Personally, I'm thrilled will all the hotel deals I've gotten through them, but wouldn't risk trying for a flight because I'm not comfortable with the possible outcomes