[jtraveler]

Hello everyone.

I'm new here and this is my first post so I hope I've picked the right location.
If not, I apologize.


I'd like to bring up , yet again, the issues of non US bidders on either priceline
or hotwire.

Quoting from the priceline faq :

Q: Can I place a request if I am not a U.S. resident?

A: You do not have to reside in the U.S. to place a request; however, the credit card you
use to purchase your tickets must have a U.S. billing address. Travel requests may be
placed using an American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa credit card.


I don't live in north america or in europe or in any other of the countries where
there is a priceline site. I have an international MasterCard that obviously doesn't
have a US billing address.

Do you know if it would be possible for me to bid in both princeline and hotwire ?
Now, even if technicaly it's possible, can I get disqualified or have any problems
with my win since my billing address isn't in the USA as regulation requires ?



Thanks for any assistance,
Bye.

[thereuare]

You can follow the technique many Candians use, discussed in: PRICELINE CANADA.

HOTWIRE does not have a geographic restriction (well, at least most geographic locations are covered).

[jtraveler]

Hi thereuare,

Thanks for your reply.

ok, so I guess I need to try putting in my CC and details and see
if it works technicaly. BUT what about the legality of what I'm doing,
as I wrote in my post priceline wants the card to have a us billing address
and mine doesn't have one. Can they disqualify me or cause me any problems
with a winning bid ?
If they don't cause me any problems, does that mean I'm "home free" ? - I mean
the hotel or airline company won't give me any hard time ?


Thanks again.

[WillTravel]

I wouldn't use this "technique" for airfare. I'm not sure about security procedures, but who wants to end up on some sort of watch list. Obviously there is some tracking done, although I have no idea what exactly.

For hotels, no one has ever reported any problem, and there have been many hundreds of non-US bids reported.

I was thinking of getting a US address for my AMEX card, just for this airfare issue, and phoned them up. Apparently there is no real procedure for adding another billing address. If you have an address in the US, of any sort, you can just enter that. That's what the agent told me to do, but noted that my bills would still come to the address on file (of course). So if I really felt like using Priceline for airfare, I'd just ask a relative in the US if I could put in their address, or maybe get a post office box in a border town.

Based on this conversation, I think AMEX does not care what address you use. But to be on the safe side, I would use a real US address to which I had a personal connection if purchasing airfare.

[WillTravel]

priceline.com.hk and priceline.com.sg and now priceline.com.tw allow you to bid and enter your proper billing address no matter where you live.


Hotwire allows non-US cards - at least Canadian ones - with no "fudging" of address details required.

[TheGreatGoat]

The key in this case is if the card supports the 3 digit number on the back of the card. And I know that hotwire matches the address on the card for US. So assuming that priceline does this as well you may have a problem just entering any address. However due to the success of the Canada bidders this may not be the case. Your best bet is to try it and find out. If your purchase goes through Priceline gets paid the hotel gets paid and no one will ask any questions.

[Crypto]

jtraveler, on Mar 6 2005, 07:58 AM, said:

Q: Can I place a request if I am not a U.S. resident?

A: You do not have to reside in the U.S. to place a request; however, the credit card you use to purchase your tickets must have a U.S. billing address. Travel requests may be placed using an American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa credit card.

This topic was opened over four years a go so could you verify that is this limitation still valid for international customers? If yes, are there same limitations in Hotwire?

There is no localized Priceline website in my country and I don't have credit card which have USA/Canada billing address . Is there any workaround to avoid this issue?

[thereuare]

There is no limitation with HOTWIRE.

Canadian residents can now use PRICELINE without issue. Others from non-US countries have been able to successful use PRICELINE uses the techniques discussed in this Priceline Non-US thread.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[gilly]

thereuare, on Jul 3 2009, 06:18 AM, said:

There is no limitation with HOTWIRE.

Canadian residents can now use PRICELINE without issue. Others from non-US countries have been able to successful use PRICELINE uses the techniques discussed in this Priceline Non-US thread.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Hi,
Canadian and just had an issue this week with Priceline still - their customer service told me that as a Canadian you can book just air or just hotel with your Canadian credit card, but not the package deals. How does that make any sense! It was $325 cheaper as a package. We hadn't read anything on this site (very helpful thank you) and just fudged the state and zip with our actual address and used our AMEX after our Visa was declined, and it all seemed to work. We hope we don't have any issues, but can't really see how we would. Anyway, just wanted to pass along that Priceline is still a bit funny to use from Canada.